WHALE PORT

Sea Classics, Apr 2008 by Redman, Rod

WHALE PORT By Mark Foster/Illustrated by Gerald Foster 68 Pgs, Fully illustrated in color, 9-in x 11-in, Hardback. ISBN: 978-0-618-54722-7 - $18.00. Houghton-Mifflin Co., Boston, MA; www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

Although clearly intended as a children's book there is so little history available today about America's whaling industry that we felt this book should be brought to our reader's attention as it is also an excellent gift item for young, or old. The authors, both professional historians, are a father and son team who have long shared a fascination with whales and whaling. By combining their talents into a compelling easy-to-read style about Tuckanucket, a fictional 19th Century whaling village, they manage to cleverly recreate an absorbing story about men, ships and society in a time in history when whale oil was the buzz word of an entire era of seafaring. Discussing every facet of life at sea and in port from rowdy sailors' taverns to the functionings of rigger's lofts and the intricacies of re-sheathing a whaler's hull, this compelling glimpse into a bygone era is at once entertaining, enlightening and informative, a rare treat indeed. A fun story well told, all of Whale Port's fiction is underwritten by the honesty of the research incorporated into its conception.