Take a photo of a barcode or cover
psteve 's review for:
The Cruise of the Snark
by Jack London
London's story of his attempt to sail around the world on a largely self-built yacht, the Snark. It was pretty much a failure of a trip, with problems starting even before they set sail from San Francisco. The yacht cost much more than London had figured, and the departure was delayed, in part, by liens put on the boat by his creditors. His preparations were given lots of attention in the press -- he was the world's bestselling author at the time -- and he spends a lot of pages quoting from letters he received from those who wanted to accompany him.
Problems stared right away: the gasoline engine never worked. Lots of food was spoiled (some by gasoline leaking from its storage), the boat leaked, and London didn't know anything about navigation. They made it to Hawaii, where the boat needed lots of repairs, but that gave London time to learn to surf, and he wrote a long chapter in the book about it. Next was the leg south to the Marquesas, and along the way they almost ran out of water and almost overshot the islands. After that, on to the Solomons and then London went to Australia. In the Solomons London and company were best by Yaws, a painful skin infection, and due to mysterious swelling in his hands, London had to return to California.
It's a strange book, and London doesn't tell lots of the story you would expect him to. We learn very little about the personalities of his shipmates and his wife. The disquisition on surfing and especially navigation are interesting, and his visit to Typee is well handled. London is also fairly reticent about his own emotions during the trip. Descriptions of the residents of the various islands are more perfunctory than I had expected. Another standout chapter is the one on the 'pigeon' or 'beche de mer' language used in Polynesia; I'd bet the linguistics is pretty faulty, the telling is great.
Problems stared right away: the gasoline engine never worked. Lots of food was spoiled (some by gasoline leaking from its storage), the boat leaked, and London didn't know anything about navigation. They made it to Hawaii, where the boat needed lots of repairs, but that gave London time to learn to surf, and he wrote a long chapter in the book about it. Next was the leg south to the Marquesas, and along the way they almost ran out of water and almost overshot the islands. After that, on to the Solomons and then London went to Australia. In the Solomons London and company were best by Yaws, a painful skin infection, and due to mysterious swelling in his hands, London had to return to California.
It's a strange book, and London doesn't tell lots of the story you would expect him to. We learn very little about the personalities of his shipmates and his wife. The disquisition on surfing and especially navigation are interesting, and his visit to Typee is well handled. London is also fairly reticent about his own emotions during the trip. Descriptions of the residents of the various islands are more perfunctory than I had expected. Another standout chapter is the one on the 'pigeon' or 'beche de mer' language used in Polynesia; I'd bet the linguistics is pretty faulty, the telling is great.