All Sail Set

By Armstrong Sperry

A boy joins a shipbuilder and embarks on a record-breaking sea voyage.

3.8/5 Goodreads · 459 ratings

175 pages

$14.95Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

Young Enoch Thacher's life changes when his father loses everything at sea. Joining master shipbuilder Donald McKay, Enoch helps construct the legendary clipper ship, Flying Cloud. Embarking on its maiden voyage, Enoch faces the treacherous journey around Cape Horn. Will this daring adventure restore his family's fortune, or will the sea claim another victim? Dive into a thrilling tale of ambition, resilience, and the golden age of sail.

From the publisher

An exciting, fact-based, old-fashioned tale of adventure at sea, winner of a Newbery Honor for young readers in 1936. When his father loses his fortune at sea, a boy, Enoch Thacher, signs up with a famous shipbuilder and takes a record-breaking trip around Cape Horn on the famous Flying Cloud. The Flying Cloud was a real ship and its maker was master shipbuilder, Donald McKay (1810-1880). The era depicted in this novel is a time when the windships were the queens of the ocean and sail was king. McKay’s company, located in East Boston, launched many of the fastest clipper ships in history, with Flying Cloud being his most famous ship of all. In All Sail Set, McKay puts Enoch to work during the lofting, building, and rigging of the Flying Cloud, and then to ship out on her for her maiden, record-breaking trip around the Horn. Accompanied by Sperry’s wonderfully vigorous drawings, this realistic nautical yarn from the glory days of sail will appeal to adults as well as young adult readers with a taste for historical adventure.