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Title: Looking for a Ship by John A. McPhee ISBN: 0-374-19077-1 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: September, 1990 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.18 (11 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Cleanse your reading palette
Comment: Found in the clearance bin of the local bookstore, the title intrigued me, so I bought it. Rarely have I had such luck resulting from an impulse buy. _Looking for a Ship_ seems to take its pace from the slow and stately progress of any seagoing cargo craft. And yet the reader feels not the plodding, monotonous roll of a modern roll-on/roll-off, but instead is a passenger on the proverbial slow boat to China. You are on vacation, with a known destination, and little to do along the way but enjoy the scenery, the daily routine, and the satisfaction that mundane tasks are complete until the morrow.
We follow the author's first-person perspective as he in turn follows his friend, a sailor in the United States Merchant Marine, on the never-ending quest of finding work. McPhee enters a world known only vaguely beforehand, and as his adventure progresses, we learn along with him what life is to a Merchant Mariner.
I say "adventure" somewhat tongue-in-cheek; there is very little such in this book. Do not expect swashbuckling tales of derring-do. The only scene of pulse-quickening, a pirate raid while in a South American port, has not a whit of heroism, unless one agrees that saving one's own skin is of greater heroism than saving someone else's cargo.
Yet McPhee weaves a compelling tale from his real life experience. The people we read about are well described, fully characterized, and vital. Everyday problems still require solutions, and the Merchant Mariner must be as adaptable and wise in solving them as any of us, if not more so in the current climate of too little work for too many sailors.
Yes, I was able to put this book down. No, I didn't lose sleep while reading it. But when I closed the back cover, it was with somewhat melancholy satisfaction, as I recognized that yet another romantic calling has died at the hand of modern technology. The book ends suddenly, almost prematurely. I had found myself very interested in the lives I was introduced to, and wanted to know more.
After you've finished your latest powerful read, and before you begin your next, I highly recommend that you cleanse your palette with this simple and fulfilling study of the modern Merchant Marine. I doubt you'll be disappointed. An "8" rating may be high when comparing this book with some of the classics, but _Looking for a Ship_ is not trying to be a classic. Its aims are limited, yet few books hit their intended mark as cleanly as this one does. I give McPhee great credit for so elegantly doing exactly what he set out to do.
Rating: 5
Summary: A bittersweet experience....
Comment: I think I was born wanting to go to sea. I had never even seen an ocean as a kid, but I instinctually seemed to have a knowlege and a love of ships and the sea. As I grew older it puzzled me that the Merchant Marine wasn't considered a viable career choice. It also puzzled me that I never met anyone who had worked in the merchant service later than the early 50's. There was also the fact that the world's biggest industrial powerhouse seemed to have so few American flagged vessels..... Well, this book explains things. You can't get a berth on an American flagged ship for the same reason it is becoming impossible to find a factory job inland- the corporations decided that it was cheaper to hire cheap foreign labor and flag their ships in third world countries to get around taxes and decent working conditions.
That is why reading this book is a bittersweet experience. On the one hand it is great reading about famous captains or modern day pirates, but on the other, you realise that you'll never know any part of such a life. Pretty hard to get a sea card when licensed officers are being "shoved down the hawse-pipe" to serve as deckhands....
When I finished this book I dug out my old Bowditch and sextent and thought about what could have been. Maybe I couldn't have cut it, but damn it, I deserved a chance to find out.
Rating: 5
Summary: Very interesting read
Comment: If you've ever wondered how the U.S. Merchant Marine works or just want to read a modern seafaring non fiction book, this is the book for you. Great read, very interesting
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Title: Sailing on Friday: The Perilous Voyage of America's Merchant Marine by John A. Butler ISBN: 1574882996 Publisher: Brasseys, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Control of Nature by John McPhee ISBN: 0374522596 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Oranges by John A. McPhee ISBN: 0374512973 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Roomful of Hovings and Other Profiles by John McPhee ISBN: 0374515018 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: June, 1985 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Pine Barrens by John McPhee, James Graves ISBN: 0374514429 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: May, 1978 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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