[ChathamChavs]

I have quite a few "old" books . I have no use for them anymore . I don't want to take them to the tip and they are not really of interest to Charity shops . Does anybody have any ideas of how to dispose of them ? Not Ebay etc . Weigh about 11.5 Kg. Cheers.

Principles of Electricity Illustrated (2 copies 1960?) Roy C Norris
Steam and Other Engines (1937) Duncan
General Engineering Workshop Practice (1940s? In Box) Odham
Applied Electricity (1960) Cotton
Teach Yourself -Electricity in the House (1956) MacFarlane
Model Steamers and Motorboats (1951?) Percival Marshall
Electrical Engineers Reference Book (1948 and 1961 ) Newnes
Marine Eng Officer Syallabus and Specimen Papers(1981) D.O.T
Wireless Servicing Manual 6th Ed (1945?) W T Cocking
Barnard Smith’s School Arithmetic (1865)
Elementary Algebra (1925) Hall and Knight
The Practicalman’s Book of Things to Make and Do (1938) Wheeler
Britain’s Wonderful Fighting Forces (1940?) Capt Ellison Hawkes
Lifeboats of the World (1978) E W Middleton

[Basil]

Just looked, and my oldest is Reeds Hints to Sea-going Engineers, dated August 1917 (No, I didn't buy it new!).
Some of the breakdowns are eye-watering. So glad I spent most of my time on steam turbines.
The attached is one which couldn't be fixed at sea.
v
v
v

[Engine Serang]

JustWin could build a ship from them photographs.

[OilJiver]

Originally Posted by Basil

….Some of the breakdowns are eye-watering. ..The attached is one which couldn't be fixed at sea...

Until recently had a v dilapidated book entitled “Breakdowns at Sea and How to Repair them” (Early 1900s). FMOB it had exact same image as your attachment from the Reeds publication Bas. But like you say - no repairing that heap while at sea (or most anywhere else perhaps).

Still have a hand down copy of DANA’S SEAMAN’S FRIEND, 1859 and also, A DICTIONARY OF SEA TERMS by A. Ansted (1919). Subtitled, Fully Illustrated, And In Almost Every Case From The Object Described.
(Almost sounds bit like Para Handy speak)

[Robert Hilton]

I have a Norie's Tables of 1888 containing a complete treatise on celestial navigation. It has Admiral Sumner's new method of reducing a star sight to a position line (before Marc St. Hilaire's short cut), and the traverse table in quarter points as well as the new degrees. It also has some beautiful engravings.

I'm quite happy to leave it on the shelf where it rests, but rarely look at it. Anyone interested? Come to Connemara and have a look.

[ART6]

I still have my two volumes of Southern's Verbal Notes and Sketches from the nineteen-sixties (the marine engineer's bible), and in the front page of one of them is a record of the valve sticks and indicator cards from an old VTE ship that I sailed on then. I also have a number of books dealing with subjects ranging from thermodynamics and marine electrics to naval architecture and ship construction. I rarely look at them nowadays, and don't understand much of them when I do, but I could not bear to part with them as they were a part of my life when I was doing what I had always wanted to do even from childhood!

I wonder what my offspring will make of them when I am in my box, since neither of them became engineers? Into a skip I suppose!

[ChathamChavs]

Originally Posted by ART6

I still have my two volumes of Southern's Verbal Notes and Sketches from the nineteen-sixties (the marine engineer's bible), and in the front page of one of them is a record of the valve sticks and indicator cards from an old VTE ship that I sailed on then. I also have a number of books dealing with subjects ranging from thermodynamics and marine electrics to naval architecture and ship construction. I rarely look at them nowadays, and don't understand much of them when I do, but I could not bear to part with them as they were a part of my life when I was doing what I had always wanted to do even from childhood!

I wonder what my offspring will make of them when I am in my box, since neither of them became engineers? Into a skip I suppose!

Yes , that is what I am afraid of .

[kewl dude]

Are there no used bookstores in your area? Around here there are several. You may even find a used bookstore may pay you something for your books, especially if they are old, or rare? Where I live, Vista, began as a farming village circa 1850 and continued as a village until 1950 before becoming a city.

What I am saying is that Vista is not connected to the sea, but some of the maritime oriented books I have I found in local used bookstores. Include a 407-page book titled "Sixteenth Annual List of Merchant Vessels of the United States, published by the US Treasury Department, for the year ended June 30th, 1884."

Greg Hayden

[OilJiver]

I checked online to see if any copies of the book "Breakdowns at Sea..." (mentioned # 4) still around Greg. Wow - one copy for sale in the States for around $500! (Wish the copy I had was in saleable condition).

[kewl dude]

RE: Wish the copy I had was in saleable condition

You MAY be surprised books that exhibit actual use MAY be worth more than pristine copies? Especially if there are highlighting and underlining and hand written notes in the margins.

