A Voyage to the Caribbees
by William Agnew Paton
with illustrations by M.J. Burns
This is not cruising under sail, it's cruising on a small steamship in the 1880's. A little like Tomlinson's The Sea and the Jungle, in that it is a cruise which starts on a whim and ends by understanding, and portraying, through superb writing, the history and culture of an area. In this case, instead of the Amazon, it's the Windward Islands and the Lesser Antilles. From Sombrero to Trinidad, Paton carries us along on a tour de force of an understanding of an entire region. He has the unique ability to combine, in a single paragraph, limpid prose about the view, and useful data about the history and topology of what appears before him. He also has one advantage over Tomlinson in that he has the illustrations of Burns, which are nothing short of superb. His pen and ink drawings (which would be considered very fine today and are not the least dated) are accompanied by a number of full-page paintings, but it is the ink sketches which really capture the moment. The typography of this 1887 edition is also extremely sophisticated. Even the illustrated first paragraph initials are wonderful, (illustrated by Burns of course), and the head and tailpieces are also lovely. We have of course reproduced all of these in their entirety. If you plan a cruise to this area at any time in the future, you owe it to yourself to acquire this title. Cruisers can come to little harm if they have some knowledge of the area in which they cruise, and this includes the history of the culture as well as the light lists and pilots. In fact, a little knowledge here, instead of being a "dangerous thing" can well be a passport to new friends and warm new experiences. First published in 1887.
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