Looking for a ship
(Book)

McPhee joined a friend, merchant mariner Andy Chase, on a 42-day voyage from Charleston, S.C., through the Panama Canal, down the Pacific coast of South America. A gem of a book, this leisurely, unpretentious log is a paean to the United States Merchant Marine, a declining institution battered by international competition and lowered cargo rates. The ship's New England captain ``couldn't find his way around a traffic circle'' but manages to outmaneuver a tropical storm. Porpoises and albatrosses accompany the SS Stella Lykes on a cruise laden with much talk of stowaways, collisions and cocaine smuggling, of pirates both legendary and contemporary (the modern variety carry bolt-cutters and walkie-talkies). McPhee's ( The Control of Nature ) clean, lean prose displays his sharp eye for telling detail and arresting incident. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Known for his books on natural history, such as The Control of Nature (LJ 4/1/89), Basin and Range (LJ 4/1/81), etc., McPhee brings his considerable storytelling ability to bear on the plight of the U.S. merchant marine. Accompanying Second Mate Andy Chase on a 42-day run down the west coast of South America aboard the S.S. Stella Lykes , McPhee provides the reader with stories and tales of modern seafaring life and the problems of making a living as a merchant mariner. This book is both an engrossing tale of the sea, with excellent detail and humanity, and a disturbing portrait of the merchant marine--a once-great American institution that made its presence known around the world. Highly recommended for public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/90.-- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

McPhee embarks on a cargo ship to South America, scouting the endangered life of the American Merchant Marine. The masterful essayist (most recently The Control of Nature, 1989, and Rising From the Plains, 1986) follows Andy Chase, second mate, onto the merchant ship Stella Lykes. Andy is among the oversupply of mostly aging sailors forced to spend too much time ""looking for a ship."" From Charleston to Valparaiso, Cartagena, and Callao, these men sail, picking up and unloading cargo by the ton--here, including mattresses, methane, a fire engine, and starving horses. McPhee's sculptured prose sets us out on the water. ""The momentum of more than forty thousand tons,"" he writes, ""is as absolute as the darkness."" Into the time-suspended pace of ship life--the meals, the watches--he intercuts geology, history, and navigation, letting 1835 Darwin evoke Chile today. At sea, tension abounds, not simply in the chance of storms (where walls of water can sever a ship), collisions, and pirates (who board the ship at Guayaquil), but in the ""ulcerated mst"" eating away the aging hull. Once ""No. 1 in the world in total ships,"" with over 2,000, the US Merchant Marine now has fewer than 400. Weighed down by taxes, insurance, and wages, American carriers can't compete with often-subsidized foreigners. (The Russians carry 50 times as much freight.) This loss we feel, watching the command of captain Paul McHenry Washburn, 65, who navigates by dead reckoning and docks a ship the length of Rockefeller Center ""as if he were closing a drawer."" The romance of the Andes back-lighted from the water; the reality of stowaways, 150-degree engine-room heat, and a ship dead in the water--like the Merchant Marine itself: these McPhee captures. This classic sea story, previously published in The New Yorker, also asks why America responds in slow motion to global conditions. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Known for his books on natural history, such as The Control of Nature (LJ 4/1/89), Basin and Range (LJ 4/1/81), etc., McPhee brings his considerable storytelling ability to bear on the plight of the U.S. merchant marine. Accompanying Second Mate Andy Chase on a 42-day run down the west coast of South America aboard the S.S. Stella Lykes , McPhee provides the reader with stories and tales of modern seafaring life and the problems of making a living as a merchant mariner. This book is both an engrossing tale of the sea, with excellent detail and humanity, and a disturbing portrait of the merchant marine--a once-great American institution that made its presence known around the world. Highly recommended for public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/90.-- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa. Copyright 1990 Cahners Business Information.

McPhee joined a friend, merchant mariner Andy Chase, on a 42-day voyage from Charleston, S.C., through the Panama Canal, down the Pacific coast of South America. A gem of a book, this leisurely, unpretentious log is a paean to the United States Merchant Marine, a declining institution battered by international competition and lowered cargo rates. The ship's New England captain ``couldn't find his way around a traffic circle'' but manages to outmaneuver a tropical storm. Porpoises and albatrosses accompany the SS Stella Lykes on a cruise laden with much talk of stowaways, collisions and cocaine smuggling, of pirates both legendary and contemporary (the modern variety carry bolt-cutters and walkie-talkies). McPhee's ( The Control of Nature ) clean, lean prose displays his sharp eye for telling detail and arresting incident. (Sept.) Copyright 1990 Cahners Business Information.