My 1884 book has "Ex Libris Samuel Fulton Covington" along with a black and white engraving of two side-wheeler ferries pasted onto the inside of the front cover. The marked price was $50.

Greg

[Old Se Dog]

regarding the above comments about old books - i stay in south africa - on a small holding outside pretoria - points i would like to add = ( 1) we are not fortunate to have any good bookshops that one can buy new or even second hand nautical books ( 2 ) i have accumulated all my books through a ship society - all second hand and all at good prices - and condition

i use to go to charity shops when ever i was near one - and surprisingly found a good many books that way - so if members do one to part with them - there are people who might just find what they are looking for

most of my books are of passenger liners and ocean liners

i find myself preparing to down scale my home and therefore have to part with all my books not just my nautical ones - and have pondered what to do with them - my solution - give them back to the ship society for them to resell to gather funds for the society as well as the opportunity for others to buy at second hand prices - therefore win win for all

[NINJA]

20191018_151819.jpg

Southern's 1926 edition.

Given to me by an old friend who was a C/E with Swire's

A hefty book to lug about

[OilJiver]

Yes, don’t want too many like that in your trunk Ninja!
Greg #10 – many thanks for the tip. The remaining two books that I have (approx 100 & 160 yo) don’t have notes in them, other than an owner’s name in each.
I still take a look in both books now & then, but when I move them on, will probably take same route as OSD #11 .
Rgds
OJ

[brianwnz]

I was lucky enough to pick up a very good copy of "Breakdowns At Sea And How To Repair Them" from eBay some years ago; wasn't anywhere near $500 of course!
I also have a copy of "Reed's Useful Hints To Sea-Going Engineers And How To Repair And Avoid Breakdowns".
Both are inspiring with the level of work that was carried out at sea in years gone by.....

The most awe-inspiring sea-going engineering repair I've ever read of though, has to be a short article titled "McClintock's Calculated Risk", by William McFee from the New Zealand Institute of Marine Engineers newsletter of 1999:

- in 1900 the tramp steamer SS "Titania" sailed from Capetown for Buenos Aires, and some day/s out broke her prop shaft and lost the propeller. The newly appointed CE was a 23-year-old man name William McClintock. He organised all except the cook to ballast the ships head down, chisel the spare prop shaft from the after hold (3/8" plate chiseled by hand!), un-seize the prop nut from the spare shaft by lighting a fire under it, lift the new shaft into position, then lift the spare prop over the side and down into position.....
All while floating miles from any regular seaway under a sea anchor.....needless to say this all took far longer than it does to read about it......

I'm no engineer but I have to pay my respects to Mr. McClintock and the crew - that is an amazing bit of work.....

Unfortunately I only have the first half of the story - if anyone has the rest I'd love to read the finish.....

[Old Se Dog]

Originally Posted by brianwnz

I was lucky enough to pick up a very good copy of "Breakdowns At Sea And How To Repair Them" from eBay some years ago; wasn't anywhere near $500 of course!
I also have a copy of "Reed's Useful Hints To Sea-Going Engineers And How To Repair And Avoid Breakdowns".
Both are inspiring with the level of work that was carried out at sea in years gone by.....

The most awe-inspiring sea-going engineering repair I've ever read of though, has to be a short article titled "McClintock's Calculated Risk", by William McFee from the New Zealand Institute of Marine Engineers newsletter of 1999:

- in 1900 the tramp steamer SS "Titania" sailed from Capetown for Buenos Aires, and some day/s out broke her prop shaft and lost the propeller. The newly appointed CE was a 23-year-old man name William McClintock. He organised all except the cook to ballast the ships head down, chisel the spare prop shaft from the after hold (3/8" plate chiseled by hand!), un-seize the prop nut from the spare shaft by lighting a fire under it, lift the new shaft into position, then lift the spare prop over the side and down into position.....
All while floating miles from any regular seaway under a sea anchor.....needless to say this all took far longer than it does to read about it......

I'm no engineer but I have to pay my respects to Mr. McClintock and the crew - that is an amazing bit of work.....

Unfortunately I only have the first half of the story - if anyone has the rest I'd love to read the finish.....

is this the ship you refer to

[brianwnz]

Hello Old Se Dog,

It would appear to fit the bill, although I have no other information about her - thanks for the picture though!

Regards,

Brian

[Gordon Waller]

I had a number of old books, which were given to my mother by the widow of a C/E lost at sea during WW2. I particularly remember the "City of Paris" disaster. If I remember correctly, she had two steam recip. in two engine rooms separated by a longitudinal bulkhead and one engine lost the propeller and the engine took off as the governor failed to function. As a result the engine destroyed itself and the debris broke through the dividing bulkhead and destroyed the other engine too. Photographs taken through the skylight just showd piles of debris.
There were lots of other examples of repairs whereby the engineers used all kinds of ingenuity just to get the ship out of danger and to a safe haven. Unfortunatey all of these books and some very modern ones too were 'lost', during a house move. Very sad.