3 JULY 1936, Page 36

. ROUGH. PASSAGE

By Commander R. D. Graham

Rough Passage (Blackwood, 7s. 6d.) is Commander Graham's account of his recent voyage in the Emanuel ' from Fal- Mouth to Newfoundland, Labrador and Bermuda, and back. The ' Emanuel ' was a seven-ton yacht, thirty feet in overall length, with a beam of eight and a half feet. The outward Part of his voyage, which the author accomplished single- handed, won him the Royal Cruising Club challenge cup. For the return trip from Bermuda he had a companion. It was the first time the complete round trip of the Atlantic had been made iti a boat of this size. Commander Graham's book is, as one would expect, a simple, modest recital of facts, and though it is not overloaded with technicalities, it will take a yachtsman to appreciate fully the magnitude of the achievement. 'The author does nbt attempt to " write up" his story, and for this we should be thankful : there is no Shortage of tupenny-coloured travel-books. On the west- Ward crossing he enjoyed fair winds and good weather. But running southwards to Bermuda he met a storm which pro- duced waves between thirty_ and forty feet high and about five hundred feet long. The boom was smashed and gear damaged, but he learnt some valuable • lesions in the art of sailing a small boat in heavy seas, and he pasies these lessons on in an appendix. Another useful appendix contains a com- plete list of stores and equipment, with instructions for packing. In these days when the Atlantic is becoming- a -race-track for inereasingly-law.liziers; it is good 1.0 read hitiw records are also being made at the other end of the scale.