Description
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1933. Hardcover, 330 pp. First Edition. . Illustrated with photographs.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
17
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Condition & notes
In good condition/ NO dust jacket. Blue cloth covered boards with gold lettering and wave design on front and spine. Light to moderate bumping, scuffing and fading to edges of covers. Binding tight. Previous owner's name and address in ink on front free end paper. Pages lightly aged but otherwise unmarked, with occasional light spotting had heavier aging to end papers. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. Alan Villiers's Exciting Chronicle of a 1932 Voyage Around Cape Horn By a Square-Rigger With a Cargo of Grain. Even though steam had all but taken over the seas during the three decades immediately preceding WWI, there was still a fleet of ships engaged in the grain-carrying trade between Australia and Europe. These ships, fitted with labor saving devises and a stream-lined crew, would sail round the Horn or the Cape of Good hope to avoid canal tolls, which enabled them to make a small profit margin. As time is money, speed was an important factor in the success of the endeavor. Thus these ships would "race" their grain cargoes. This is the story of the 1932 "Race" which included 18 tall sailing ships laden with grain which sail from Australia to England, encountering merciless squall, hurricanes and mountainous seas. Villiers, who was not yet 30 when the race took place, was a part owner of the ship, the Parma. [From New York Times - March, 1933] "Grain Race" is a fine piece of reportorial writing, done by a man who knows what he is writing about.