No comments about Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo.

5 comments about Wayward Sailor.

1. This is a fascinating biography of an infuriating poseur. Tristan Jones, Royal Navy, had great skill as a teller of autobiographical tales of danger at sea and adventures ashore. Unfortunately, as Anthony Dalton demonstrates in a book that started out as an attempt to spread Jones's fame, it turns out that most (and possibly all) of his spellbinding tales are untrue. He made them up. They didn't happen.
   
   Old salts are expected to tell "sea stories." Memoirists, however, are not. It will come as a real disappointment to anyone who, like me, enjoyed the hell out of Jones's books, to discover that such wonderful reads like Ice! and The Incredible Voyage are effectively no more than tall tales. They remain great tall tales, I admit (so great you just want to keep on believing them), but fiction should be labeled as such.
   
   Public records revealed to Anthony Dalton that the old sea dog, who died in 1995, simply was not where he claimed to be when he claimed to be there. Dalton himself was reluctant to accept the evidence until it became overwhelming.
   
   Example: Jones wrote a compelling "memoir" entitled Heart of Oak about serving in the Royal Navy in World War II. It's so good that even the prominent, crotchety critic Paul Fussell mentioned its virtues. Turns out Navy records show that Tristan Jones didn't even join the RN till World War II was over. And so it goes.
   
   I used to be a big fan of his, too.



2. ...that de-bunks the Tristian Jones self created "persona". It is clear that the end of the book was hard to write and researching the latter parts of TJ's life was made harder by his isolation abroad coupled with TJ's recognition that he was in the process of getting "caught out" and so made his life hard to research. This makes the end of the book rather flat - but it is worth it in its own right for the first two thirds.



3. 
   The other reviews say alot so I will only add that Jones was prominent enough to be on Larry King's talk show and feature in the IMAX film Race the Wind. Jones was not a very likeable character but he had a diffucult life with no family, education or money and few friends and he did what he could to survive. He had the makings of a very good writer and produced 16 books and many articles. He concealed the fact that he was gay until the very end of his life, at which time he had lost both his legs to diabetes and was destitute. He accomplished a lot with very little and if you accept his stories as fiction they are good reading. Only those who are really interested in Jones or sailing will enjoy the book as most of it is otherwise very boring.



4. I find it interesting that someone would go to such great lengths to prove a book wrong. Its seems to me that Dalton had more to loose by not proving Tristan wrong than Tristan would from not doing the things in his books and then writting it as if he did.



5. I've only read four of Tristan Jone's books, with the first being The Incredible Voyage. I wasn't far into the book before it became obvious that there was a lot of fabrication and embellishment going on there. ICE! was even more far-fetched. And as Dalton pointed out in Wayward Sailor, the book ICE! was entirely fiction.

   Dalton's book serves to confirm what many of us already knew: Tristan Jones was less than truthful. What I was surprised to hear, though, is that Jones wasn't a very nice person in real life, either. He had far more enemies than friends and spent much of his time as an obnoxious drunk. He was not a trustwothy person; for example, he took "Outward Leg", a boat belonging to its manufacturer, and left it abandoned and trashed before completing the agreed route.

   But, nevertherless, I will still buy Tristan's books and plan to read them all. Tristan's writing skills are a bit rough around the edges, but he does tell a great story. The important thing is that the books are entertaining and everything in them must be taken with a grain of salt. I would recommend the books to everyone.

   While Tristan Jones greatly exagerated his "record voyages" and did not sail anywhere near the miles he claimed, he was still a great seamen and writer.

2 comments about Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanleys African Journeys.

1. "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've all heard that quote. Some of us even know who said it. However, if that's all you know about Henry Morgan Stanley, you are in for a treat when you read Imperial Footprints. In his time, Stanley was compared with Christopher Columbus, and Newman makes it clear why. This is a well-written and very readable story. Newman has done an excellent job of capturing the adventure of Stanley's seven(!) African journeys, as well as his very interesting younger life. Did you know that Morgan fought in the American Civil War? On both sides??? I give Imperial Footprints my highest recommendation. If you like adventure stories, if you like well-written biography, Imperial Footprints is the book for you.



