Compendium Of

Maritime Trivia

Ever heard of a single masted schooner? How would you like to buy an adze or perhaps aVB marine steam engine? A marine equivalent to the best selling Whole Earth Catalog, the Mariner’s Catalog, edited by David R. Getchell, is one of the most enter taining collection of bits and pieces this writer has ever come across.

Crammed with tools, fittings and instruments, many of which most people thought never got past 1901. the catalog also contains tips and ideas, such as a recipe for tallow, how to cast ballast, lots of interesting books and where to get them, un usual boat plans and a plea for con tributions to make future editions more complete.

Modern tools and materials are by no means neglected, quite the con trary, but the book does stick mostly to the rare hard-to-get items. • Profusely illustrated (just like a real catalog with line drawings, photographs and lots of delightful little thumbnail sketches of odd or interesting rigs, they are all given the effect of etchings to maintain the “olde worlde” impression which is quite charming and easy to read. ® Professional fishermen will also find the Mariner’s Catalog infor mative and entertaining, with such subjects as winches and nets, well covered. © Engrossing reading even if you don’t own a boat (how about the address of a maker of scale models) 192 pages of information and a must on any bookshelf, for this first issue will certainly become a collector’s

item in years to come-

John Collins.

(The Mariner’S Catalog. $4 95

National Fisherman and International Marine Publishing, Camden, Maine, USA )