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The Era of the Clipper Ships
The Era of the Clipper Ships / Bibliography / Maritime Links / Home / McKay Clan / Directory / Introduction / Tradewinds Maritime Book Review
A Pacific Legacy ~ A Century of Maritime Photography 1850~1950
____________________________________ Reviewed by Steve Priske |
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Review: As a model shipwright who specializes in
clipper ships ( see shipmodelpage.html
) I am always looking for books, photographs and other research
materials that can give me an insight into what those greyhounds
of the sea looked like as working ships.‚ Since the camera
was invented about the same time as the worlds finest tall ships‚
were under sail, we can presume there is a wealth of square rigged
ships, but where? This fantastic book contains over 100 of the most
detailed photographs I believe exist of late 19th Century Tall Ships.
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Wayne Bonnett, a maritime historian, compiled this volume from the archives of the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park. Taken between 1850 and 1950, these images include tall square-riggers of the Cape Horn fleet, the down-easters, the big lumber schooners, the early steamships that crossed the Pacific and the first coastwise vessels that carried passengers between Seattle, Portland, San Francisco , Los Angeles, and San Diego. The book covers over 100 years of Pacific Coast maritime history from the California gold rush through the founding and explosive growth of the great seaports on San Francisco Bay and Puget Sound, the Columbia River region and southern California. I was personally fascinated by the photos of Clipper Ship and Lumber Schooners under construction, some right here where I live in Coos Bay.
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Each of the seven chapters is introduced with a brief description of an area of the west coast or period in time significant to the development of ships; sail and steam. The rest of each chapter is devoted to these amazing photographs. For those that believe that a picture is worth a thousand words, this book is tremendously verbose. I've poured over my copy of A Pacific Legacy for ten years now and still find previously unnoticed details, which is my definition of a book worth having. To prevent unauthorized copying of images, depiction's in this review may show flash‚ reflections and dramatic angles. Images in the book are flawless. Steve Priske ~ Model Shipwright ~ Coos Bay, OR.
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