Clippers - The Ships That Shaped The World - D J Nolan - HB

This book was first published in Ireland in 2011 and is incredible. If you are a passionate student of Clipper Ships you no doubt have read all the classic works which have covered the subject so thoroughly. It is just wonderful that this author has researched and presented this wealth of information in a MODERN book. It is over 400 pages and is about the most detailed and wide-ranging as far as the subject matter at hand. It covers MUCH more than the "Clipper Ship". For example, when the author discusses Cape Horn, he gives you 35 densely typed pages in three chapters, starting with the first white men to come upon it. VERY detailed and thorough. It made me wonder where he found all this information. I've never heard or seen accounts such as these, and I have been reading about ships and their history for over 50 years. This book is not just about the California Gold Rush era, it covers much much more, taking you all the way into the 20th century. He even has a chapter near the end recounting the tragic loss of the last remaining sailing ships to German U-Boats during WW1, followed by a chapter on the remaining museum ships of the world. Here again, the fact that this is a recent book allows you to see up-to-date the ships that survive. All in all, an excellent book, one that will give you an enormous amount of new knowledge. Amazon Review

Hardback from 2011. Small wrinkling to bottom of dustjacket.