benjenbav
Well-known member
A few days ago my mother sent me a book which she'd found amongst my late father's belongings and which she thought I might be interested in - I was!
It is called "A Manual of Seamanship" published on behalf of HMG and is dated 1943 (I think the edition is somewhat earlier, 1943 was the date my father had written inside the cover.)
What is striking is how much of it could have been reprinted with hardly any changes in Reeds 2011 edition. I suppose that's not surprising: the sea is the sea after all.
There are some interesting differences though:
The language is directed at operating ships rather than leisure boats and there's more about dealing with being struck by torpedoes and mines than Reeds tend to publish these days, of course, and a good deal about keeping personal gear properly stowed so that items of clothing or books do not block the pumps.
The buoyage was different then. But would be easily recognisable to a modern eye. Quite interesting to see how it has evolved into the current IALA/IALB.
The lettering flags were different too - that surprised me. I thought they had been the same since Nelson's day.
Colregs were similar but not in the current form. Throughout the book they are referred to as the "thirty one articles".
Oh yes, and five short blasts of the horn meant: "My engines are FULL SPEED astern"
It is called "A Manual of Seamanship" published on behalf of HMG and is dated 1943 (I think the edition is somewhat earlier, 1943 was the date my father had written inside the cover.)
What is striking is how much of it could have been reprinted with hardly any changes in Reeds 2011 edition. I suppose that's not surprising: the sea is the sea after all.
There are some interesting differences though:
The language is directed at operating ships rather than leisure boats and there's more about dealing with being struck by torpedoes and mines than Reeds tend to publish these days, of course, and a good deal about keeping personal gear properly stowed so that items of clothing or books do not block the pumps.
The buoyage was different then. But would be easily recognisable to a modern eye. Quite interesting to see how it has evolved into the current IALA/IALB.
The lettering flags were different too - that surprised me. I thought they had been the same since Nelson's day.
Colregs were similar but not in the current form. Throughout the book they are referred to as the "thirty one articles".
Oh yes, and five short blasts of the horn meant: "My engines are FULL SPEED astern"
