Looking for a Ship

Rating:
Summary: Disorganized, lacking in story, direction
Review: McPhee joins a merchant marine as he tries to find a ship to work on - hence the title - then journeys with him as the boat does its work. I picked this book up because I've read other books by McPhee that make subjects that I would normally not even think about fascinating. This book was no exception. For readers who have read his geology series (compiled into Anals of the Former World) and found it a bit too technical and dry, this book will be a refreshing change. I never would have thought I'd be interested in this subject, but McPhee made it interesting.

Rating:
Summary: McPhee is amazing
Review: McPhee joins a merchant marine as he tries to find a ship to work on - hence the title - then journeys with him as the boat does its work. I picked this book up because I've read other books by McPhee that make subjects that I would normally not even think about fascinating. This book was no exception. For readers who have read his geology series (compiled into Anals of the Former World) and found it a bit too technical and dry, this book will be a refreshing change. I never would have thought I'd be interested in this subject, but McPhee made it interesting.

Rating:
Summary: True to life? Yep.
Review: One of the characters in this book, Capt. Paul Washburn, captained the Genevieve Lykes several years before taking the Stella. My father also skippered the Genevieve, and knows most of the officers portrayed in this book. The stories he tells of characters like Dirty Shirt George Price, and of incidents at sea and in port--for instance, standing off pirates (in Vietnam) with fire hoses--mesh perfectly with McPhee's account. Anyone who is interested in the actual American Merchant Marine, rather than a romantic preconception, should read this book, and carefully. But paying careful attention to John McPhee is no more difficult than paying careful attention to a bottle of Dom Perignon.

Rating:
Summary: Gives a look at the world of the professional mariner
Review: This book gives a clear look at the merchant shipping industry from the perspective of the modern day merchant mariner. This world is very obscure to the public at large, especially to those of us living inland, and this book gives us an up close look. The book is also useful in pointing out what has happened to what was once a strong U.S. industry.

Rating:
Summary: Gives a look at the world of the professional mariner
Review: This book gives a clear look at the merchant shipping industry from the perspective of the modern day merchant mariner. This world is very obscure to the public at large, especially to those of us living inland, and this book gives us an up close look. The book is also useful in pointing out what has happened to what was once a strong U.S. industry.

Rating:
Summary: Disorganized, lacking in story, direction
Review: This is a very poorly written book. There is no coherence to it, no direction, no real point.