Features - June 2004
The Sea Kayaker’s Library—Hard-to-Find
BooksWhen you can’t be out on the water yourself, there’s
nothing like curling up with a good book about sea kayaking and
living vicariously through other people’s adventures. There
are many books on the market to choose from, but unfortunately,
some of the best kayaking stories are either no longer in print
or can be very difficult to find.
My favorite hard-to-find paddling books of the past and not-so-distant
past aren’t necessarily the best or most popular of the genre,
but they are the stories I reach for time and time again.
Several of the following books have the word “canoe” in
the title, but don’t be misled—these trips were made
in what we would today call a kayak. The books are listed in chronological
order by their first printing. Whatever your taste, with a little
patience you should be able to find any of the books included here.
A Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on
Rivers and Lakes of Europe (1866)
by John MacGregor
The student-turned-soldier came up with the idea of constructing
a kayak in 1865. In less than 30 days, he made his dream a reality,
then immediately set sail across the waterways of Europe. The original
Rob Roy, preserved in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich,
England, measures 15 feet long with a 28-inch beam and was propelled
with a seven-foot double-bladed paddle. MacGregor explored the rivers
and lakes of France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. He set off
for the entire summer with a spirit stove, a wooden fork and spoon
(carved at opposite ends of the same stem), one spare button and
nine pounds of luggage. In his inimitable style, he recounts the
diverse adventures that befell him, never failing to display his
comportment and dignity as an Englishman! MacGregor also wrote The
Rob Roy on the Baltic (1868), an adventure that takes him to Norway,
Sweden, Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein, the North Sea and the Baltic;
and The Rob Roy on the Jordan (1869), a tale about his voyages on
the Jordan, the Nile, the Red Sea and Gennesareth during his kayaking
cruise in Palestine and Egypt and the waters of Damascus.
An Inland Voyage (1879)
by Robert Louis Stevenson
Like MacGregor, Stevenson undertook
a canoeing “voyage”
across Europe in 1877, and he brings a literary skill to his narrative
of the adventure that casts new light upon the subject. This book
is lucid, brilliant and at times very funny. I had to re-read the
first page after I started, not realizing at first that “Cigarette” was
not the name of a kayak but his nickname for his paddling companion,
Sir Walter Grindlay Simpson, Baronet. It only gets better!
Down the Danube (1892)
by Poultney Bigelow
America’s answer to John MacGregor! After reading MacGregor’s
adventures (he includes a sketch of the first Rob Roy in this book),
Bigelow undertook a similar adventure with two companions in an
American sailing canoe, the Caribee. He cruised the length of the
Danube, Europe’s most significant waterway besides the Rhine,
from its headwaters in the Black Forest to its effluence in the
Black Sea. His observations of the peoples and politics of the time
are precise, and his adventures in the canoe fascinating. Bigelow’s
illustrations are clever and reflective of his sense of humor,
as is his writing.
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