Tramp Steamers

Any one aware of the work of Howard Pease? He wrote a great many stories about the merchant marine in the 1930s. Quite a few of his books were a bit like a slightly more sophisticated "Hardy Boys at Sea" though he did get into some heavier themes in the early days of WWII. Regardless of some of the less than stellar plots his portrayal of ship board life and exotic ports around the world are wonderful. He was a seaman himself and describes the jobs of a sailor in a wonderful almost "how to" manner. For years he inspired young men (and women!) to go to sea.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Pease

Merchant Marine War Diary by Henry Kaspar is another good one as is the coffee table book Tramp. Great photos in that one.

Blue Funnel: Voyage East is another "diary" that is very good. It think the author is Woodman.

I used them all for research when I was putting together this website --

http://louislamourgreatadventure.com/

We did a pretty cool "cut away" of a tramp freighter for one of the pages in that one. Started with the old Bethlehem Steel blueprints then modified it until it seemed it was like the ship in the stories.

Cheers!

Thanks for the recommendation. Although my thing is mainly aviation, I do love the allure of steamships. These books will definitely be good reference for when I draw steamships or something inspired by them.

I can't draw worth a lick but a junior high class in drafting inspired me to have some fun modifying a Bethlehem Steel plan for a ship my dad sailed on. Altering it to match the fictional vessel from some of his stories was a lot of fun. You can click on the pics for a close up --

http://www.louislamourgreatadventure.com/PongaJimMerchantMarine3.htm

That's a nice little steamer, nice work on the deck plans.