All Sail Set: A Romance of the Flying Cloud

by Armstrong Sperry

Book Overview

An exciting, fact-based, old-fashioned tale of adventure at sea, winner of a Newbery Honor for young readers in 1936.

When his father loses his fortune at sea, a boy, Enoch Thacher, signs up with a famous shipbuilder and takes a record-breaking trip around Cape Horn on the famous Flying Cloud.

The Flying Cloud was a real ship and its maker was master shipbuilder, Donald McKay (1810-1880). The era depicted in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879235233
• ISBN13: 9780879235239
• Release Date: February 1995
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.67 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.8" x 8.9"
• Age Range: 9 to 14 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 9

Customer Reviews

All Sail Set

This is a book by Armstrong Sperry I read as a small boy. Now I give Armstrong Sperry books to my grandsons when they are between the ages of 10 and 14. The books are about boys of this age and the adventures are credible. Boys who are reluctant to read will like these books.

A Ripping Yarn

Though he writes for younger readers, Sperry has an unmatched gift for writing adventure tales. This reissue is an essential of its genre and takes you in a clipper ship around the Horn to California. Of all the sea stories I've read--Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin--this little work actually managed to explain more sailing terminology than 21 volumes of the O'Brien series. And the author's superb woodcuts fit the story perfectly. What sets this story apart is its ability to convey the adventure of going to sea, the wonder of the open ocean, of exploring remote places seldom visited by man. For this deskbound reviewer who is hardpressed to get off to Catalina Island for a weekend, this tale of taking a clipper ship around the Horn earned a privileged place in the library. This book would make a welcome gift to any young person who is beginning to realize that the world is a large and interesting place and teaches an excellent lesson about how a blend of hard work, study and self-confidence can help one through just about any challenge.