BOOKS FOR YACHTSMEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 181, 1 August 1936, Page 21

BOOKS FOR YACHTSMEN.

Books 011 ships and the sea are legion, yet the demand is never satisfied. One of the latest is "Ships and How They Sailed the Seven Seas," by Hendrik Van Loon.

This is not a conventional history of ships, but it is a history. It tells of navigation from the tree-trunk period to the modern ocean liner. It also tells the way—often the inhuman way—in which sailors have lived. In his story, the author invades the liuhls of history, geography, naval tactics, armaments, gastronomy, mythology, exploration and meteorology. He lays low some of the romancing about "the picturesque days of sail." but pays due tribute to the eternal fascination of maritime life. For the landsman, the book contains answers to many questions that have puzzled tliem and would-be sailors, too. Do you know the difference between a sloop and a schooner, or between a vessel's gross and net tonnage? How was scurvy responsible for the settlement of many islands in the Atlantic and Pacific? How did the fashion of red hair among Roman ladies stimulate trade in the Mediterranean? How many lashes could an 18th century sailor stand before death intervened, and lots of other queries all answered in this book. "Horizon's Rim," by A. C. Brown, is the story of a voyage round the world in a small yacht. This is the second part of the voyage, and takes her from Sydney up the north-east coast of Australia, and on to Ceylon, then through the Red .Sea to I the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic !to the port of- New Bedford, whence the i cruise started. Mr. Brown and liis crew were in no hurry, and they lingered on (he way especially at that seductive paradise, the Island of Bali. The book tells an interesting story that is guaranteed to I induce a severe attack of wanderlust.