SEAMANSHIP FOR YACHTSMEN. By Francis B. Cooke. (Edward Arnold. 12s.
ad. not.) Mr. Francis B. Cooke has written most of this book before, and yet he has near written it so well. After all, there is not much new that anybody can say about the principles of handling a yacht. All that authors can be expected to do in a new book is to improve a little upon their former exposition, and to express old things in new ways, so that learners who were still in doubt about some problems may be enlightened finally. All this Mr. Cooke has done, and his new book is thus justified. His chapter on the rule of the road is specially good, and we advise those who are still without complete confidence in their judgment as to when to hold their course and when to give way to read this chapter. The book provides a novice with all the theory that is necessary for putting to sea as his own skipper in a coastal cruise. The rest is practice. There is no end to learning; a yacht is always ready to make a fool of you. The yachtsman who is not content to be sailed about by somebody else, as though he had hired a taxi, has to learn by adversity—which is both curiously bitter and curiously sweet.
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