Description
Tempus Publishing, Published 2007. Paperback, 128 pp.; 24 cm; First Edition; illustrated with black-and-white engravings, handbills and photographs.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition. Pictorial paper covers reproduce an 1841 view from London Bridge looking east. Front cover clean with mild edge wear. Creasing to the upper and lower fore-corners of rear cover with rippling along the fore-edge, and a small nick to the paper at foot of spine. Oxfam price sticker at lower centre of rear cover. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Sherwood covers the sea-going steamboats working out of London between 1815 and 1860, on the Gravesend, Margate and Ramsgate runs, the east coast services to Hull and Edinburgh, and the continental routes to Germany, Holland, Belgium and France. Appendix A tabulates the vessels from Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1840, giving owner, year built, tonnage, engine power and eventual fate. Appendix E lists the accidents and closes with the Princess Alice, cut in two by the collier Bywell Castle in Gallions Reach in September 1878 with the loss of some 700 of the 900 aboard, still the worst death toll on a British inland waterway. Many of the handbills reproduced come from the author's own collection. Tempus was absorbed into The History Press in December 2007, making this one of the imprint's last titles. Contents: Preface; Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; Introduction; Before 1815; 1815, A Turning Point: The First Steamboats; Consequences: Mass Tourism; Taking the Steamer to Work; Passengers; "Getting Off Our Right Little, Tight Little, Island"; Brits Abroad; London and its Port; More Consequences: The Decline of the Watermen; Conclusion; Appendix A: List of Steamboats; Appendix B: Hoys and Early Steamboats; Appendix C: General Steam Navigation Co.; Appendix D: Masters and Seamen and the Life of Captain Martin; Appendix E: Disasters; Appendix F: A Song: "The Husbands' Boat"; Money Values and Currency Conversion; Bibliography; Index.