H. W. Tilman: Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books

By H.W. Tilman

H. W. Tilman -- mountaineer, sailor and one of the great explorers of this century -- was a prolific and stylish writer. His mountain activities are recorded in H. W. Tilman: The Seven Mountain-Travel Books , an earlier omnibus, and this companion volume deals with his equally enthralling sailing adventures. When he bought the pilot cutter "Mischief" in 1954, it was not with the intention of retiring from mountaineering, but to use the sea for access to remote mountains in high latitudes. Over the next twenty-two years "Mischief" and her successors saw regular service in distant waters, and their owner developed a whole new technique and tradition of amphibious mountaineering. His seafaring technique, like that of his mountaineering, was based on simplicity, using well-tried methods and navigational equipment that was essentially the same as that used by James Cook. He maintained that the only worthwhile innovations made in small ships in the last hundred years were the Diesel engine and Terylene rope. His seamanship was characterized by the same intelligence, cool judgment and masterly skill that had made his mountaineering exploits famous. He became an excellent navigator, with an approach more like that of a merchant sailing ship's master than a modern racing yachtsman's. The object was to arrive, not to win a race, and his ships and crews were carefully nursed through severe conditions without strain or fuss. The eight books collected haere are humorous, learned, devastatingly candid, and packed with information. They recount voyages to the Southern Oceans where he visited Patagonia, the Crozets, Kerguelen, Heard Island and the South Shetlands. No less important were his many trips to Greenland as well as forays to Sptizbergen, Baffin Island and other areas above the Arctic Circle. The mountaineering highlights of his seafaring career were the crossing of the Patagonian ice cap, the crossing of Bylot Island, and the ascent of Big Ben on Heard Island, where although Tilman was not in the summit party, he contributed more than any of them to the success of the expedition. Not all of his voyages were successful or enjoyable. A valued crew member was lost overboard during one venture. There were the sad losses of his cutters, "Mischief" and "Sea Breeze," and other occasions when crew members, unable to match Tilman's persistence, decided to desert or mutiny. Most of his crews were made of sterner stuff. They were rewarded with good fellowship and humor, the opportunity of learning seamanship and mountaineering from a great teacher, and a chance to see what may be done in rough waters and heavy ice in a little, old, unstrengthened ship. Some managed to join him on more than one voyage, including the resourceful Simon Richardson, in whose boat "En Avant," Tilman, Richardson and their crew disappeared after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Port Stanley in November 1977. What happened is a mystery but the passage to South America had been a happy one. The loss of six enterprising young men was tragic, but for Tilman at least, it was a sad but curiously fitting end, one last voyage in the best of good company.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898861438
• ISBN13: 9780898861433
• Release Date: October 1987
• Publisher: Mountaineers Books
• Length: 960 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Stands the test of time extremely well

Tilman wrote these books over a number of year, mostly between expeditions to some of the more remote places in the world. They read as if they were written yesterday - Tilman comes across as both laconic and erudite, but also with a lot of dry humor. This is a great collection of his books and as one who enjoys both sailing and travelling (and reading about climbing rather than doing it) I found these books particularly enjoyable...

The original "Reality Adventure"

Hands down the best book of it kind. Tilman picked up the trail where Joshua Slocum packed it in and added climbing to the adventure. You'll want to pick up your ice-ax and practise bowlines for a Spring voyage to South Georgia or Greenland.

Possibly the best Adventure writer

Bill Tilman was an unbelievable man and his writings provide an unforgetable image of a bygone age. I love his dry sense of humour and matter of fact descriptions of perilous situations. His real life exploits are absolutely unbelievable. From being wounded twice in the first world war, to a coffee planter in Kenya, to cycling across africa in the 1930s, climbing Kilimanjaro, Mt Kenya and the Ruwenzori, the first ascent of...

Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books

By reding Tilman's books one can travel staying comfortably home, his descriptions are so precise and complete that one can really imagine to have travelled by his side. But his accounts makes also rise the desire of adventure and of being as much as possible outdoors and in contact with nature. I would also like to ask everyone who has read one book or more by Tilman to contact me, because I am writing my degree thesis on...

Fine auto-biography of the 20th century's premier explorer

There have been several attempts to produce a biography of Bill Tilman. As one who travelled with him, his own words - republished here intact - are the best possible biog.