Song of Sirens

by Ernest K. Gann

Book Overview

Song of the Sirens is Ernest K. Gann's story of the ships he has sailed and owned; of his years as master of a commercial fishing vessel, of ocean crossings and of storms and emergencies encountered... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671200429
• ISBN13: 9780671200428
• Release Date: September 1968
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 318 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.

Customer Reviews

When The Sirens Sing

Ernest Gann has written a memoir of what happens when you hear the Sirens singing and follow them. I loved this book as the sea-going counterpart to his marvelous memoir of flight, Fate Is the Hunter; there's the same wrily witty, compassionate observations on the vicissitudes of the sea and those who sail upon it, particularly himself, the same amused humility in the face of the perversities and miracles of chance, whether they be a failing engine at the height of a tempest, intransigent bureaucrats of the Panama Canal, a balsa raft costing less than sixteen dollars which can leave a scientifically designed catamaran in its wake, or a wild voice singing in the Greek Islands. Whether recounting desperation in a great storm off the Oregon coast, or the nostalgic reminiscenses of his earlier sailing boats and shipmates, or the languid monotony of a long tropical ocean passage, or the nature and the workings of what he terms the 'Dock Committee' (which has membership worldwide), even the time he was masterfully conned by a crafty old sailor on the wharves of New York, Gann maintains a close and humorously affectionate eye on the sometimes clear, sometimes problematical, but always interesting relationships between the mundane acts of everyday and the greater universe which lurks behind every common act and thought.Above all, there is in Sirens, as in all his books whether fic or nonfic, a love of the sea, of boats, of living fully in and of the world and of us frail, fallible and funny humans in it. In Fate Is the Hunter, it is the world of the air and those who fly; in Song of the Sirens, the sea. A wonderful read.

The nautical side to E.K. Gann

I've read several book by Ernie Gann and being a pilot I was in awe of Mr. Gann's story telling ability in "Fate is the Hunter" and thought this is surely the best autobiography ever written. Now having read "Song of Sirens" I have to re-evaluate this opinion. It makes you want to run out and buy a boat!

A masterfully written true adventure.

Ernest K. Gann is, quite simply, a great writer. In Song of the Sirens he writes about his adventures aboard the many ships he has owned. His writing skill takes the reader, even a landlubber like me, along with him to experience what it is like to ride out a storm 50 miles off the coast of Oregon in a fishing trawler or to sail across the Atlantic Ocean with an old, rusty, leaky training boat with a suspect engine. The book is slanted more for the boating afficionado. While he does explain some of the technical terms, a lot of them are obviously for someone who knows sailboats. There are no pictures, either. Pictures of the ships (not boats because, as he explains in the book, a boat is carried by a ship)would have been helpful. All in all, though, this book will greatly appeal to Ernest K. Gann fans, those who enjoy adventure stories, and those who enjoy sailing stories.

Excellent book; excellent way to get to know E. K. Gann.

When Ernest K. Gann wasn't flying or writing, he was sailing. This is a beautifully put together set of vignettes of the various boats and ships he loved and his voyages on them.

A witty, gripping account of Gann's adventures at sea.

I'm a frequent reader of Gann's aviation fare but I was equally captivated by this account of his adventures at sea. I read this book when I was about 16 years old and was moved by Gann's vivid description of life on the ocean amid both fair weather and foul. Gann's love for the beauty and vagarities of ships and the sea permeates this fine novel.