24 APRIL 1959, Page 29

In Deep. By Frank Baines. (Eyre and Spottis- woode, 21s.)

To sea under sail. Sometimes the author writes amateurishly (`the lambent air was as pellucid as treacle'), but often he captures with considerable effect the wonder and excitement of a lad's first voyage, twenty years or so ago, in a four-masted barque from London to Australia. The five-page account of his first long climb to the upper top-gallant yard is the freshest pos- sible writing on a far from fresh subject. From the arrival at Millwall Dock by taxi to the knife and knuckleduster free-for-all of Finns, Germans, Swedes and Australians on the jetties of Wallaroo, this is a roaring, rowdy recapture of a boy's joy in hardship and danger.