The Boat Who Wouldn't Float - Softcover

Mowat, Farley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0553143557 ISBN 13: 9780553143553

Publisher: Bantam Books, 1981

Synopsis

It seemed like a good idea. Tired of everyday life ashore, Farley Mowat would find a sturdy boat in Newfoundland and roam the salt sea over, free as a bird. What he found was the worst boat in the world, and she nearly drove him mad. The Happy Adventure, despite all that Farley and his Newfoundland helpers could do, leaked like a sieve. Her engine only worked when she felt like it. Typically, on her maiden voyage, with the engine stuck in reverse, she backed out of the harbour under full sail. And she sank, regularly.

How Farley and a varied crew, including the intrepid lady who married him, coaxed the boat from Newfoundland to Lake Ontario is a marvellous story. The encounters with sharks, rum-runners, rum and a host of unforgettable characters on land and sea make this a very funny book for readers of all ages.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Happy Adventure was a schooner with one fatal flaw. It leaked like a sieve. So why would anyone repeatedly expose himself and his friends to the elements of the North Atlantic in a treacherous, stubborn, uncomfortable, unfloatable boat which at last count, has sunk eight times? Any explanation of this appalling narative seems outrageously unlikely. But the story is true. All too true. And it's decidedly the funniest story yet from Farley Mowat, whose books have sold over a million and a half copies in this country alone.

"Great, good humor... Very funny and often touching tribute to a love affair that saner, duller souls would no doubt christen Farley's Folly." -- The New York Times

"Sheer delight." --Best Sellers

About the Author:

Farley Mowat was born in Belleville, Ontario, in 1921, and grew up in Belleville, Trenton, Windsor, Saskatoon, Toronto, and Richmond Hill. He served in World War II from 1940 until 1945, entering the army as a private and emerging with the rank of captain. He began writing for his living in 1949 after spending two years in the Arctic. He was an inveterate traveler with a passion for remote places and peoples. He wrote 25 books, which have been published in translations in over 20 languages in more than 60 countries. They include such internationally known works as People of the Deer, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, Never Cry Wolf, Westviking, The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float, Sibir, A Whale for the Killing, The Snow Walker, And No Birds Sang, and Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey. His short stories and articles appeared in the Saturday Evening Post, Maclean’s, Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. He died in 2014.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Publication date: 1981
• ISBN 10: 0553143557
• ISBN 13: 9780553143553
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 197