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)
