"Ships of the Past" (used book)

Ships of the Past

by Charles G. Davis

About the book

Used book. Hardcover. Dust jacket included. Good condition.

The charm that exists for those of us who are ship-minded in anything that pertains to man’s work on play upon the sea is difficult to explain. Nevertheless, anyone of us who has unexpected come upon a fine  model of an old-time vessel, or what is perhaps as rare, a really good sea picture, known well the excitement, the elation, that knows well the excitement, the elation, that instantly possesses him, and to those of us who have seen the square-riggers at their wharves, or the last of the sailing vessels of war memory, adds a thrill that is ours alone.

A model takes on in our imagination the size and importance of the ship herself and we can wonder at the ponderous anchors and fairly smell the tar and bilge-water. Perhaps because these are memories of our youth we are in a measure blinded to any charm of the kind that may exist in modern ships, for in these days beauty of appearance has with designer and builder given place to the practical alone, and a beam-trawler is made to appear top-heavy or a dreadnaught is given the snout of a pig.

The writer of this book is not of this breed. Davis has always loved beautiful vessels. Seaman, designer, builder of ships, and crack skipper of racing yachts, he is an artist in his soul and loves the sailing vessels of all times. They have been an absorbing interest of his life and this volume will place before us many of the results of his years of research. Aided by his knowledge of marine architecture he has found in libraries, old letters, or manuscripts a word or sentence here and there which solves some knotty problem of design or construction. Again, in faded writing is a table of “offsets,” just dry figures to most of us, but from which he can draw the plans of some old vessel known only by name in the histories.