Joel White: Boatbuilder, Designer, Sailor (Noah Publications, $60) is an insightful and sumptuously illustrated coffee-table book. Bill Mayher and Maynard Bray celebrate the brilliance of the naval architect, boatbuilder, and ardent sailor from Brooklin, Maine. Mayher, a regular contributor to WoodenBoat Magazine, cruised with White for over 25 years. Bray, WoodenBoat's technical editor, not only sailed with White, but worked alongside him. The book's 100-plus color pictures were taken by Benjamin Mendlowitz, this country's finest photographer of wooden boats. If your local bookstore doesn't have this title, you can order it at: http://www.noahpublications.com

n Submerged: Adventures of America's Most Elite Underwater Archeology Team (Newmarket Press, $25.95), Daniel Lenihan--one of the world's foremost underwater archeologists and founder of the acclaimed Submerged Cultural Resources Unit (SCRU) takes us on a riveting journey, detailing his over two decades in underwater exploration. His often dramatic and always dangerous assignments are too numerous to lists here. But they include surveying ten large ships sunk from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries in the middle of the frigid and deep Lake Superior; resurveying the ships sunk by atomic bombs at Bikini Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean; and excavating the hull of the HL Hunley, the first submarine in history to sink an enemy vessel. This event occurred Febuary 17, 1864, in the Charleston Harbor. Lenihan includes lots of fine photos in his book.


The productive folks at FRP Books have released two marvelous titles. Savoring the Seasons: Riverside ($21.95) celebrates the events associated with each of the four seasons in the charming coastal town of New Bern, North Carolina. The book was compiled by the Craven Regional Medical Center Foundation. Proceeds from Savoring the Seasons will benefit health care in the tri-county area of Craven, Pamlico, and Jones counties. Some of the fine-sounding recipes are Nutty Banana Bread, Spinach Lasagna, Autumn Tossed Salad, and the potent Cap'N Polly's Eggnog. The Cruising K.I.S.S. Cookbook ($24.95) is perfect for boaters, cruisers, and people on the go. Corrine C. Kanter gives us over 560 recipes. And each one is complete on one page, using large, readable type. Kanter's "Hints" (which are on nearly every page) are great pointers about how to simplify or speed up the food preparation time, as well as how to conserve fuel and produce less heat and fumes. You'll find everything from Guacamole Dip and Beer Bread to Hot Broccoli Soup and Cheese Grits! K.I.S.S. stands for "Keep It Simple System," and Kanter has that down pat. FRP Books can be found at: www.frpbooks.com
  

Jennifer Trainer Thompson and Elizabeth Wheeler give us the rich and instructive Feasts Afloat (Ten Speed Press, $19.95 paper). After logging more than 25,000 miles at sea, the authors have created 150 tasty-sounding and easy-to-follow recipes. These "great meals from small spaces" include Corn Bread (southern-style, with an iron skillet!), Artichoke Hearts and Roasted Peppers, Grilled Breakfast Sandwich, Scrambled Eggs (which look absolutely perfect), Cowboy Coffee ("robust coffee the old fashioned way"), and Fresh Lime Pie (which is especially refreshing during the spring and summer months). There are also alcoholic drink mixes, fruit drink mixes, and "Midday Salad" recipes. The book is divided into four helpful sections: Dinners Afloat, On the Beach, Entertaining Aboard, and Informal Fare. Kristen Brochman provides a multitude of gorgeous photographs.


Confessions of A Boatbuilder (Sheridan House, $16.50) is an engrossing autobiography of the noted Nova Scotian boatbuilder, James Douglas Rosborough. The author takes us from his modest beginnings in the 1940s (when he was constructing eight-foot rowboats) to the early 1990s (by which time his nautical design efforts grew to include the construction of over 150 vessels--many of them schooners--to a host of distinguished clients). Rosborough pioneered numerous designs, ranging in length from 30-50 feet. He is marvelously candid about the trials, triumphs, and surprises involved in the construction and operation of these gorgeous vessels. Rosborough's prose is particularly moving when he writes about his efforts to complete some of his last vessels before the wooden boat-building industry bottomed out.  

