Coasting Barge Master

This book is about the Thames sailing barges with their typical sprit-sail rig, which are the last survivors of the coastal wind-driven trading ships, and still hold their own against power vessels in the Estuary trade along the coast from Norfolk to Dorset and beyond. They have bred a race of hardy sailormen with the art and watchfulness acquired by experience in handling a ship under sail in tidal waters and off the coast in heavy gales.