Inshore craft of Britain in the days of sail and oar

In the days of sail and oar, before the arrival or marine engines, any number of picturesquely-named craft, built to suit the local conditions, worked and fished out of small harbours and off beaches around the coasts of Britain.

Edgar March's classic two-volume work, first published in 1970, describes all these craft and explains their methods of construction, their rigs and their handling qualities, along with details of the fishing gear and explanations of how fish were caught and marketed.

The conditions under which fishermen worked and lived are also described and a way of life, now gone forever, is brought vividly to life.

Few written records were kept and the author used many first-hand accounts told to him by the old men who experienced the arduous way of life of eighty and more years ago.

Volume One, spanning the coastline from the north of Scotland to the Thames Estuary, covers, amongst others, the sixerns of the Shetland Islands, the cobles of the northeast coast, the crabbers of the Norfolk coast, and the Essex smacks, bawleys and dobles of the Thames estuary. Volume two covers the coastline from Kent to Cornwall and up the west coast of England to Scotland and includes the luggers of the south coast beaches, the Bristol pilot cutters, Morcambe Bay prawners and the skiffs of the Clyde.

Illustrated with over 120 evocative black-and-white photographs and more than 150 line drawings and plans, the new edition of this wonderful work will be welcomed by ship modellers, traditional boat enthusiasts, and those with an interest in the arcane world of the fisherman, now lost forever.