John S. Sewall (1830–1911)

The Logbook of the Captain's Clerk by John S. Sewall follows the true tale of a trip to orient in the USS Saratoga, one of the last sailing ships in an age when steam craft already plied the waters. This isn't really a logbook; Sewall wrote the manuscript late in life and based it on memories, notes and articles he had written earlier. The chapters range from riding out typhoons to chasing after Chinese pirates -- and finally to being one of the ships present at the 'Opening of Japan' by Perry. (His views are really eye-opening, although -- as is expected -- sometimes biased toward the good of Western Civilization.)

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to write about the large old sailing ships of the 1800's -- or the like that you might use in a fantasy novel. The material about typhoons is exhilarating, and the stories of chasing pirates and mutineers (from another ship) fascinating. The material is very well-written and I found it difficult to put the book down at times. This is the sign of a truly good nonfiction book.

Sewall was remarkably open-minded about the people of the orient. When they took port in China, and on the two historic visits to Japan, he never spoke disparagingly about the people. At worse, he -- and everyone else who got caught up in the trouble -- had fallen out of sorts with the Taiping (Great Peace) rebellion, which the Westerners thought would be the great emancipation of China. It failed miserably, degenerating into brutal and senseless attacks until the suicide of the leader.

The material on Commodore Perry's historic trip to Japan -- two trips, actually -- is not quite as interesting as the earlier material, but it does have its high points and enjoyable moments. The meetings were amicable on both sides, carried on with upmost politeness, and were the scenes of as much spectacle as the Americans could manage. The Japanese, of course, put on quite a show of their own, and all in all, everyone seemed to have come away happy with it. This is not the picture I had learned in school and the eye-witness account fascinated me. Beyond a doubt, there was pressure put on the Japanese by the Americans who were worried that another country would force Japan to open to the western world before they could. It was the age of Imperial expansion, and China risked finding itself being cut up by various powers into spheres of influence. Japan had held its ports closed to everyone except the Dutch in Nagasaki -- but they were not blind to the modern world. In fact, the Americans were rather shocked by how much the Japanese knew -- including the make of a canon on board the ship.

Sewall did tend to wander off the subject now and then -- moving off into historical data (which he did not always have exactly right) and stories of other ships and storms. All of it was fascinating and worth reading. Overall, though, it is the earlier chapters that I found the most entertaining and helpful as a writer.

There are two things about this particular edition that I want to mention. This is a Lakeside Press book: hardbound, but about the size of a paperback. The quality is incredible. Before the actual work by Sewall there are two introductions. The first is a 12 page preface by the publisher, R.R. Donnelly and Sons. In it, the author discusses how in this year (1995) the press had moved to the new age of digital technology. I found it very odd until I looked up Lakeside Press and found that this is a very limited edition printing that the publisher puts out each year as gifts to clients and employees, which explains why there is no ISBN. This was a private printing and never meant to be sold in stores. They've been doing this since about 1905, and the early copies are worth quite a bit of money.

The second preface is an historical overview of the setting of the book. I, wisely, skipped this until after I had read Sewall's work. It was a wonderful look at the events before, during and after Sewall's account, tying up all the threads, but it would have taken away from the immediacy of the adventure itself, to see all the outside influences and the outcome beyond the scope of the book at hand.

I highly recommend tracking down some copy of this book in whatever edition you can find. I believe there are some editions that have more material, and I might search those out later -- but for now, I am more than pleased to have read this particular book.… (lisätietoja)