2. A hundred years after Henry Morton Stanley's death, his own African explorations have receded from public memory in favor of critical reviews of European colonialist expansion in Africa. James L. Newman returns Stanley's importance to the world with Imperial Footprints: Henry Morton Stanley's African Journeys, a re-creation of his seven African journeys which explains why and how he made them, and their lasting impact on the modern world. The blend of history, biography and travelogue makes for an exciting blend of researched fact and drama which reads like fiction, giving Imperial Footprints an edge over other coverages on Stanley.

1 comments about Columbus.

1. To my knowledge, this is the most rigorous biography of Columbus so far. It is basically an unknown story, since what they teach us in school is almost all of it lies and myths, for example that Queen Elizabeth sold her jewells to finance the first trip, or that everybody in Columbus' time believed the Earth was flat. By any standard, Columbus was a bit of a lunatic who probably also suffered from what todat we call bipolar disease (for example, he thought that God spoke to him directly). He seems to have been given to theatricality and emotional blackmail, but undoubtedly he was also very intelligent and a great navigator. He also had an urge for social climbing, and he longed for glory and fame more than for money. He was obsessed with finding a way to China, India and Japan by sailing West, which suited the Western European powers's commercial interests. As said before, in his time the great debate among learned people was not over the flatness or roundness of the Earth, but about its size. Columbus, by grossly underestimating it, became convinced that the voyage to Asia was within reach. Had there been no American continent, he would have been murdered or starved to death. But he was also a very courageous and brave man, and so he made possible what seemed impossible. He was a very bad politician, and his emotional diseases made him quarrel with soon former friends, which of course marred his leadership abilities. His life, very well written by Fernandez-Armesto, is a glorious, tragic and incredible epic which reads like the best adventure novels.

1 comments about In the Teeth of the Northeaster: A Solo Voyage on Lake Superior.

1. Superbly written, The Teeth Of The Northeaster: A Solo Voyage On Lake Superior recounts Bree's sojourn across the largest body of freshwater in the world. Bree interweaves tales of the legends and the history of this vast watery region with his own particular adventures, meeting and talking with veteran sailors, boat builders, shopkeepers, and fishermen. Call Of The North Wind and In The Teeth Of The Northeaster are fascinating, informative, entertaining, and totally engaging books that are a "must" for anyone who has ever sailed Lake Superior -- or wanted to.

2 comments about Shackleton: An Irishman in Antarctica.

1. If Shackelton made it across the antartic as planned he probably would not be as well-known as he is today. The feat he and his crew managed to pull is simply astounding. One of the most inspiring adventure stories of all time in my opinion.
   Amru Albeiruti



2. The collective effort of Jonathon Shackleton (Antarctic special and a cousin of the famed explorer) and biographer John Mackenna, Shackleton: An Irishman In Antarctica is an informed and informative portrayal of Ernest Shackleton's historic, dramatic, highly dangerous South Pole expedition. Even though the voyage's ultimately failed to achieve it's stated goal, and Shackleton's crew were stranded on ice floes, all hands worked together to survive for a year before the perilous return to civilization could be made. Not a single man died in Shackleton's expedition, a credit to Shackleton's leadership and determination. His is a profound, inspirational, and keenly engaging story which is very highly recommended reading.

3 comments about The Life of Hon. William F. Cody: Known as Buffalo Bill, The Famous Hunter, Scout, and Guide.

1. Like several other biographies of this legendary Plainsman, Scout, Buffalo Hunter and Indian Fighter of the American Frontier, this book is comprised mostly of a reprint of William F. Cody's own Autobiography. What makes it a better source than many of the other reprints of Buffalo Bill Cody's fascinating 1879 acount of his early life and adventures until he reached the age of thirty-four, this volume includes an excellent foreword by another noted author and historian of the Wild West, Don Russell. His foreword makes this first complete reprinting of the original autobiography much more understandable and provides additional valuable insights into the man who coined the term "Wild West." Buffalo BIll was, without any doubt, what we often refer to as "The Real McCoy." While Cody could spin a good tale too, he was modest and humble about his own adventures. Later historians have mostly authenticated, with only minor corrections, his scary-thrilling, matter-of-fact and plain spoken recollections of his life and adventures.This is a very good read and hard to put down until the very end of the book.



