TRAVEL AND TOPOGRAPHY.
Sea-Tracks of the `Speejacks' Round the World. By Dale Collins. (Heinemann. 21s. net.)
Mr. Gowen celebrated his honeymoon in true American fashion. He set up a new record by being the first to go round the world in a motor-boat. Mr. Collins tells the story with, as the wrapper informs us, " all the zest of a schoolboy " ; and within. these limits he tells it very well. There are no half-measures in his treatment, no halts for contemplation or soliloquy in the manner of a Melville. From first to last the narrative stabs its way across the oceans of the world with all the explosive energy of the Speejacks" 250 h.-p. Winton engine. The epithets are large, vague and violent. " You felt like a crucified fly when you took the wheel," the elements shouted at you with colossal impudence, and the East fascinated with a tawdry tinsel. She may be a ' pretty lady,' this Singapore of the Seas, but she is unusual. She has wild, warm kisses and her throat is good to see. Her eyes hold real desire." Yet despite such crudities, inevitable perhaps to big business intent on a really romantic and large-scale cruise, this book should entertain a large audience. Its varied and world-wide matter compensate for its faults of style. Mr. Collins has crossed three oceans in a 98-foot cruiser of 64 tons, and although he lets us know it too often through a megaphone, we are impressed and do breathe a larger air.
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