THE VOYAGES OF BRIAN SEAWORTHY: AN HISTORICAL ADVENTURE ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN.
By Ralph Nading Hill '39. Illustrated by Robert A. Boyajian. Designed by John R. Scotford Jr. '38. Montpelier: Vermont Life Magazine and the Vermont Historical Society, 1971. 151 pp. $6.95.
Ralph Hill's first love must have been the shores of Lake Champlain and Champlain's side-wheeler steamboats which were bound to capture a boy's attention. Later his vision widened to embrace Vermont as a whole and to extend even across the Connecticut to Dartmouth where he graduated 32 years ago. Hill has written fine books reflecting all these interests and in The Voyages of BrianSeaworthy he returns to his first love.
This is a lively and intriguing story about Brian, school-boy heir to a Vermont steamboat company, and his loyal friend, Barney, and all the trials and tribulations which beset them until a rough day with a blizzard on Lake Champlain leads to the sinking of their rival boat, the Defiance, near Split Rock; the confirming of all their fears and suspicions of the "bad guys," including one real surprise; and ultimately "a happy issue out of all their afflictions."
It's a tale which should appeal to readers of most any age, told in terse and simple and effective prose, and a tale which offers a lot of dividends to boot. You take a trip down the Hudson to New York City on the Gloria, the little shipyard tender, and a return on one of the Hudson's mammoth floating palaces. You learn a lot about the care and repair and handling of the Champlain shallow-draft side-wheels, both in summer and in the ice-bound winters. You become almost a master of stoking a boiler and operating that spectacular type of vertical beam engine with its walking beam top-sides, and even get a rough drawing of such an engine to study. You find memorable word-pictures of Champlain's lovely setting in its changing seasons, comments about its fish and other wildlife, and every now and again the conversations are well salted with quaint Champlain and Vermont localisms.
The book's design by Dartmouth's clever John R. Scotford '38 and its many illustrations by Robert A. Boyajian help mightily in recreating the atmosphere of Lake Champlain's glorious and important steamboat days.
Mr. Foley is Professor of History Emeritusand president of the Vermont HistoricalSociety.
