Glenn A. Knoblock
Autor von The American clipper ship, 1845-1920
Über den Autor
Historian, author, and lecturer Glenn A. Knoblock is the author of 14 previous books, including Arcadia Publishing's Historical Burial Grounds of the New Hampshire Seacoast (1609), Portsmouth Cemeteries (2005), and Cemeteries Around Lake Winnipesaukee (2006).
Werke von Glenn A. Knoblock
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Knoblock presents a straightforward history of Gold Rush pressures for fast coast-to-coast passage in North America, leading to innovations in wooden sailing craft and rigging culminating in the clipper design. The bubble-economy sustaining the clipper was short-lived, however, and even in the clipper's heyday the steamships destined to replace it were already over the horizon.
Knoblock's style isn't always smooth or literary, though there are flashes; I'm reminded of high school textbook prose. But, he makes the most of his breadth of knowledge: terminology, common maritime practices such as smoking rats or slushing yardarms, the career paths of clipper captains "through the forecastle" or "in the cabin window", each make its appearance at a suitable time in the narrative. Plenty to learn from on repeated readings, whether dipping in for pleasure or following up a reference in the Aubrey-Maturin canon.
For the most part the monograph is fit into Part One and the reference material into Part Two. The monograph proceeds chronologically while emphasizing details from American shipyards, but takes care to fit these facts into a broader nautical context. The second part is organized by the State of the Union in which individual clippers were built, and treats each ship in its own subsection. Interestingly, this appendix uses a two column layout which would best suit the monograph, given the oversized page and the discomfort of scanning across long paragraphs. Also, there are sections in Part One (lists of names, or materials, shipnames or voyage times) best presented in tabular form but are here relegated to a lengthy paragraph, in series with endless commas. While it makes sense to incorporate that material here and not relegate it to an appendix, as it refers directly to some aspect of the text, for the sake of readability it really should be set off in a sidebar at the very least, better still in a table.
Overall, an impressive achievement which merits improvement via editing and design. As is, a book I'm very happy to have on the shelves along with my Patrick O'Brian and Richard Dana.… (mehr)