Captain Amasa Delano, "Narrative of Voyages and Travels" (1817). Another of the rare human documents of blue water. It describes the most adventurous period of activity, a century ago.
Captain Arthur H. Clark, "The Clipper Ship Era" (1910). A thrilling, spray-swept, true story. Far and away the best account of the clipper, by a man who was an officer of one in his youth.
Robert Bennet Forbes, "Notes on Ships of the Past" (1888). Random facts and memories of a famous Boston ship-owner. It is valuable for its records of noteworthy passages.
Captain John D. Whidden, "Ocean Life in the Old Sailing Ship Days" (1908). The entertaining reminiscences of a veteran shipmaster.
Captain A. W. Nelson, "Yankee Swanson: Chapters from a Life at Sea" (1913). Another of the true romances, recommended for a lively sense of humor and a faithful portrayal of life aboard a windjammer.
There are many other personal narratives, some of them privately printed and very old, which may be found in the libraries. Typical of them is "A Journal of the Travels and Sufferings of Daniel Saunders" (1794), in which a young sailor relates his adventures after shipwreck on the coast of Arabia.
Among general works the following are valuable:
J. Grey Jewell, "Among Our Sailors" (1874). A plea for more humane treatment of American seamen, with many instances on shocking brutalities as reported to the author, who was a United States Consul.
E. Keble Chatterton, "Sailing Ships: The Story of their Development" (1909). An elaborate history of the development of the sailing vessel from the earliest times to the modern steel clipper.
W. S. Lindsay, "History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce," 4 vols. (1874-76). An English work, notably fair to the American marine, and considered authoritative.