flyingsails's review against another edition
2.0
Ships enchant Enoch Thacher, which makes East Boston—where ships are built, docked, and sailed from—his paradise. His friend the old captain Messina Clarke teaches him the ways of the sea and tells him yarns of when he was a young man and sailed the world. After the sudden death of his father, the fourteen-year-old must find work to support his mother, and turns to Donald McKay, a friend of his father and designer of clipper ships. Fate brings Enoch and the most famous clipper ever built, the Flying Cloud, together from the time she is just a model on McKay's desk. The boy watches the construction of the Cloud from blueprints on up, and knows that someday he will sail aboard her. Enoch leaps at the chance when it comes, and signs aboard for the Cloud's second voyage--on the dangerous passage around Cape Horn to California and then on to China. Can the crew--and the ship--endure and survive the hardships?
Enoch's journey is filled with new adventures, danger, and ancient seafaring stories, all in only 171 pages, making it a nice introduction to epics of the sea for the younger readers. Overall, All Sail Set reminded me of a Misty of Chincoteague aimed at boys; for the love of a horse, for the love of a ship, and growing up along the way. But the characters were sadly flat, with only a couple sticking in the reader's mind after the last page. The adventure-loving reader will enjoy it more than the emotional ones.
Enoch's journey is filled with new adventures, danger, and ancient seafaring stories, all in only 171 pages, making it a nice introduction to epics of the sea for the younger readers. Overall, All Sail Set reminded me of a Misty of Chincoteague aimed at boys; for the love of a horse, for the love of a ship, and growing up along the way. But the characters were sadly flat, with only a couple sticking in the reader's mind after the last page. The adventure-loving reader will enjoy it more than the emotional ones.
triscuit807's review
3.0
3 stars. This is the story of the teenager Enoch Thacher who in the late 1840s-early 1850s takes a position with Donald McKay's shipbuilding company in Boston as a draftsman. Ostensibly he does it to make money to support his mother (after his father's demise), but he has always loved the thought of ships. Eventually he becomes an apprentice seaman on the first voyage of the clipper ship Flying Cloud which held the speed record from NYC to San Francisco from 1854-1989. To say this is a nautical adventure would be an understatement. It's a rousing adventure, but it somehow failed to wholly capture me (the terminology was just overwhelming) - I think it would make a brilliant film though. Interestingly this voyage is a key trigger in one of the earlier Newberys, Glory of the Seas (Honor Book, 1934). I read this for my 2018 Reading Challenge and my Newbery Challenge (Honor Book, 1936).
scaifea's review
2.0
A boy gets a job with a shipbuilder and takes a trip on the maiden voyage of the Flying Cloud.
Meh. Vintage children's stories about sailing are not my favorite.
Meh. Vintage children's stories about sailing are not my favorite.
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