Dec15
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 1
‘It is to be understood that the author is not a sailor, but merely a civil
engineer Shanghaied as one.’
The winter holiday season shouldn’t be all work, so I’ve decided to put up some cracking reading – the wonderful Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties, by Hiram P Bailey. I trust some of you find time to look at it, but if you don’t these pages will still be just as good in the coming year or any other time.
I don’t know whether the tale told here is exactly true, but it makes a wonderful romp. What’s more, the various scenes including the dead horse ceremony, crossing the equator and the return to San Francisco (including a splendid villainous melodeon player) have a real ring of truth about them – Hiram P had clearly either done a lot of research or had spent time on ship himself.
My particular copy clearly belonged to someone fascinated by sailing ships, as just about every blank page has a cutting from a Cornish newspaper about sailing ships pasted over it.
Why not print these out so you can read them at your leisure?
For the rest of this series of posts:
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 1
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 2
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 3
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 4
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 5
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 6
Shanghaied out of Frisco in the Nineties by Hiram P Bailey – part 7
2 Comments »Culture: songs, stories, photography and art, Events, Locations, Sailing ships
Ben Dec 16th 2008 at 06:42 pm 1
Looks like a great holiday read Gav. I spend too much time in front of the computer to be able to read a book online though. I’m envious of your library, you seem to have a wealth of classic, rare sea literature.
I’ve just read Theo Dorgan’s Sailing for Home which I didn’t particularly like but which kind of grew on me and now, with no new books to hand, I’ve fallen back, as always, on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. Reliable stuff that never fails to transport me to the wide blue yonder.
Ben
Gavin Atkin Dec 16th 2008 at 07:40 pm 2
Ben -
Glad you like it!
Could you print it out perhaps – with a little care it should be possible to cover both sides of the paper… And once you’ve read it maybe you have a friend who could make use of it?
Gav