2. Autobiographies are at the same time the best and the worst sources of life stories. You get the authentic voice, but that voice tells you only what it wants you to believe. Both these characteristics are particularly strong here because Cody's voice is such a distinctive one and because of his status as a supreme self-promoter. So this book will not give you the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but it will give you a real insight into the mind of a man who in many ways epitomizes the culture of the historic American West. Some of it may shock you; Cody describes how he shot a mule who had annoyed him by running away, and boasts of how he scalped his fallen enemies. Hardly the stuff of popular myth. If you want to know how the west was really won, then reading this book (some of it 'between the lines') will tell you much.



3. The Wild West was an even more heroic epoch than is commonly understood. While Buffalo Bill became a self-promoter, basic facts are clear: he was a superior plains guide and scout and Indian fighter. He really was the master hunter of buffalo from horseback. He was a Pony Express rider, with all that entailed. He was friends with Wild Bill, Custer, and other notables. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery on the battlefield (though sadly it was removed many years later because of a bureaucratic technicality of how he had been employed by the Army, not because of any change in the evaluation of the heroic deeds.

   A most fascinating book. It gives one a different perspective to hear it from a participant.END

5 comments about OK, So Now I Know.

1. This is a must read for any young lady out there. Good for older ones too, so they can find out what they missed. And, let's not forget those parents who are nervous about a potentially adventurous daughter, or anyone for that matter who likes a good read.
   This girl does it all and manages to learn a few tricks along the way, one of them becoming an qualified pilot.
   A great read! Curl up into a comfy chair and enjoy it



2. A real-life adventure that reads like fiction, Lorri Morgan's letters to her mother chronicle an adventurous young life unhampered by fear of the unknown. Ms. Morgan had been encouraged by her mother, who had been unable to travel, to take advantage of her freedom, her youth, her wit, and her sheer physical skill, to experience the world fully. And she does. Her adventures are leavened with a clear sense of self. The book is engagingly written with wry humor and total lack of self-conscious sentimentality. This is a must-read.



3. Ok,So Now I Know is the first published work of Lorri Morgan. A free spirited California surfer girl who decides to go traveling. In the early 70's while many of us were day-dreaming about globe hopping from one adventure to the next, Ms. Morgan was out there doing it. We first encounter her in the Canary Islands as she prepares to board a small sailboat with three Swedish men for a transatlantic voyage to the Caribben. We follow her through the next several years spent principally in the Caribbean, but with forays into Central and South America as well as mainland Europe. She chronicles her story by way of a series of letters sent home to her mother as well as a running narrative of her adventures. Blessed with athletic good looks and a quick wit she has no problems accumulating friends and lovers along the way. We watch as she becomes accustomed to life in the islands, learns sailing, diving, and to pilot a small plane. I found myself asking over and over again, why didn't I do this?
   What we learn here is that it is possible to live our dreams. This would be a good read for any young person that might be contemplating life beyond the safe environs of home. Stuff your pack and go.



4. This is a true story of a young woman exploring the world, often by herself and on a limited budget. She learned to sail and she learned to fly, all in the beautiful backdrop of the West Indies. What an adventure!! Her experiences are detailed with humor and reflections on the good times and the difficult times. Her courage to set off on her own, at such a young age, is an inspiration. Instead of watching "real life" on TV, turn off your set, and read a book about a REAL LIFE.



5. This book recalls the adventures of a young woman exploring the world one day at a time, often on a shoestring budget, going places and seeing things that most people only dream about.
   Encouraged by her mother to experience life and travel, Lorri shares her always fascinating, sometimes terrifying adventures through letters home and personal recollections.
   During her time in the West Indies, Morgan helped crew on a number of sail boats, learned to fly in order to support a fledgling business, and met many interesting and colorful people.
   Her account is a first person travelogue and coming of age experience that depicts the "let's see what will happen next" attitude of a remarkable young woman.

3 comments about Henry Hudson.

