The Twwilight of Sail
Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson
Published: 1978
Place of publication: London
Number of pages: 191
Subjects: Clipper ships
First sentence: For the traveller at the beginning of the nineteenth century an ocean passage basically meant very much what it had meant to travellers 3,000 years before: weeks or months of deprivation and hardship with the likelihood of death from shipwreck, foundering or disease.
Description: The Twilight of Sail is a magnificent celebration in pictures of the full-rigged ocean flyers of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Over 120 black and white photographs are included, many of them never before published, to provide a vivid evocation of the atmosphere of life at sea; the splendour of the ocean clippers as they sliced their way through the waves, sales billowing; the hazards and spartan conditions of life on board; the bustling activity in the ports and docks; and the bleak fate of a grounded ship, floundering amidst the waves.
Notes: Published in conjunction with Hutchinson of Australia.