The Last of the Cape Horners: Firsthand Accounts From the Final Days of the Commercial Tall Ships

When we think of commercial sailing, most of us are apt to picture square-riggers as vessels of the nineteenth century or earlier. Yet the graceful, multi-masted beauties of our imaginations actually sailed on into the 1950s before they disappeared from the seas forever. Veteran sailor Spencer Apollonio has selected from little-known sources some of the best-written and most representative accounts of life aboard the last of these ships that sailed around the southern tip of South America --- the fabled "Cape Horners." Written by officers, crewmen, and passengers aboard American, British, and Finnish vessels, they provide a realistic picture of a maritime era the likes of which will not ever be seen again.