A Mariner's Miscellany

By Peter H. Spectre

White Ensign Association, 2005/06:

"A fascinating compendium of all things maritime. Peter Spectre has assembled an impressive array of facts and information on a huge range of subjects to do with the sea and ships. Many of the myths, legends, traditions and ancient lores of the sea are explained in a concise, clear and very readable format. A must for anybody who claims to be, or wishes to be, an expert on all things maritime. Should resolve many an old 'salts' argument."

Cruising World, April 2006:

"Are you interested in knowing what L. Frances Herreshoff and many others—Joseph Conrad, E.B. White, and William Atkin, among them—had to say and write about boats? Or the many names for rum, rope, knots and all things nautical? Then this is intelligent reference work and compendium of maritime knowledge by a former editor of Woodenboat magazine will stand up to endless short passages of reading, whether you're under way or on the hard. "

Good Old Boat, August 2005

“A Mariner's Miscellany is a compilation of all things nautical. Do you want to know the how and the why of signal salutes during the age of sail or what L. Francis Herreshoff thought were the four most important qualifications needed to undertake long-distance voyaging? Do you know the difference between your natural fiber and modern synthetic rope? This book will tell you. You can even find a recipe for making grog. These and thousands of other facts – practical, informative, or just interesting – can be found in this book.

“Author Peter Spectre is well-qualified to undertake such a massive undertaking. He's editor of Maine Boats & Harbors magazine and former editor of WoodenBoat magazine. The Mariner's Book of Days, A Passage in Time, A Goodly Ship, and several other marine-related books are among his literary credits.

“This is not a book you sit down and read in one setting. Rather, it is a resource you consult when you want to find the why or where an expression came from or to find out what other sailors thought when they encountered a similar problem or situation. A Mariner's Miscellany will also prove useful for writers; it is an excellent source of facts, quotes, and their historical origins.

“…A Mariner's Miscellany is a delightful and interesting book for those who value the intellectual side of boating. It deserves a spot on the dedicated mariner's bookshelf.”

Nautical Magazine, June 2005:

A SLOP-CHEST of a book; a sea-pie, a pot-mess, a lobscouse of a sea-lore gathered by an author with a feel for his subject. It embraces technology, prose, poetry, song, instruction, history, oceanography, meteorology and seamanship, navigation and boats and ships, monsters and sailors and women, albatross and curses, recipes and clothing, splices and drink, sails and artists, rigs and tides, watches and signals, compass work and superstition. In fact, what it doesn't touch upon hasn't been near the sea.

Scattered among the pages are apophthegm and aphorism, axiom and bon mot and dictum, precept and epigram: quotations, sayings and advices from Bowditch to the Merchant Shipping Act, International Code to The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor; Masefield to Marryatt, Longfellow to Lubbock, Chaucer to Coleridge, Tomlinson to Twain, Roskill to Dana. Walt and the author himself, who is nothing if not observant. The author/marine engineer, William McFee, describes the modern seaman: "With his...voyages so short that he is never aware of the solitude that was the blessing—and the curse—of sea life in the old days, the seaman of today has more ideological identity with the operator of a truck or a train than with the Ancient Mariner and Captain Ahab," while Mountbatten assures HMS Kelly's company, "I shall never give the order 'abandon ship'." John Constable advises on painting the ocean (a change from the ship's side...), while the captain of the five-masted ironclad, HMS Agincourt, discards the traditional mast-names in favour of numbers.

