If you're interested in traditional sail or the lives of people who worked around the Essex coast over the last 200 years, then you might like to check out the authors below.

Most of these books (all of which have become 'classics' or definitive works in their field of interest) should be available through local public libraries, and many can still be found in new and secondhand bookshops.

Many thanks to David Gunton who did the research.

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Maurice Griffiths
The Magic of the Swatchways - the author's remeniscences of sailing in the Thames Estuary.
Swatchways and Little Ships
First of the Tide
Round the Cabin Table

Michael Frost
Boadicea - the story of an east coast fishing smack.
Half a Gale - more voyages in Boadicea.

John Leather
The Salty Shore - based on the River Blackwater smacks and bawleys - detailed account of the fishing craft of the Thames Estuary.
The Northseamen
The Sailor's Coast

Harvey Benham
The Last Stronghold of Sail
The Stowboaters - accounts of a particular type of fishing in the creeks of Essex.
The Salvagers - those who sailed in risky conditions to save life and property.
Down Tops'l

Dick Durham
The last Sailorman - a biography of Bob Roberts, barge skipper.
On and Offshore

Bob Roberts
Coasting Bargemaster
Last of the Sailormen

Michael Emmett
Blackwater Men
Blackwater Living

Andrew White
Tideways and Byways in Essex and Suffolk

Frank Carr
Sailing Barges

Edgar J March
Spritsail Barges of the Thames and Medway

Denis J Davis
The Thames Sailing Barge: her Gear and Rigging - account based on a details obtained from several specific barges, including Memory.

 

Updated 10.10.2002