Tag: book

Chappelle tabloid cruiser from the book Boatbuilding, photographed in Australia

Chappelle's 23ft 8in tabloid cruiser in the book Boatbuilding in Australia Chappelle's 23ft 8in tabloid cruiser in the book Boatbuilding in Australia

This is the 23ft 8in tabloid cruiser described in Howard Irving Chappelle’s classic book Boat Building: A Complete Handbook of Wooden Boat Construction.

If you’ve read Chappelle’s book, you’ll likely know this design and will have been intrigued by it – I’d guess that it has something in common with New England lobster boats and Hampton boats of the past.

The photos here were kindly sent to me by Randal Cooper of Goolwa Masts. Randal reports that the boat, which is made of strip-planked cedar, is about 20 years old and is owned by a young employee of his. Randal also says that the boat is quick under sail compared to trailer yachts the same age and that there’s a plan afoot to enlarge the rig.

I’m in two minds about the idea – on one hand the rig as laid out in the plans is snug, but on the other this centreboard boat is really a big dinghy and if it gets knocked down will be too big to right. You takes your choice…

There are several other interesting sets of plans in Chappelle’s book. Are any others afloat, does anyone know? Do you have photos, please, and how do they perform?

Mike Smylie’s Herring: a History of the Silver Darlings is now in the shops


Mike Smylie Herring - A History of the Silver Darlings

Fishing historian Mike Smylie’s latest book Herring: A History of the Silver Darlingsexamines the effects of herring and the herring trade on the communities who catch them over the past 2000 years, including the way of life, superstitions and of course their boats.

Herring’s importance to the coastal peoples of Britain cannot be measured – at one time tens of thousands were involved in catching, processing and selling the fish from Stornoway to Penzance, and many towns on Britain’s East Coast grew rich as a result. In Herring: a History of the Silver Darlings Mike also explains the natural history of the herring and even includes recipes including baked buttered bloaters, salmagundy and super sgadan.

Also known as Kipperman, Mike Smylie has been researching the history of the herring for nearly 30 years. He has also written extensively on fishing vessels and the fishing industry, including the books Fishing the European Coast, Fishing Around the Bristol Channel and Fishing Boats of Cornwall published by The History Press. He often appears at maritime festivals smoking herring for the public.

A remarkable history of the slave trade

Slave canoe of the 1840s

Slave canoe drawing from The Illustrated London News, 1849; image reference EO22, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library. In West Africa, these canoes were the main vehicles for transporting slaves from the coast to transatlantic vessels. According to The Illustrated London News, the canoes could carry 200 slaves, and were said to be 40ft long, 12ft 7-8ft deep

 

Intheboatshed.net regular Ed Bachmann has drawn my attention to the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database website, and the recently published prize-winning book Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

The database provided the basis for the atlas in which historians David Eltis and David Richardson have created a comprehensive, 350-year history of kidnapping and coercion featuring nearly 200 maps.

Between 1501 and 1867, the transatlantic slave trade claimed an estimated 12.5 million Africans and involved almost every country with an Atlantic coastline. The extraordinary online Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database includes records of nearly 35,000 slaving voyages, or about 80 per cent of all such voyages ever made. The maps show which nations participated in the trade, where the ships involved were outfitted, where the captives boarded ship, and where they were landed in the Americas, details the experiences of the transatlantic voyages and the eventual abolition of the traffic.

There are also illustrations and contemporary literary selections, including poems, letters, and diary entries that reveal the human story underlying the trade.

If you don’t buy the book, you can read Professor Eltis’s long essay on the website: A Brief Overview of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade on the website.

Thanks for the tipoff Ed!