The Falcon on the Baltic: A Coasting Voyage from Hammersmith to Copenhagen in a Three-Ton Yacht

The Mariners Library #15

by Edward Frederick Knight

A tale of a voyage of a very small yacht on the North and Baltic Seas in the summer of 1887, told with great detail and color. "The Falcon on the Baltic" is a favorite classic among nautical enthusiasts.

225 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1888

Reviews

[Charles Sheard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting with the minor issues, there are numerous points were you tire of entries that read like a ship's log, which Knight has the tendency to do when describing the beginning of each day (giving the time he sets sail, the barometer inevitably falling and the winds from the north-west, etc.). And there is even one terrifically frustrating paragraph that seems to sum up the issues this book sometimes faces:

It is impossible to describe the peculiar charm of the scenery of these fiords. There is not here the wild grandeur of the fiords of Norway, but a soft and peaceful loveliness of which one never wearies. Word-pictures of these sweet landscapes could not fail to be monotonous to the reader; for they are all composed of the same elements - clear water, grassy slopes, and woods of fir and beech. But there is no monotony in the reality; each reach in a fiord presents some fresh picture of its own; and there is a great variety in the tints of both vegetation and water, a variety intensified by the ever-changeful Northern sky. The sea-coast of the Cimbrian peninsula is to be understood and enjoyed in a boat and not to be described in books.

But we are not in his boat, and are in his book, so how dare he dismiss the very nature of our vicarious relationship to his subject! Additionally, the quality of the Narrative Press edition leaves a bit to be desired, with pages loosening from the binding, numerous errors which appear to derive from an OCR transcription of the book, and a criminal absence of maps and charts to accompany the reader on this sea voyage (there being, in fact, only one in the entire book, a fairly poorly reproduced map of the coast of Holland).

That said, when he doesn't throw in the towel, Knight has a fine, light-hearted way of describing the various harbors, canals, villages and residents which he encounters, thereby giving the reader the pangs of wanderlust which led us to this book in the first place, and which so inspired two other writers whom I have greatly enjoyed, Arthur Ransome and Erskine Childers. In fact, one often is left wanting to know even more about a particular place or person, such as the small fishing village of Maasholm, which lies at the old entrance of the Schlei fiord before it silted up, where everyone is related to everyone else and names repeated so often that a letter's envelope might be addressed to "He that is the eldest of the two Peter Mass's that have red hair." And that is always the success of this type of book, leaving you with a distinct impression of a place even in the brief span of a page or two, and the desire to know more even though the writer, the book, and you the reader must sail on. There is also a terrific scene close to the end, when his boat is snug in a small village harbor north of Copenhagen during a storm, that Knight stands atop a hill, describing the visceral lashings of the storm against land and sea, and the sight of hundreds of boats battling to reach the safety of the Sound [Øresund]. Surprisingly, Knight's language never seems dated, and in addition to making the reader yearn for the life on the sea, and the sense of the place he visits, this book truly makes one long for the bygone days of sail.

[John Mehlhopt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahoy

Picked this by a fluke and thoroughly enjoyed it.Having read the cruise of the Kate which was rather dry,this is a nice light engaging story,well worth it.