The Arts of the Sailor [Illustrated Edition]

2012 Reprint of 1953 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Illustrated Edition. A maritime expert offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. The perfect shipboard reference, this volume is packed with useful “hands-on” information: sailor’s tools, basic knots, and useful hitches; hand sewing and canvas work; and dozens of other topics important to safety, economy, and efficiency. Over 100 illustrations. Few twentieth-century writers could equal Hervey Garrett Smith’s works on the traditional arts of the sailor; none could surpass them. His descriptions of knotting, splicing, fancy work, canvas work, and the practice of marlinspike seamanship are clear, concise, and evocative. So, too, are his drawings, which are technically accurate, easy to follow, and a joy to behold. The “Arts of the Sailor” is Smith’s finest book, a compendium of information that runs the gamut: the anatomy of rope, sailor’s tools, knots, hitches, splicing, whipping, wire and rope service, hand sewing, decorative rope work, chafing gear, reefing, towing, cleats, rope-stropped blocks, and making all sorts of gear, including rope mats, a heaving line, a bosun’s chair, and a ditty bag.