[.ca] The Making of a Sailor / or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee ... (ISBN 0486256138)

A wonderful story of life at sea:
This is the best description of the hard life of an American sailor in the 1870s. Harlow, from New England, describes his first coastal voyage on a schooner, down the coast and up the Chesapeake and the Potomac. Then he tells of his long voyage to Australia on a square rigger. The book is fascinating and easy to read even if you don't fully understand all the nautical terms. It is well documented with sea chanteys, pictures and explanatory footnotes.