Perfect shipboard reference, packed with useful "hands-on" information, covers sailor's tools, basic knots and useful hitches, handsewing and canvas work and dozens of other topics important to safe, economic and efficient boat maintenance. Over 100 illustrations enhance delightful narrative.

2012 Reprint of 1953 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. Illustrated Edition. A maritime expert offers boating and yachting enthusiasts a complete course in rigging, working, and maintaining a ship. The perfect shipboard reference, this volume is packed with useful "hands-on" information: sailor's tools, basic knots, and useful hitches; hand sewing and canvas work; and dozens of other topics important to safety, economy, and efficiency. Over 100 illustrations. Few twentieth-century writers could equal Hervey Garrett Smith's works on the traditional arts of the sailor; none could surpass them. His descriptions of knotting, splicing, fancy work, canvas work, and the practice of marlinspike seamanship are clear, concise, and evocative. So, too, are his drawings, which are technically accurate, easy to follow, and a joy to behold. The "Arts of the Sailor" is Smith's finest book, a compendium of information that runs the gamut: the anatomy of rope, sailor's tools, knots, hitches, splicing, whipping, wire and rope service, hand sewing, decorative rope work, chafing gear, reefing, towing, cleats, rope-stropped blocks, and making all sorts of gear, including rope mats, a heaving line, a bosun's chair, and a ditty bag.

2012 Reprint of 1952 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. "Knowledge of marlinspike seamanship is what distinguishes the true seaman from the man who merely ventures upon the water. No one can become a skipper, or should aspire to that distinction, who has not mastered knots, palm and needle work, and the making of small objects on board as necessary. In fact the few required knots, hitches or bends should be so well known that they can be tied blindfolded or in the dark....The greatest single value of this work is the amazing clarity he achieves in his drawings. He has set a new standard for all time. Rope is a difficult subject to draw. Like the sea itself, it changes its appearance constantly"-From the Forward.

2012 Reprint of 1955 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This book, the first of its kind, makes clear the difference between "boat carpentry" and "house carpentry." On a boat there is hardly a straight line, in a house almost all the lines must be straight. Many tools used by the boat carpenter are almost unknown to the house carpenter. Amply illustrated, this remains a classic book on the subject. Few twentieth-century writers could equal Hervey Garrett Smith's works on the traditional arts of the sailor; none could surpass them. His descriptions of knotting, splicing, fancy work, canvas work, and the practice of marlinspike seamanship are clear, concise, and evocative. So, too, are his drawings, which are technically accurate, easy to follow, and a joy to behold.