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  • To Harness the Wind: A Short History of the Development of Sails
  • David McGee (bio)
To Harness the Wind: A Short History of the Development of Sails. By Leo Block. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003. Pp. xv+164. $24.95.

This book accurately calls it itself a short history. In fact, the historical review is even shorter than one might think, taking up only one half of the book's 134 pages of text, while the second half contains an assortment of articles on such topics as points of sailing, weatherliness, sail adjustments, schooners, and clipper ships. Also accurate is the dust-jacket copy, which suggests that this book was written in laymen's terms for readers who know very little about the history of sailing vessels, and also for yachtsmen who might want to know a bit more about how their own rigs evolved.

The author, Leo Block, is a retired navy engineer who has written many articles for sailing magazines, and his book is written at about the level of a magazine article. In other words, this is not the kind of scholarly reference tool on which professional historians of technology might rely. There are too many simple citations to the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea for that. The historical half of the book recounts the standard story of the marriage of Atlantic and Mediterranean ship and sail technologies, resulting in the development of the full-rigged ship as the key technology of the Age of Discovery. Even in this abbreviated account there is a certain amount of repetition and extraneous material (for example, a minihistory of the Punic Wars).

It must be said, however, that Block does a good job throughout the book of finding an explanatory balance between normal language and the often bewildering but necessary terminology of sails and rigging. In this regard, the 192 illustrations are especially praiseworthy. Most of the drawings are outstanding for their clarity, very much helping the nonexpert to understand frequently confusing aspects of sails and rigs. A glossary helps the reader understand both the text and the diagrams. [End Page 245]

Perhaps one way to judge this book is to ask what a lay person might want in a "short history." For example, he or she might want a series of citations or a bibliography that leads to further reading. Although this book does contain endnotes and a brief bibliography, both are disappointing.

On the other hand, if someone wants to become roughly familiar with major developments in the history of sailing rigs, and learn a bit of nautical terminology, all in a single evening, then here is a book for the job.

David McGee

Dr. McGee is research associate and head of secondary acquisitions at the Burndy Library of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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