These two books should have a wide success, their inspiration
being the sea, their workmanship "sea-kindly," as sailors say, for the uncertain element of public appreciation. What better reading for every day can young or old of this nation desire than good sea-books, full of wisdom and experience, honestly written as the 'sea alone can induce honesty ? Mr. Keble Chatterton's. discursive and gallant volume (one of a Library of Romance) should be read by boys. Anyone who thrilled to the recent Atlantic adventure of a French athlete will find good fare in the chapter "Sea Ravers of To-day in Small Sailing Craft." Captain David Bone calls his a "book of commercial steamship types" : of course, from such an authority it is this and far more. Its realism turns out to be more truly romantic than the other's matter-of-fact essays in sea-romance ; from the "lookoutman's " viewpoint he surveys all manner of craft, especially the wonderful modern developments of merchant shipping, and the style of his book is informed by the two senses of beauty and of seamanship, which give individual power to the bare appeal of his facts. The illustrations of H. Hudson Rodmell are finely exact. Both books have a lively chapter on the tramp steamer. Truly we are persuaded of the peculiar attitude of the sailor towards his vessel, the spirit of seafaring. Mr. Chatterton desires heartily a public school by the sea, to deal with sea-arts. The commander of the Tuscania ' says : " . . . one would be blind indeed to ignore the trend of seafaring. There were (in 1893) plenty of sailing ships, but it required no extreme of vision to see approaching the years when they would be only a memory." Surely the young should be aware of such matters as well as of 'commerce and imperialism.
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