Set of the Sails, The by Villiers, Alan - 1973

London: Pan Books Ltd, 1973. Light Creasing on Front, Rear Covers, Spine; Front, Rear Covers, Spin Lightly Chipped; Moderate Yellowing Due to Age. Illustrated. SUB-TITLE: The Adventures of a Cape Horn Seaman. CONTENTS: 1 Early Days 2 Looking for a Ship 3 The Rothesay Bay 4 Over the Tasman Sea 5 "The Set of the Sails!" 6 A Move For'ard 7 Lime-Juice Voyage 8 On the Beach 9 The Pleasant Lawhill 10 For-and-After Interlude 11 A Tasmanian Newspaper Office 12 To the Antarctic for Whales 13 Could I Write a Book? 14 Falmouth for Orders 15 By Way of Cape Horn 16 The Parma Venture 17 My Own Full-rigged Ship 18 A Place for Sail. SYNOPSIS: The autobiography of a great seaman, a grand book by an enthusiast for the glory of the old sailing-ship, full of dramatic tension and the thrill of combat with the wind and waves. Born in Melbourne in 1903, Alan Villiers went to sea in a square rigged ship, the barque Rothesay Bay, shortly after the end of World War I, intending to follow a career in the Merchant Navy. Service in another barque, two four-masted barques and the schooner Hawk followed. In 1923 he joined the pioneer modern pelagic whaling expedition into the Ross Sea from Sandefjord, Norway. This led to a request from an American publisher to write a book on that little-known subject, and this began his writing career. Returning to Cape Horn Sail in the four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie for her race with the Swedish Beatrice from South Australia to Falmouth in 1928, he worked as A.B. in the Finnish ship and wrote a book called Falmouth for Orders in watches below. In 1934 he bought the old Danish school-ship, then named George Stage, renamed it the Joseph Conrad, and sailed it 57,000 miles round the world. He has since sailed from Arabia, with the Portuguese fishermen to Greenland waters, with the Maldivians, always recording. He sailed the new Mayflower to America in 1957, and the film ships for Peter Ustinov's Billy Budd and George Roy Hill's Hawaii, among others. He lives now in Oxford and has a punt on the Cherwell. His books include By Way of cape Horn, The Way of a Ship, The War with Cape Horn, and Cruise of the "Conrad".. First Thus 3rd (Re-set) Printing. Mass Market Paperback. Very Good. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall.