"This is a very fine coffee table book for boaters' homes or salons that takes up little space (9 in x 8.5 in).  There are 33 stories about sail boats and three stories about imaginary boats.  Huckleberry Finns' raft and Robinson Crusoe's carved log are examples of imaginary boats. Each boat is described on four pages.  Page 1 is a top view, page 2 is a beautifully detailed full page water color by Peter Scott, and the last 2 pages tell Nic Compton's story of the boat's adventures including maps showing the routes travelled .  If there is a fault to this book it is the stories are too short. As you read one, you want to know more.

  Fortunately Nic has references in the stories which you can google to learn more.  The introduction is interesting as it deals with why Nic didn't call these boats "classic" or "historic" but rather "notable" . The Oxford English Reference Dictionary says that notable means "worthy of note; striking, remarkable, or eminent.  Nic chose to write about boats and not ships. There are no stories about cruise ships, or celebrity yachts.  Nic points out, "Most yacht owner have never made any journeys worth writing about". The smallest boat is "Said" an 11 ft 10 in engineless boat that sailed around the world from 1999 to 2003. The largest is the 143 ft Bluenose, a Grand Banks fishing and racing schooner built in 1921 that appears to this day in miniature on the 10 cent Canadian coin.

The oldest boat is Casanova's 1757 Venice gondola with the newest an 18 ft 1978 Druscombe Lugger that sailed almost around the world."   --Bob Duthie, CEO/Founder, Duthie Learning - Bob & Mavis Duthie's Adventures: On The Water.