If you want to bake hard-tack, here is the recipe: buy a boat, check this list of points; remove rust stains from the deck, follow this method; correct a bearing, apply these errors; cure seasickness, try these remedies. And so on, in an entertainment with a generous whack of practical counsel. But, as with all things nautical, there are quite a few arguable items or downright errors, other than variation and deviation: the white stripes on a sailor's collar are for decoration only, nothing to do with Nelson's victories, of which there were four, in fact, and only in two of them was he C-in-C; the 6 to 8 is the last, not the second, dog-watch (and alas!—no explanation of the term's origin, which has never been satisfactorily settled); impending collision isn't evidenced by a steady relative bearing (tut- tut—the classic cause of the radar assisted collision...), but a steady true or compass one; and the cures for seasickness don't include the best—find a tree and sit under it. As for the sun's rising in the east, it depends on not only declination, but also the observer's latitude; and among the five places with the highest tides (or greatest range, to be exact) isn't the English, but the Bristol Channel. Still, as a balm to the perfectionist's troubled soul, there is plenty of sea verse which, according to one Laura Alexandrine Smith, is written on shore from Kipling's Coastwise Lights to Longfellow's The Tide Rises; W.S. Gilbert's The Captain's Song to the shanty Stormalong, inspired, we're told by John Willis the elder, father of Cutty Sark's owner. According to Lubbock, he ran away at sea at fourteen, into a coaster, and a start that "either broke a boy or made a man". However, Stan Hugill places the shanty's origins in the West Indies, which is interesting because Willis shifted from the coasting trade to the West Indian sugar trade, in which he rose to master and, finally, owner. Here is the kind of investigation a book like this must inevitably provoke, and perhaps the author would welcome a bit of feedback...

It's an American book, with an American outlook, but none the worse for it, and it shows ( as if it were needed) that the seafaring bent is at least as marked among the colonials as among the degenerate British. The numerous drawings, wood-cuts, etchings and prints, are well-chosen, adding great charm to what are called on the cover "Things forgotten recalled: things known illuminated". And so they are.

Royal Naval Sailing Association, Autumn 2005:

The book is a compendium covering a whole host of maritime information. I won't attempt to list its colossal range, from the fascinating origins of nautical expressions to a list of former Atlantic Blue Ribbon holders; there is even advice on buying a second-hand yacht, besides the history of rum in the Royal Navy. The various nautical records are up to date apart from Ellen Macarthur's recent brilliant circumnavigation.

The background to this book is that the American author, Peter Spectre has been compiling The Mariner's Book of Days for the last 13 years and most of his Miscellany is material from these annual diaries. I reviewed his 2005 Mariner's Book of Days in the 2004 Autumn Journal. While written for the American market, it does however feature much from this side of the 'pond'.

"This latest work by the editor of Maine Boats and Harbors is, in a word, a delight! It's a potpourri of wit, wisdom, and enlightenment, all packed in a convenient format. Peter Spectre acknowledges that this book grew out of both The Mariner's Book of Days and his earlier Mariner's Catalog, and readers familiar with them will find this book has the same characteristic ability to grab one's attention and lead it along paths it otherwise might never have considered following.

Here you'll find both serious poetry and light-hearted rhymes interspersed with topics such as seafaring superstitions, guidance for standing effective watches at night, lists of great books about the sea and the mariner's life and practical nitty-gritty such as instructions for washing clothes at sea. From tall ship lore to small boat savvy, from grog recipes to rowing terms and techniques, Spectre has collected a vast store of knowledge and recounted it in a most enjoyable fashion. It's a book one can open to any page and find something that will educate, entertain and motivate.

Whether one reads it several chapters at a time or simply dips into it for a few minutes when there is a lull in activity, A Mariner's Miscellany delivers good information and does it in a quick and pleasant manner."  

Down East Books, Holiday 2005:

"It's difficult to describe A Mariner's Miscellany; the cover copy says it is about the "tangible and intangible." It's about the "stuff" of sailing and life at sea—ships, boats, anchors, ropes, sails, etc.—but it's also about the lore, art, literature, and romance of the sea. If you are familiar with the columns Peter Spectre wrote for WoodenBoat or his Mariner's catalogs, then you have an idea of what to expect here: pithy, entertaining writing that you can dip into at your pleasure or immerse yourself in toto for an engrossing douse of the seafaring life."

Nauticalia, Autumn/Winter 2005:

"An engaging compendium of things we love about boats, ships and everything surrounding them. In no particular order you will find subjects as why the marine head (toilet) is such an abomination, thoughts on buying a used boat, principles of lifeboat survival, marriage among mermaids and so on..."

Water Craft Book Review, November 2005:

"I must have mentioned before that my favourite boating writer—and you'll note I am not doing the old 'one of my favourite' get-out-here—is Peter H. Spectre, one-time editor and much longer time contributor to WoodenBoat magazine."

 

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