Sheridan has also released Victor Slocum's Castaway Boats ($16.50 paper) and Bernard Moitesser's Sailing to the Reefs ($16.50 paper). The former is a compelling account of a number of castaways boats and the adventures of the survivors. Included are Slocum's account of the Easter Island castaways and the famous Sir Ernest Shackleton's boat voyage through the Antarctic waters. And the latter title is a riveting description of Moitesser's shipwreck on the Chagos atoll in the India Ocean after a monumental monsoon, as well as his building of the Marie-Therese II from scratch with no power tools or financial resources. And he completed the boat in just nine months!


The title says it all in Practical Seamanship: Essential Skills for the Modern Sailor (Beowulf Publishing, $69.95). Steve and Linda Dashew's winning volume covers every aspect of going to sea on modern yachts. Their 900-plus topics include pre-departure survey, anchoring, docking, being comfortable at sea, cruising in coral, safety at sea, communicating on deck, staying fit, navigating aids, signs of approaching land, electronic charting, and maintenance. The authors write clearly and concisely; and their text is enhanced by over 800 illustrations (while the drawings are crisp and instructive, the black-and-white photos tend to be fuzzy and too dark). Beowulf Publishing--whose office is in North Carolina--has also produced a fine cross-platform CD-ROM edition of Practical Seamanship ($19.95 if purchased at the same time as the book). While at sea, you can put the CD into your laptop, and it becomes an excellent reference tool. The CD's index, table of contents, and cross references are "hot linked" to their subjects. Just click on an item and you're instantly taken there! The book and CD-ROM can be purchased at: www.setsail.com.

Historians and nautical scholars will certainly want to purchase The USS Constitution's Finest Fight, 1815: The Journal of Acting Chaplain Assheton Humphreys, US Navy (Nautical & Aviation Publishing, $22.95). Edited by Tyrone G. Martin, this compact volume tells how, on December 17, 1814, Captain Charles Stewart slipped past the Royal Navy's blockade of Boston and sailed his ship on a sweep through the Atlantic Ocean, capturing merchantmen as he went. His capture of the HMS Cyane and HMS Levant of the Madeira Islands are particularly spectacular. Chaplain Humphreys was a crew member of the Constitution. His eyewitness account, notes Martin in his informative introduction, "offers a unique window on the world aboard the already lengendary 'Old Ironsides' during her final cruise in the War of 1812." Further, writes the editor, "Humphreys illuminates the naval events with very human anecdotes that give dimension to the story, anecdotes unavailable anywhere else." Nautical & Aviation is a Mt. Plesant (SC) publisher. Their Web address is: www.nautical.aviation.publishing.


Edited by Peter Neill, American Sea Writing (The Library of America, $35) is a superb literary anthology. The works of nearly 70 writers are gathered here. One can read everything from Emerson on an Atlantic crossing and James Fenimore Cooper's invention of the sea novel to Olaudah Equiano on a slave ship and Lewis and Clark's sighting of the Pacific. There are also neglected works of remarkable power, such as Celia Thaxter's description of the desolate beauty of the New England coast; Lafcadio Hearn's piece on lush, Gulf Coast seascapes; and Joseph Mitchell's vivid essay on what lies beneath the New York harbor. Other authors include Mark Twain, John McPhee, Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Eugene O'Neill, Rachel Carson, and Jame Agee (who pens a witty and detailed piece--written in 1937--on his Havana cruise, where the assorted passengers "anticpated Drinking quite as much as Sex").

The Second Edition of Handbook of Offshore Cruising (Sheridan House, $45) is an immensely-practical  work. Jim Howard covers a wealth of topics, including safety equipment, powering options, how to keep your boat's systems working realiably, heavy weather strategies, useful electronics, how to expand your storage space, and--of course--seasickness remedies. This encyclopedic volume has become a standard reference for bluewater sailors, particularly those planning extended offshore cruising in mid-size sailing vessels. There are 75 line drawings and 32 lush color color pictures by Onne van der Wal. I would have loved to have seen a greater number of van der Wal's photographs. Perhaps the publisher will furnish more of them in the third edition.


Using Radar: A Practical Guide for the Small Craft (Sheridan House, $17.95) is a concise and accessible work. After covering Basic Principles and Installation, Rober Avis--an experienced sailor, powerboater, and self-confessed radar addict--discusses everything from screen orientation and collision avoidance to Blind Pilotage and Integration with other navigation aids. There are four appendices, a marvelous glossary, and serviceable black & white photographs. The illustrations and general layout of the book, however, are thoroughly commendable.