All Sail Set, A Romance of the "Flying Cloud" by Armstrong Sperry

All Sail Set, A Romance of the “Flying Cloud” written and illustrated by Armstrong Sperry, introduction by William McFee. Published by John O. Winston Company, c. 1935, 171 pages. Upper elementary reading level.

Best known for his book Call It Courage, American writer Armstrong Sperry wrote many biographical and historical fiction books especially for boys. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1897, the same year as my grandfather! Sperry received his art training at Yale, and then was drafted into the U.S. Navy toward the end of World War I. During his boyhood, he had read and enjoyed the works of Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London, so after the war he traveled extensively in the South Pacific. These experiences definitely influenced his writings. In the late 1920s, after his marriage, he illustrated for advertising, including Campbell’s soup. He illustrated the dust jacket for the first edition of Tarzan and the Lost Empires by Burroughs.

Sperry’s great-grandfather was a sea captain and undoubtedly passed on his love for the sea and stories of sea travel. Armstrong wrote All Sail Set and it won the Newbery Medal in 1936. After this he lived in the Southwest for a time and was inspired to write several novels about that area. His earlier travels in the South Pacific set the stage for his Newbery Medal winner Call It Courage in 1940.  This was the story of a young boy on a Polynesian island who had been branded a coward because of his fear of the sea, even though his name is Stout Heart. He goes out alone on his canoe, faces storms, stays on a deserted island, and eventually returns home. When accepting the medal for this book, Sperry said, "I had been afraid that perhaps in Call It Courage, the concept of spiritual courage might be too adult for children, but the reception of this book has reaffirmed a belief I have long held: that children have imagination enough to grasp any idea, and respond to it, if it is put to them honestly and without a patronizing pat on the head."

Armstrong Sperry died in 1976. Some of his books, both fiction and nonfiction, include:

Call It Courage

All Sail Set

Wagons Westward

John Paul Jones: The Pirate Patriot

Storm Canvas

The Rain Forest

Little Eagle: A Navajo Boy

Frozen Fire: A Story of the Amazon Jungle

Coconut: The Wonder Tree

The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, a Landmark book

The Amazon: River Sea of Brazil, a Rivers of the World book

Hull-Down for Action

Captain Cook Explores the South Seas, a World Landmark book

River of the West: The Story of the Boston Men, a Winston Adventure book

Black Falcon

All about the Jungle, an Allabout book

All about the Arctic and Antarctic, an Allabout book

All about Captain Cook, an Allabout book

Lost Lagoon

The Boy Who Was Afraid

One Day with Tuktu, an Eskimo Boy

One Day with Manu

One Day with Jambi in Sumatra

Thunder Country

Understanding Egypt

Great River, Wide Land: The Rio Grande Through History

Danger to Windward, about Nantucket Whaling

South of Cape Horn: a Saga of Nat Palmer and Early Antarctic Exploration

He illustrated The Story of Hiawatha by Chaffee, Thunderbolt House by Pease, and Boat Builder by Judson, among many others

This book, All Sail Set, is a story told by Enoch Thacher in his old age, of his adventures on the Flying Cloud, the very fast clipper ship built by the famous Donald McKay in the early 1850s. The introduction to the book, written by William McFee, sets the stage to this exciting tale of drama on the high seas.

“The maritime history of New England in the first part of the nineteenth century has certain features not found elsewhere in the world. A stormy, difficult coast; a hardy race of men, who were also born traders; an almost unlimited supply of oak and pine suitable for shipbuilding, and a network of manufacturing centers – all these combined to produce a shipping community second to none. It is not enough to have ships coming into harbor and merchants with cargoes to consign. True maritime prosperity arises when men take naturally, without immediate thought of money making, to ship and shipbuilding, when whole families are so saturated with seafaring thoughts that it becomes the natural way of life for boys to adopt, and the girls accept as part of their existence the absence of their husbands and sweethearts for long voyages.”

This is the environment in which Enoch Thacher grows up. At the age of 15, he signs on with the first voyage of the Flying Cloud, after helping Donald McKay work on its design. The story of this voyage and its record-breaking speed is told in a manner that makes it believable, without being over-sensational.  Thacher learns courage, faces an enemy on board, and earns respect as the story proceeds. The adventures of the crew sailing around the southern tip of South America and on to San Francisco do not follow the typical exaggeration and stereo-typing of other books about the sea. It’s easy to see how Sperry’s travels caused his writings to “ring true.” The book includes a lot of black-line illustrations done by Sperry, including informational diagrams of the clipper ship. There is also a Nautical Glossary, “a first aid for the landlubber” at the back of the book. I highly recommend this book for ages 9 to 12, especially for boys.

Recommended additional books/resources to aid your studies:

America Travels by Alice Dalgliesh

Clipper Ship Days by John Jennings, a Landmark book

When Clipper Ships Ruled the Seas by James McCague, How They Lived series

Meet the Men Who Sailed the Seas by John Dyment, a Step-Up book

Clipper Ships and Captains by Jane Lyon, an American Heritage book

Clipper and Whaling Ships by Tim McNeese

Seabird by Holling Clancy Holling

The Story of the Clipper Ships by R. Conrad Stein, a Cornerstones of Freedom book

South of Cape Horn: a Saga of Nat Palmer and Early Antarctic Exploration by Armstrong Sperry

Full Hold and Splendid Passage: America Goes to Sea 1815-1860 by Bill Bonyun

Voyage of the Javelin by Stephen Meader

Clipper Ship by Thomas Lewis, an I Can Read History book

Bluewater Journal by Loretta Krapinski

Yankee Clippers: The Story of Donald McKay by Clara Ingram Judson

Donald McKay and the Clipper Ships by Mary Ellen Chase, a North Star book

The True Adventures of Daniel Hall by Diane Stanley

Whaling Days by Carol Carrick

Harvest of the Sea by Walter Buehr

The Story of the New England Whalers by R. Conrad Stein, a Cornerstones of Freedom book

When Nantucket Men Went Whaling by Enid Meadowcroft, a How They Lived book

Whaler ‘Round the Horn by Stephen Meader

American Practical Navigator by Nathaniel Bowditch

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

Down to the Sea: A Young Peoples’ Life of Nathaniel Bowditch, the Great Navigator by Louise Hall Tharp

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

The Voyager’s Stone by Robert Kraske, about sea currents

Trail Blazer of the Seas by Jean Lee Latham, about Matthew Maury and his story of sea currents

Wandering Albatross (Birds of Antarctica) by Jennifer Dewey

Albert the Albatross by Syd Hoff, An Early I Can Read book

Tierra del Fuego: A Journey to the End of the Earth by Peter Lourie

San Francisco by Jean Fritz

Plants That Changed History by Joan Elma Rahn

The Money Trees, the Spice Trade by George Massalman

(Book review by Sandy Hall. All rights reserved. August 26, 2017)