Preface


The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines seamanship as, ‘Skill in the art of working a ship or boat’. Taken literally, this could mean absolutely everything nautical, including navigation, communications, chipping rust, and rigging a Nelsonian frigate for church on a trade- wind Sunday morning. Any manual of seamanship would therefore run to so many volumes that stowing it aboard a small vessel could create major trim problems. Fortunately, the dictionary’s categorisation represents a landsman’s simplified impression. Sailors view the matter differently. How many times have we heard remarks such as, ‘Old Baines is a fine seaman but he can’t navigate to save his life,’ or, ‘Tosher’s great with a paint brush but he’s a shocking seaman.’ These throw-away comments offer an insight, even if only by default, but it does seem that salt-water people don’t consider navigational skills to be an essential part of the seaman’s makeup. However, dealing with rope and rigging, the sailor’s primary tools, would surely ride high on any list. Other aspects of ship’s husbandry might also figure, but the ability to paint a yacht to a mirror finish probably wouldn’t. An arbitrary distinction, you might think; but is it?


The 1932 edition of The Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, Volume 1 shamelessly shirks any attempt to define its subject. Instead, the writer wades straight in with an exposition of how to sling a hammock, then goes on with a clear diagram of how 1st and 2nd class boys should lay out their kit for inspection. Such issues were critical to the success of any naval rating of those days, and were thus very much part of seamanship. The book’s chapters on traditional knotting are timeless and have yet to be beaten, but much of the contents of its three volumes remain less than relevant to non-military small- craft operators in the 21st century.


Much closer to the mark is Admiral Smyth’s definition of 1867. ‘The noble practical art of rigging and working a ship, and performing with effect all her various evolutions at sea.’ This description can be readily brought up to date by including under ‘rigging’ all the machinery and necessary adjuncts to it that make up the modern vessel.


6 | MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP


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