Sea Struck

by William H. Bunting, Llewellyn Howland III

Sea Struck brings alive the final decades of square-rigged sail through the accounts of voyages made on three ships by three young men from Massachusetts. There is plenty of adventure here— storms, men overboard, discipline that bordered on brutality, and exotic ports. There is also a fascinating immersion in the lore of the sea and sail and the global web of connections in the New England maritime community.

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 2004

Reviews

[John]

I enjoyed this, but you can't really read it like a normal book. It's basically an excuse to publish the diaries of these young men who went on voyages all around the world, roughly around 1900 or so. You kind of have to skim the diary entries looking for interesting stuff. But there is all kinds of interesting stuff. I feel like I learned a lot about what kinds of goods were being shipped around, and where they were going, and what life on a ship at the time was like. I was a little bit confused about why Bunting took so long to get to the diaries, especially since the last third or so of the book seemed to be just diary entries. Also the breakdown of the chapters doesn't make a ton of sense. They seem to start and stop kind of arbitrarily.
You know what I really liked about this book was the photos. They were great. I loved that he managed to find several photos of all of these ships, so I actually could get a sense of size. And the on board photos of the crew, and the stormy seas...I liked all that. Oh, also there were all kinds of great little details in the footnotes.
Full disclosure, I am a bit biased because one of the Captains featured in this book is my great grand uncle, Walter Mallett. So I was paying a bit more attention during the Mallett parts.

[Jennifer]

Published by the historical society, it's the story of seafarers from the island and New Bedford toward the end of the whaling days. There were a few great descriptive gems but for the most part I found the stories and characters hard to follow and the writing style not smooth.

[Pete]

Lots of angles of interest for me personally: The Swifts, Dick Mallett, sailing, Clipper Ships