Farrar Straus Giroux, NY, 1990. First Edition. NEW copy. Hardcover with dust jacket. Engravings, 242 pages. “An extraordinary tale of life aboard what may be one of the last American merchant ships.”.

From Publishers Weekly: "McPhee joined a friend, merchant mariner Andy Chase, on a 42-day voyage from Charleston, S.C., through the Panama Canal, down the Pacific coast of South America. A gem of a book, this leisurely, unpretentious log is a paean to the United States Merchant Marine, a declining institution battered by international competition and lowered cargo rates. The ship's New England captain "couldn't find his way around a traffic circle" but manages to outmaneuver a tropical storm. Porpoises and albatrosses accompany the SS Stella Lykes on a cruise laden with much talk of stowaways, collisions and cocaine smuggling, of pirates both legendary and contemporary (the modern variety carry bolt-cutters and walkie-talkies). McPhee's clean, lean prose displays his sharp eye for telling detail and arresting incident."

$20.00