Greenhill was director of the National Maritime Museum in Britain from 1967 to 1983, and was recognized as an authority on maritime aspects of historical studies. As early as the middle 1940s he began planning this now-classic account by talking with local people who had spent their lives building and repairing wooden ships. The actual writing began in the early 1960s, when the age of wooden ships was over, but was still within living memory. He briefly traces the development of floating conveyances from prehistoric and ancient times to the present. Then he describes in detail the stages in building a wooden ship: the slipway, the skeleton, completing the hull, and fitting out and launching. A final chapter compares other building traditions, such as the small three-masted schooner in Wales and the four-masted schooner in the US. There are some photographs, but most of the illustrations are line drawings by Sam Manning of Camden, Maine. The 1988 edition was published by B. T. Batsford Limited. Annotation 2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
