The Twwilight of Sail

Description

The Twilight of Sail is a magnificent celebration in pictures of the full-rigged ocean flyers of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Over 120 black and white photographs are included, many of them never before published, to provide a vivid evocation of the atmosphere of life at sea; the splendour of the ocean clippers as they sliced their way through the waves, sales billowing; the hazards and spartan conditions of life on board; the bustling activity in the ports and docks; and the bleak fate of a grounded ship, floundering amidst the waves.

First Sentence

For the traveller at the beginning of the nineteenth century an ocean passage basically meant very much what it had meant to travellers 3,000 years before: weeks or months of deprivation and hardship with the likelihood of death from shipwreck, foundering or disease.

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