Seaworthy Timber: The Life & Times of New England Sea Captain Aaron H. Wood

Carrollton Press, 2014. First Edition . Soft cover. New. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Contains 193 pp., 50 illustrations (many in color or sepia). In 1854, a young man named Aaron H. Wood from Swansea, Massachusetts left the comfort of his family and farm and embarked on a lifetime journey. With William R. Gardner as master of the new clipper ship Monarch of the Sea, Aaron's maiden voyage brought him to the Black Sea at the height of the Crimean War. In his handwritten journal Aaron described life aboard ship, the Crimean battlefields, and a naval assault that used shell guns and iron-sided vessels for the first time. Over the next thirty years, Aaron sailed from one port to the next, eventually becoming master of his own sailing ships. As the ship's captain, he was accompanied by his wife Isabel and they raised their family at sea. Their son Oscar sailed around Cape Horn fourteen times by the time he was eight years old. Isabel's letters describe in great detail what it was like living for months at a time aboard an international merchant vessel. The years that Aaron Wood spent traversing the world's oceans coincided with the decline of the sailing ship. His career began during the clipper ship era and ended as steam dominated the oceans. Aaron's story represents an entire breed of men whose livelihood died as the age of sail blended into the darkness.