Today people volunteering to save part of our heritage is accepted and you often find restored sailing vessels. As far back as December 1954 the famous clipper Cutty Sark was being put into dry dock at Greenwich. A Ship's Tale is the fictional story of an earlier attempt, in the immediate aftermath of WWII, to save the barque Bonnie Clyde from officialdom who wish to scuttle it.
The book follows the story of a disparate group of people who firstly come together to obtain everything neccessary to make her seaworthy again and then set off on an epic voyage to a new port where she can be preserved. With the press interested in the story, the police and Admiralty tasked with stopping them and the weather being far from co-operative it is not an easy journey.
This novel has very strong charecterisations and you are soon eagerly following their efforts and hoping they will succeed. Or will some of the illegal things they have done have dire consequences? It's a real page turner as you wait to find out.
At the same time descriptions of shipboard life and the rigours of being at sea in the age of sail were very good and you really felt you were at sea with them. The authors overall style reminded me of some of the Alistair Maclean books I have read.
If you are a lover of age of sail nautical fiction A Ship's Tale is definitely to be recommended.
Description of: A Ship's Tale
Author: N. Jay Young
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