Photographer Matthew Atkin in Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matt Atkin’s photos from Thailand

I never cease to be amazed by my brother Matthew Atkin’s beautiful photos of boats in the Far East.

It seems amazing and wonderful that Western and Eastern water craft should still be so different  in a globalised and homogenous era, and also given that the physics of water, the technology available for powering craft, and many of the materials available for boatbuilding are often the same or at least similar.

These latest photos from Thailand make the point. Check out the stylish young men, the older couple fishing, the elegant small canoes, the curvaceous pleasure boats and, perhaps most remarkable of all, the ferry with its astonishing truck motor balanced on what looks like a precarious pole and with a vicious-looking straight prop arrangement. I’ve seen photos of smaller craft set up like this, but this is much bigger than anything I’ve come across up to now.

Thanks bruv!

See more of Matt’s photos from Hong Kong and Vietnam.

More of Matt Atkin’s Hong Kong photos

Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong

Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong

Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong

Matthew Atkin's photos of Hong Kong

My brother Matt Atkin and his family are greatly enjoying living in Hong Kong, and he continues to take many photographs of the island itself and the Far East destinations he visits for work and on holiday.

He’s recently sent me an armful of photos of the boats of Thailand that I’ll put up shortly; in the meantime, here are some recent shots from Hong Kong.

See some earlier posts of Matts photos:

More of Matt Atkin’s photos of the boats and ships of Hong Kong’s harbours
Spectacular photos of working boats and houseboats in Hong Kong’s harbours

The boats of Hanoi, part 2

The boats of Hanoi, Vietnam

Tait’s Seamanship, 1913, part I, or how to sail a ship

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Tait's Seamanship 1913 Cover

Tait's Seamanship 1913 Cover adverts 1 Tait's Seamanship 1913 adverts 2 Tait's Seamanship 1913 Compass and frontispiece

Tait's Seamanship 1913 preface Tait's Seamanship 1913 Introductory note and contents Tait's Seamanship 1913  contents

I’ve often wondered what ‘seamanship’ really is and who, if anyone, has the definitive article in their posession.

It’s not that I don’t understand or approve of the aims of seamanship – it’s about keep lives safe and protecting boats from harm while successfully travelling on the water. But, like the proverbial skinners of cats,  boat users all have their own methods, and there seems to be at least as many forms of correct seamanship as there are sailors.

Whatever sea-related activity you care to name, someone somewhere does it differently and will tell you all about it in a very firm and authoritative way – in the club bar, online or, sometimes, even on our own boats.

So I thought it might be fun and informative (and hopefully uncontroversial) to consider what seamanship was thought to be a century or so ago. So here are the cover and first few pages of Tait’s Seamanship, a splendid little document produced by a Glasgow maritime educational establishment whose principals had the good sense to provide courses for masters discreetly in a separate room.

I hope you enjoy the scans – as usual, click on the images for much larger, easily readable images.