BOOK 



MARKET 



I 



Armchair Sailing 



By Renee Wolcott Shannon 



.n like a lion, out like a lamb: 

 March is unpredictable. Some days, the 

 sand is like ice, and the wind off the 

 Atlantic stings your cheeks red. Though 

 summer is just around the corner, you 

 can feel a long way from warm 

 weather and your next sail up the 

 sound. The slap of the waves, the 

 glaring sun, the steady hiss of water 

 along the hull. You miss the tug of 

 the tiller in your hand or the quick 

 response of the boat to the turning 

 wheel. 



For those with the sailing 

 bug, boating is life itself, and the 

 long winter months are a tough 

 period of withdrawal. In this issue 

 of Coastwatch, I've collected 

 books that should help the last few 

 weeks speed by quickly and help you 

 prepare for your next boating season, 

 whether you dream of sailing around 

 the world or lazing away the summer 

 on a towel and watching the boats on 

 the bay. 



• A Bride's Passage: Susan 

 Hathorn's Year Under Sail by 



Catherine Petroski. 1997. Northeastern 

 University Press, 360 Huntington Ave., 

 416 CP, Boston, MA 021 15. 304 pages. 

 Hardcover, $42.50. ISBN 1-55553- 

 298-5. Paperback, $15.95. ISBN 1- 

 55553-297-7. 



History buffs will love this 

 painstakingly researched tale of a new 

 wife's 1855 ocean voyage. Susan 

 Hathorn had just married her sea- 

 captain husband when he whisked her 

 away, and she recorded the details of 

 their voyage in a yearlong diary. The 

 original document is in the Special 

 Collections Library at Duke University. 



Portrait of Susan Hathorn, 1877, 



from A Bride's Passage: 

 Susan Hathorn's Year Under Sail 

 by Catherine Petroski 



You will admire Susan's bravery 

 and wry humor as she comes to grips 

 with life on a three-masted wooden 

 bark; she tackles bedbugs, rats and 

 pitching seas with equal aplomb. 



Petroski knits Susan's diary 

 together with other documents of the 

 era to illuminate a fascinating life. In 

 her introduction, Petroski tells us that 

 Susan came from a farm family in 



Maine and attended the new Mount 

 Holyoke Seminary; her husband, Jode 

 Hathorn, came from a line of prosperous 

 merchants and shipbuilders. 



Susan had never been to sea 

 before Jode asked her to accompany 

 him to Cuba and England on a 

 trading voyage only a month after 

 they were married. Her ability to 

 adapt and work under all 

 conditions keeps her saga 

 fascinating to the end. 



Petroski takes you through 

 the diary month by month, 

 quoting passages that display 

 Susan's Victorian sensibilities 

 and dry wit. Though Petroski' s 

 style is somewhat academic, she 

 shows real affection for her topic 

 and combines solid facts with a flair 

 for detail. 



She doesn't hesitate to pass along 

 Susan's sense of humor in adversity: 

 "Had a regular 'bed bug slaughter' this 

 morning," reads one quoted passage. 

 "Found the things in the sofa — under 

 the buttons — a nest under each one. 

 What I shall do with the cock roaches 

 now, is a question of great moment with 

 me. They are fairly taking possession of 

 my quarters." 



Susan is a woman of considerable 

 power for her time. She knits and sews 

 like any good Victorian wife, but she 

 also takes position readings at sea, tends 

 injured sailors, shops for her family and 

 keeps the books for the voyage. For 

 more than half the journey she is 

 pregnant, but she forges ahead without 

 complaint. 



By the end of the book, you 

 appreciate what it might have been like 

 Continued 



COASTWATCH 27 



