Snow Squall: The Last American Clipper Ship

By Nicholas Dean and Dean Nicholas

Book Overview

In the middle of the nineteenth century American clipper ships astounded the maritime world with their amazingly swift passages to and from faraway seaports, bringing back exotic and valuable cargoes of tea, spices, and silk. Of all those clippers, only one remains: the Maine-built snow squall, whose bow section was rescued from the remote Falkland Islands by the Snow Squall Project in the 1980s.This book begins (and ends) with an unusual volunteer archaeological expedition in the aftermath of the Falkland War but quickly becomes a maritime detective story, as snow squall's story is pieced together further with information gleaned from shipping lists, newspaper accounts, disaster books, and diaries. Her world turns out to be a fascinating one, from the laying of her keel at the Butler yard in South Portland in 1851; to her captain's problems with storms, unruly crews, and attempted piracy; her owner's attempts to keep her profitable when news of her markets thousands of miles away was months old, and her cargo wouldn't be delivered until months later; and her last captain's heroic efforts to repair his badly damaged ship after going aground near Cape Horn in 1864.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0884482316
• ISBN13: 9780884482314
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Tilbury House Distr
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.3" x 10.3"
• Age Range: 10 years and up

Customer Reviews

a love story

Somewhere about two thirds of the way through this book I put it down & said to myself "these people are crazy!" Then I picked it up again and said "But Gosh, I wish I could have been there". A good chunk of the book is background to clipper ships in general & specifically the history of the "last American Clipper" but there is also the riveting account of a group of "crazies" who find the remains of SNOWSQUALL abandoned and rotting at a dock in the South Atlantic and do their best to save at least part of her for a maritime museum back in the States. That they succeed (at least in part) frankly left me a little teary-eyed. Those of you who aren't at least a little bit "odd" when it comes to Tall Ships may say "why bother?" My guess is that after reading this book you may begin to understand. For those of us who already have the disease, you will be rooting for the authors and their friends the whole way. Nicely written, nicely illustrated, a real "keeper".