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October 2011 www.sname.org/sname/mt (in review) REVIEWED BY BRUCE JOHNSON This book should not have been published without a review by a qualified naval architect. There are too many oversimplications and misrepresentations of basic naval architecture principles. In the preface, the author disparages Gillmers The Story of the Baltimore Clippers (see ref- erence list accompanying this review). He does not appear to understand the excellent sta- bility analysis contained in Parrotts Tall Ships Down . Nor does he seem to understand the dierences between replicas and reproductions, rendering pas- sages of the text irrelevant. Pride I was not a replica but a visual reproduction, with a Baltimore clipper hull form and sail plan, but with a diesel engine, stronger rigging, life rafts, and other enhancements. However, she retained several features that impaired her stability, including a lack of watertight compartments, low freeboard (to reduce the center of gravity of the deck-mounted can- nons), and an extended bowsprit (to carry sail with low center of eort but subject to severe wave loads making her dicult to hove to). e book rambles through too many anecdotes that are mostly unrelated to the sinking. Many of the gures are of poor quality and sometimes undecipherable. e authors sidebar concerning the concept of metacen- ter is an egregious misrepresentation of fact. ere are inconsistencies over the angle of heel at which ooding and capsizing began, and over the KG. Static righting arm curves are presented without stating the assumed KG. Further, the righting arm calculations are given for the hull alone. e top hamper of wooden upper masts, yards and studding sail booms, the use of which was criticized by Wilson and Long as contributing to the loss of Pride I , were generally used during all seasons deemed mostly moderate and fair by Prides skippers. e resulting increase in KG was partially oset by stor- ing the cannons below during ocean crossings. ese upper masts and yards actually provide tall ships with additional buoyant outriggers as the masts enter the water, preventing a knockdown beyond 90 degrees for vessels with wooden masts and yards. If the vessel is essentially watertight for longer than the duration of the wind gust, it is possible for some ves- sels to recover from a knockdown once the wind dies down, provided there is an adequate residual righting arm. A 90-degree tall ship knockdown generally results in entrained water in multiple sails. is means there would likely be insucient righting moment to right the rig and entrained water above the water surface even with an angle of vanishing stability of 98 degrees. us, a comment on her lack of resistance to capsize is not valid for a sudden dynamic knockdown to the water surface. It is generally agreed that downooding through the sub- merged oset port after hatch sank the vessel. For these reasons, I dispute the assumption that sat- isfying a particular stability criterion based on static equilibrium conditions should allow a vessel to survive a sudden knockdown in winds of 70-80 knots on the beam with any sails sheeted in far enough to produce more heeling moment than just bare poles. Nearly all criteria assume static equilibrium and ignore both damping and roll overshoot beyond the static equilibrium heel angle in a strong gust. is observation is based on wind-heel angle analysis of full-scale trials on Pride II .The authors discussion of whether microbursts (downbursts) occur at sea is irrelevant. Extreme weather phenomena do exist with extended wind velocities and duration beyond that of a typical wet or dry squall. Sailing vessel mariners should be taught about the appearance of such phenomena with visual data from satellite sources, horizontal radar sources, and photographs and videotapes of actual sightings, enabling them to take early preventative action when there is any potential of such threat. In sum, I cannot recommend this book. Interested readers would do better to select from the list of sources in the accompanying sidebar box. MTBruce Johnson, professor emeritus, U.S. Naval Academy, is a fellow of SNAME who has served as principal investigator in several SNAME T&R projects relating to stability of sailing craft. Epitaph for a Beautiful Ship By Evan Wilson PUBLISHED BY LULU.COM REFERENCES Chatterton, H. A. and Maxham, J. C., Sailing Vessel Stability-with Particular Reference to the Pride of Baltimore Casualty,? Marine Technology, April 1989. Davis, Andrew, A New Pride of Baltimore ? The Wooden Boat , September/October 1990 Gillmer, T., Pride of Baltimore: The Story of the Baltimore Clippers , International Marine, 1992. Johnson, B., Miles, J., Lasher, W. C., and Womack, J., Operator Guidance Based on Assessing the Wind- Heel Angle Relationship of Traditionally-Rigged Sailing Vessels?, SNAME 2009 Transactions .Parrott, D.S., Tall Ships Down, The Last Voyages of the Pamir, Albatross, Marques, Pride of Baltimore, and Maria Asumpta , McGraw Hill, 2004. Maritime Careers and Vessel Histories continued