Author(s): J Gregory Dill

History

What's a sailor to do when the sea's at a dead calm and there's no wind to fill the sails? He might just have to pour himself a Dark and Stormy and while away the afternoon in the starboard bunk with Myth, Fact, and Navigators' Secrets, a witty and intriguing compilation of unusual and little-known events in maritime history.

Author J. Gregory Dill has perused many an out-of-the-way bookstore, amassing a collection of books from which he has culled some of the strangest and most fascinating tales ever told about the life aquatic. Here, for example, is the account of the deadly duel between the U.S. frigate Chesapeake and His Britannic Majesty's frigate Shannon, equally matched in firepower and their captains' derring-do, but having no strategic significance whatsoever on the outcome of the war. There is also the story King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, whose order to build the greatest warship the world had ever seen is a wonderful variation on the fairy tale, The Emperor's New Clothes. Included here, too, is a brief history of the bosun's pipe, that shrill instrument used to deliver instructions to the ship's crew over the din of battle, complete with lessons on how to properly play it.

The result is an informative and entertaining collection of sometimes tragic, quirky, ironic, and humorous twists in maritime history fit for all sailing aficionados, from day sailors to world cruisers. Myth, Fact, and Navigators' Secrets will easily find a place on every sailor's must-read list.