Live Yankees: The Sewalls and Their Ships

Live Yankees: The Sewalls and Their Ships
- Used Book in Good Condition
For nearly a century members of the Sewall family of Bath, Maine, built and managed a fleet of stout deepwater square-riggersâ€•a fascinating story. Correspondence from their captains offers adventure of another kindâ€•mutinies, shipwrecks, and â€œcannibal isles.â€
No family has been more intimately associated with the history of the city of Bath, then among the most productive shipbuilding communities of any size in the world. Despite a veneer of old-fashioned formalized civility, international shipping in the late 1800s and early 1900s was a highly competitive, low-margin, and often cut-throat business. While the Sewalls' shrewd responses to market changes make a fascinating story, the surviving correspondence from their captains offers adventure of another kind. Sewall captains were required to make regular reports to the Sewall office, and this correspondence is a treasure-trove of stories about the voyages of Sewall ships--surly crews, mutinies, plagues, shipwrecks, cannibal isles, destitute widows, and more, along with details of ship performance, weather encountered, trouble in port, and even lawsuits. The Sewalls also invested in railroads and other non-maritime securities and speculations, and also became involved in politics, but it is in the maritime world that they are best remembered. As the owners of the last surviving important fleet of American square-riggers engaged in worldwide trade, it was the Sewalls' fate to draw the curtain on this economic enterprise. No family had worked more assiduously, more stubbornly, or with more enterprise to delay the arrival of that day.
Country USA
Brand Brand: Tilbury House Publishers
Manufacturer Tilbury House Distr
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber Illustrated
ReleaseDate 2009-03-26
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780884483151

Country	USA
Brand	Brand: Tilbury House Publishers
Manufacturer	Tilbury House Distr
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	Illustrated
ReleaseDate	2009-03-26
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780884483151