Once is Enough (The Sailor's Classics #6) - Hardcover

Smeeton, Miles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071382194 ISBN 13: 9780071382199

Publisher: McGraw-Hill, 2001

Synopsis

"Unique among books of maritime adventure." ­Times Literary SupplementWhen the 46-foot Tzu Hang sailed from Australia into the vast Southern Ocean in December 1956, her crew of three couldn't know what terror awaited them. Six weeks later and several hundred miles west of Cape Horn, in the dead of night in a violent storm, they were somersaulted by a freak wave and nearly destroyed. When the boat righted itself, it was half full of water and dangerously close to sinking. Its masts had been snapped off and its deck partly ripped away. Miles Smeeton's wife, Beryl, had been flung overboard and injured but miraculously got back aboard. Somehow the crew saved the boat, survived the storm, and four weeks later reached Chile under jury rig.Ten months later, they again attempted Cape Horn and once again were capsized, dismasted, and nearly sunk. This tale of fear and determination electrified the sailing world when first published in 1959. What keeps it as fresh and captivating now as when it was written, however, is not the fury of the storm but Miles Smeeton's spare, eloquent descriptions of life at sea. Once Is Enough rolls with the rhythm of the ocean, and the reader, like the crew of the Tzu Hang, is shaken from a page-turning dream by the storm's sudden violence.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"Unique among books of maritime adventure."--New York Times Book Review

"There was a sudden sickening sense of disaster. I felt a great lurch and heel, and a thunder of sound filled my ears. I was conscious, in a terrified moment, of being driven into the front and side of my bunk with tremendous force. At the same time there was a tearing, cracking sound, as if Tzu Hang was being ripped apart, and water burst solidly, raging into the cabin."

When Tzu Hang, a 46-foot ketch, set sail from Melbourne in December 1956 bound for England, Miles and Beryl Smeeton, their Siamese cat, Pwe, and their friend, John Guzzwell, had little concept of the challenges or the terrors that awaited them. At that time very few small sailboats had successfully rounded Cape Horn, and none had sailed as far south as Tzu Hang--just north of the Antarctic iceberg limit.

Six weeks later, on the night of February 12, in the icy, angry seas several hundred miles west of Cape Horn, Tzu Hang was caught from astern by a huge wave that somersaulted her. Beryl Smeeton, who had been alone at the tiller, was thrown thirty yards into the sea. Her lifeline broken, and suffering a scalp wound and a broken collarbone, she managed to swim to the wreckage of the mast and rigging in the water and pull herself close to the boat where Miles and John could heave her on board. Tzu Hang was a shambles: the tiller, rudder, doghouse, anchor, compass, and dinghies had all been ripped away; the masts had broken off level with the deck, and a tangled mass of wire shrouds, the masts, and the booms spread over the deck and into the water; and Tzu Hang was half-filled with water and close to sinking. The pumps were clogged with debris, so the laborious process of removing water from Tzu Hang--twelve hours of near-constant bailing--had to be done bucket by bucket. Working beyond exhaustion, the crew salvaged what they could, built a new doghouse and masts, fashioned a jury rig, and five weeks later sailed into Arauco Bay on the Chilean coast.

After ten months of making repairs to Tzu Hang in a Chilean navy yard, Miles and Beryl Smeeton (with Pwe but without John Guzzwell) sailed again toward Cape Horn and once again were capsized, dismasted, and nearly sunk by a rogue wave. Again, they survived the disaster and sailed 2,000 miles to Valparaiso, Chile.

One of the most gripping sea stories of all time, Once Is Enough recounts the adventures of Tzu Hang's crew. When it was first published in 1959, this tale of struggle and determination electrified the sailing world. What keeps it fresh and captivating is not just Smeeton's vivid re-creation of the sea's fury; his eloquent descriptions of life at sea and his colorful observations of the many people and places encountered during their journey make Once Is Enough timeless reading for sailors and armchair adventurers alike.

"Once Is Enough--the story of a catastrophe twice over--was Miles Smeeton's first book. It is also his best. He never wrote again with quite such compelling candor, allowing the reader to be the fourth crew member aboard Tzu Hang on the most grueling and disaster-ridden voyage in the boat's long history. . . . The strangest and most memorable thing about Once Is Enough is that it's not a heroic tale of survival, but--of all things--an idyll."--from the introduction by Jonathan Raban

"Brigadier Smeeton's saga is the very essence of authenticity. Its message is clear and simple: Beware the sea in anger, for no small boat can conquer it, however expertly sailed."--New York Times Book Review

"It is the struggle of these three indomitable sailors for survival and their extraordinary resource . . . that makes their taut journal unique among books of maritime adventure. . . . Tzu Hang and her crew add up not only to survival but to a tale full of sound and fury told by an intrepid but eminently sane survivor."--Times (London) Literary Supplement

They are the first people ever to return alive to tell the story of a boat being somersaulted. . . . And they certainly make fascinating company for a reader with his eyes on the heights of human endeavor."--Sunday Times

"Well and forthrightly written . . . full of real adventure and suspense. . . . One reading is not enough."--Libary Journal

The Sailor's Classics recognizes and celebrates the best books ever written about life aboard small boats at sea:

Alone through the Roaring Forties, Vito Dumas
40,000 Miles in a Canoe, John C. Voss
Gipsy Moth Circles the World, Francis Chichester
The Saga of Cimba, Richard Maury
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall

About the Author:

Born in England in 1906, Miles Smeeton joined the army and fought in World War II before setting sail on the Bermudan ketch `Tzu Hang' with his wife in 1956. During his lifetime Miles Smeeton wrote nine books, and together with his wife founded the Cochrane Ecological Institute in 1972 and received numerous awards for their lifetime sailing achievements. He died in 1988.

About this edition

• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0071382194
• ISBN 13: 9780071382199
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224