1. This is a marvelous book about one of the least-known of the great explorers.
   
   As Corey Sandler says, very little is known about Henry Hudson except for the period included within the five years of his four voyages. And much of what is on the record is based on the testimony of the mutineers who were out to save their own necks.
   
   Instead, what the author has done is write a fascinating biography of the PLACES Hudson explored: Svalbard near the north pole, Novaya Zemlya above Russia, the Hudson River, and northern Canada including Hudson Strait, Hudson Bay, and James Bay.
   
   He uses the logs and journals of Hudson and some of his crew to put things in context, and then tells us the stories of some of the most amazing places on the planet.
   
   This is a most unusual book, a great read. And it delivers exactly what it promises: "The Tragic Legacy of the New World's Least Understood Explorer." Every page brought a new perspective on history for me. I highly recommend this book.



2. If you're considering buying this book you should know what you're in for. If you're expecting a biography of Henry Hudson you'll be disappointed. There is very little on Hudson in this book. What you get is a high-level overview of what Hudson is thought to have done and a whole lot of ramble on Corey Sandler's experiences visiting the places Hudson visited.
   
   There's not a whole lot that's known about Hudson. What there is comes from a few brief surviving documents. You get the text from those documents word-for-word with little if any interpretation from the author. That's the real disappointment of this book. If I wanted to read the text of the original documents I'd look them up myself online. What I wanted was expert interpretation and the telling of the story that these documents seem to describe.
   
   Sandler writes from Nantucket, an island he shares with the great historian Nathaniel Philbrick. But where Philbrick excels at taking scant information and turning it into a fascinating story, Sandler dumps the source information on the page and then rambles on about his own experiences in visiting the same places 400 years later. Unfortunately, it's just not very interesting. Thought you'd learn about Hudson's trip up the river that bears his name? You're going to get a little of that and then a whole lot of information on General Electric, PCBs, the environmental movement, and Pete Seeger.
   
   An earlier reviewer characterized this book as being 1/3 history. I'd put it more at 1/10th. By the end of the book you'll know little about Hudson, but all about Sandler's political views, summer camp experiences, family, feelings, travel preferences, and a whole lot of other personal detail. If that's what you're looking to read about, you'll love it. But if you read the title and thought you were instead going to read a biography of Henry Hudson, you'll be disappointed.



3. I am going to give this 5 stars. I'll list why in a second just let me tell you a few of my issues. First Sandler doesn't seem to interview that many people concerning the Clearwater Sloop, the Hudson River Keeper or the many, many other environmental organizations dedicated to keep the Hudson clean. He also brushes over the Storm King case. Sandler does not mention the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
   
   Ok now that's out of the way let me explain a bit why this book is excellent.
   
   First of all its one-third history, one-third travelogue and one-third PSA for keeping all the places Henry Hudson visited clean. The history part is fairly typical in that we don't know much about Hudson; he may have been a bad captain nothing that new or exciting. But overall it's still interesting and a good introduction for those unfamiliar with Hudson.
   
   Then comes the travelogue sections. These are really interesting mostly because of all the unique people the author met on his travels. In reading the book the former director of Clearwater, Andy Mele, comes off as a pretty genuine guy. He's not a crazy tree hugging hippe but just a regular guy that wants to do some good. Most of the environmentalist people come off this way. Some people may not like this but honestly try spending a night near the Hudson...smell that? Yeah, that's the river. I did enjoy Sandle's search for Hudson's monuments and as he mentions in the introduction the most obvious ones are the Hudson River and New York City.
   
   The best parts are the sections that are basically the PSAs about environmentalism. There are numerous digs at GE for dumping PCBs and our society in general. Having lived for four years about 100 yards from the Hudson I must say it's easily one of the greatest sights in the world. But its also one of the biggest dumps too. I think it's terrible that the river is so polluted that you can't go for a swim or eat a fish from there. I had a picnic with my girlfriend one day in Hyde Park right on the river and it was pretty easy to spot all the trash washed up on the shore. Ok enough gushing as Sandler does a much better job explaining this then I do.
   
   In conclusion just read the book. It's excellent.

No comments about Christopher Columbus: Four Voyages to the New World/Bi-Lingual Edition.