<p>Capt. Burgess used his 19th century logbooks to describe his sailing career. He went to sea as a lad of 16 but quickly rose to first mate and then to command vessels while still a young man. His trips around treacherous Cape Horn in the "nitrate trade" (gathering guano off Chile), to booming San Francisco, rough-and-tumble Honolulu and exotic Hong Kong, barely surviving tropical fevers in the Bight of Benin off Africa's west coast - survived mutiny and brushes with would-be pirates. Capt. Burgess was born 1838 at the lighthouse tended by his father on the Gurnet, guarding the entrance to the harbor at Plymouth, Mass. In between the often dangerous trips there were peaceful interludes: train trips from New York to Boston to Plymouth to spend relaxing weeks with his family . . . a summer away from the "tall ships," skippering a catboat as a party boat for summer visitors to Plymouth.</p>

The voyages of Capt. W. W. Burgess, 1854-1885

Foreword

on, editing by Doris M. Johnson

Burgess, William W.

Jones River Press

Francis Scheid's doctorate in mathematics and his fascination on how the shape of a golf course affects a golfer's handicap combined to produce this book that ranges from basic swing tips to topology, the "rubber sheet geometry" as expressed in a course layout. (Swing tips include some that P.G. Wodehouse’s  Sandy McHoots ignored: "his heid moved, his e'e was down the fairway instead of on the ba'  and he forgot to dinna press.")     After a discussion of how crucial it is to have the feel of a proper swing, especially when blindfolded, the focus returns to topology of famous courses such as Cypress Point, Carnoustie and Troon. And reasonable modification of Pebble Beach is suggested.     Throughout the book, the studious conversation between "The Professor" and "The Student of the Game" is accompanied by many charts and enlivened by diagrams and humorous drawings sketched by "students" at the school next to the Lobster Golf Links course.  Speckled into the fabric of the primary dialogue are many enriching details about the origins of the game of golf, descriptions of historical equipment such as the early balls called "featheries" (because they were packed hard with compressed feathers). There are many anecdotes that prompt chuckles and gradually an understanding of the relationship between golf course layout and the concept of handicapping to equalize differences between courses, easy to difficult.

You can't get lost on a golf course

Francis Scheid, PhD

The Mighty Bluefin

Roger Jarvis

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