by Lord Dufferin
Being Some Account of a Voyage in the
Schooner Yacht "Foam" to Iceland, Jan Mayen
and Spitzbergen in 1856.
Lord Dufferin has been a favourite of ours ever since we first read an account of his astounding little yawl, Lady Hermione. When he was Ambassador to Paris, he designed and had built a wonderful little 22 foot, single-handed cruising yawl which had some of the most modern (even for today) accoutrements to aid his single-handing: cross-linked winches; turning blocks; sheet stoppers, you name it, he had it. We like the Lady Hermione so much we have included a copy of that article from the Badminton Library collection which describes the boat in the back of this volume as an Appendix. But on to the ice! Lord Dufferin undertakes a voyage to the high latitudes, namely Greenland and Iceland and even much higher to the very high latitudes of Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen, on both of which points of ice-bound land he manages to effect a landing. This is a journal of quite courageous and daring sailing in very treacherous and difficult waters, and while daring, Lord Dufferin never abandons concern for his crew to recklessness and behaves as any responsible master would in these waters. In addition to a thrilling cruising story, Lord Dufferin's writing has the precision of a diamond, What was new to us was his wit; there are passages in this work that are simply hilarious! Lord Dufferin was later the Governor General of Canada and his name now graces the promenade in front of the Château Frontenac as the "Dufferin Promenade" in memory of the many walks he took there.
HOME PAGE
