The Way of a Ship - by Derek Lundy (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

When, as a young man in the 1880s, Benjamin Lundy signed up for duty aboard a square-rigged commercial sailing vessel, he began a journey more exciting, and more terrifying, than he could have ever imagined: a treacherous, white-knuckle passage around that notorious "graveyard of ships," Cape Horn.

A century later, Derek Lundy, author of the bestselling Godforsaken Sea and an accomplished amateur seaman himself, set out to recount his forebear's journey. The Way of a Ship is a mesmerizing account of life on board a square-rigger, a remarkable reconstruction of a harrowing voyage through the most dangerous waters. Derek Lundy's masterful account evokes the excitement, romance, and brutality of a bygone era -- "a fantastic ride through one of the greatest moments in the history of adventure" (Seattle Times).

Review Quotes

"An exceptionally rich and satisfying weave ... making the reader feel the sting of the wind and the vertiginous plunge of the wave ... heir to the tradition of Dana, Melville, Conrad ... a descendant of such classics." - Jonathan Raban, author of Bad Land and Passage to Juneau
"The wealth and authority of this book make it a worthy companion to the very best histories on seafaring." - Sunday Times (London)
"A tribute to the seamen of the Age of Sail." - Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
"A saga of life under sail that touches to the quick... Lundy is particularly good at evoking the most dangerous situations, recounting the interplay between heavy weather and the captain's decisions with grim realism, yet lyrically portraying the ship as a living thing that must work, if not in harmony then at least in concert with the riotous elements that surround it." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
"I read Godforsaken Sea more or less at a sitting, and have been dipping into it with pleasure ever since. The book is saturated -- but modestly so -- in Lundy's own experience of sailing and the sea, which enables him to step gracefully into the boats and minds of the Vendee Globe competitors as they risk their lives in the Southern Ocean.... Follow him, and share in the elation and terror that he describes so well." - Jonathan Raban, author of Bad Land and Passage to Juneau