Once is Enough
"Unique among books of maritime adventure." - Times Literary Supplement "They are the first people ever to return alive to tell the story of a boat being somersaulted....And they certainly make fascinating company for a reader with his eyes on the heights of human endeavour." - Sunday Times Jonathan Raban, Series Editor, says this about The Sailor's Classics: "After nearly two hundred years, the literature of small-boat voyaging is enormous. It is the function of The Sailor's Classics to recognize and celebrate the small number of truly important books in this library. Some have been chosen because the voyages they describe are themselves of unignorable merit; some because the sheer brilliance of their writing demands their inclusion. Most combine in equal parts serious nautical interest with literary excellence. These are books whose vigor has not dimmed with the passage of time, whose voice is as alive and meaningful now as it was on their first publication - the books that should be essential reading for every literate sailor. It is from the interweaving of discovery, emotion, adventure, peril, and repose that the pattern of sailing literature is made, and we shall do our best to honor each and every one in our selection of the best books ever written about life aboard small boats at sea.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.