Category: Sailing • The Miramichi Reader

Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father by Brian Harvey

August 19, 2019August 19, 2019

I consider myself an armchair sailor. I have been on a small sailboat (once, on Lake Ontario) but I enjoy reading about the travels of others, whether fiction or fact, small craft or large, alone or with a crew. So it was with great eagerness that approached Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father by Brian Harvey (2019, ECW Press). The cover alone was enough to entice me: a watercolour print on textured paper that suited the subject matter perfectly.… Continue reading

Wayfarer: A Memoir by James S. Rockefeller Jr.

March 7, 2019February 26, 2019

Living vicariously through books like Wayfarer is what makes reading so fun. While it is a personal memoir, it is also a time capsule from an era when the world held great mysteries, and one had to see them for themselves; there was no Google Earth to rely on.

Bounty: The Greatest Sea Story of Them All by Geoff D’Eon

December 7, 2018December 7, 2018

Spanning four centuries, this is a story of romance, risk, exotic travel, cruelty, lust, loyalty, jealousy, misadventure, hubris, heroism and death. Fully illustrated with paintings, photographs and artifacts, this book tells one of the greatest sea stories of them all.

Canadian Confederate Cruiser: The Story of the Steamer Queen Victoria by John G. Langley

December 20, 2018November 21, 2018

Canadian Confederate Cruiser tells the story of an elegant but unpretentious steamer that bore witness to the birth of a nation.

Sea Change: A Man, A Boat, A Journey Home by Maxwell Taylor Kennedy

August 19, 2019July 15, 2018

I am a landlubber, but I love all things maritime whether it is naval ships, submarines, or the days of wood and sail. It started with Joseph Conrad’s sea stories and carried on through those of James Fenimore Cooper and C.S. Forster. Then there were the classic true-life sailing experiences of Richard Dana Jr. in Two Years Before the Mast and Joshua Slocum’s Sailing Alone Around the World through which I lived a vicarious life on the sea.… Continue reading

Arrow’s Flight by Joel Scott

April 1, 2018February 23, 2018

I can't say enough good things about Arrow's Flight; it's not merely a good guys/bad guys action/adventure set on the water, but also a lesson in the fact that every action has consequences, and responsibility must be taken for the choices one has made.