ABOVE AND BELOW DECKS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 287, 31 August 1935, Page 23

ABOVE AND BELOW DECKS

Three Books About Life at Sea

"Sailor’s Wisdom,” by William McFee; “White Sails Crowding,” by Commander C. M. Butlin; “The Blue Tunnyman,” by Andrew Andrews (London: Cape).

Even the most confirmed landsman would be hard to please if he did not find something to interest him in one of these three volumes of life on the sea, whether it be from the point of view of an engineer acquainted with the most modern developments in ship propulsion like Mr. William McFee, of a man like Commander C. M. Butlin, who has experienced a long voyage in one of the few surviving wind-jammers in the world, or from that of a man like Mr. Andrew Andrews, content to make the sea his hobby and sail upon it in small craft.

Few books about the sea since the time of Conrad, excepting those of Mr. 11. M. Tomlinson, and perhaps just one or two other writers, have commanded so much literary interest as Mr. McFee’s. He is a fine artist deserving of more attention than he has so far received in English countries. In his new book, he turns his memory back chiefly to the days of the war and before it, when rising freights kept in commission antique' tramp steamers long overdue at the breaking-up yards. They were run on the irreducible minimum of stores and repairs and with a maximum of toil by short-handed crews poorly paid and victualled Yet Mr. McFee unfolds ho grim tales of rascally owners and grafting characters. The period in retrospect evokes neither resentment nor bitterness.

Indeed (he says) it is very much the other way. The idealist, no doubt. Is an exception. His starry vision shows him a perfect world, whose smooth rondure enables it to roll sweetly through the years; a world on whose ever-placld oceans enchanted ships steam toward Paradise Port, their captains entertaining their crews with song and story and with potatlona of fabulous rum) where •no trouble of folly ever mars the beauty of the day. But to those of us who have accepted the austere conditions of life on earth and sea, who have abandoned the theory that men and materials are ever perfect, and who have got used to facing a day’s work without flinching, the memory of those old ships is mellowed by time. '

This is so particularly because Mr. McFee has a sense of humour and because sea air, even at second hand down in the engine room, is the breath of - life to him. Moreover, his humour is infectious. He tells some tales of alarming tribulation, yet can make the reader smile with him at the ironical implications associated with man’s unending attempt to master nature. These are grand yarns he spins, some of them from his own experience, others of famous incidents in maritime history. - One expects much from a writer of Mr. McFee's calibre, but certainly no one could be disappointed whhrthe contents of this ,> r - • 'The "firsf thing’the reader “White Sails Crowding” is likely to do is turn to the full-page photographs taken by Commander Butlin. These fascinating illustrations of life aboard the fourmasted barque, L’Avenir. in which the author and his wife sailed as passengers from Adelaide to Falmouth, give an adequate foretaste of the contents of the book. The voyage, made by way of Cape Horn, occupied four and a half months. Commander Butlin lacks writer the graces of Mr. McFee, but, nevertheless, succeeds very well in presenting a satisfactory and always interesting account of happenings aboard ship. The routine of the voyage itself must have been monotonous, yet there is no reflection of it in these pages. She story is vivid and the members of the crew who made up its characters are shown to the life. Mr. Andrews is an enthusiastic amateur sailor with the ability to impart to the'reader much of the pleasure he himself has experienced. All his spare time seems to have been spent in small craft of one kind or another from his first, a 14-foot lateen-sailed Cyprian fishing boat to his latest and most ambitious. the Blue Tunnyman. This has yet to be built, but Mr. Andrews gives a detailed description of what it is to he like and confidently expects it to be an' improvement on any yacht he has ever sailed in. She is to be a 37-tonner which, during week-ends, can be handled by two men with an extra hand for a long cruise. Mr. Andrews covers a wide range of country in this book and includes a description of a brief stay in New Zealand. His style is bright, and his topics are of unending interest. (