Afloat
Small Boats, Swell and Seaspray
Published on 23. April 2026
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-00-841358-3 (ISBN)
Description
'Prose that is precise and beautiful as northern light ... this book is an absolute delight' MOYA CANNON
Join David Gange on a seabound journey along Atlantic coasts and islands, exploring places and ways of life that have been built on small rowed or paddled boats.
These small boats outnumber decked ships by at least fifty to one. Yet almost all history writing is about big boats. This is a strange misrepresentation of maritime history that this book seeks to put right. From Ireland and Shetland to the Faroes and across to Greenland, Newfoundland, the US and the Caribbean, Ardras is the story of eight journeys in search of ocean-going rowed and paddled boats.
Gange, an award-winning historian, joins community pilgrimages to tiny islands on their saints' days, and races and regattas that express revivals of commitment to local boats and the community ideals they sustained. Along the way he encounters whales, sharks and icebergs - as well as journeys beneath skies filled, from horizon to horizon, with tens of thousands of seabirds.
Small traditional boats fulfil roles in their communities unlike any other supposedly inanimate things. Often treated as living members of the family, with minds and lives of their own, they've been essential to many cultures' ways of living with the seascapes that surround them. This gorgeous and lyrical book offers not only a journey into the past, but a vision of how these ways of life might inform our futures.
Join David Gange on a seabound journey along Atlantic coasts and islands, exploring places and ways of life that have been built on small rowed or paddled boats.
These small boats outnumber decked ships by at least fifty to one. Yet almost all history writing is about big boats. This is a strange misrepresentation of maritime history that this book seeks to put right. From Ireland and Shetland to the Faroes and across to Greenland, Newfoundland, the US and the Caribbean, Ardras is the story of eight journeys in search of ocean-going rowed and paddled boats.
Gange, an award-winning historian, joins community pilgrimages to tiny islands on their saints' days, and races and regattas that express revivals of commitment to local boats and the community ideals they sustained. Along the way he encounters whales, sharks and icebergs - as well as journeys beneath skies filled, from horizon to horizon, with tens of thousands of seabirds.
Small traditional boats fulfil roles in their communities unlike any other supposedly inanimate things. Often treated as living members of the family, with minds and lives of their own, they've been essential to many cultures' ways of living with the seascapes that surround them. This gorgeous and lyrical book offers not only a journey into the past, but a vision of how these ways of life might inform our futures.
Reviews / Votes
'An intimately observed study of life at sea, in all its adaptation...an immersive, thoughtful book' Irish Times'An exemplary new work of creative history' Scotsman
'A beautifully written and beautifully made book. David Gange's rowed and paddled journeys in small boats are full of drama, insight and revelation' Alistair Moffat
'A love letter to the coastal communities of the North Atlantic. Gange's travels through these places are spellbinding to read, the depth of his historical research is so commendable. I found myself both absorbed and moved by this quest to find beauty and wonder in the culture and craftsmanship of these boats' James Macdonald Lockhart
'David Gange brings us on a marvellous voyage, not of conquest, but of restoration. He kayaks between ice floes, rows us up fjords, traces coastlines in an arc from Galway north to Greenland and then south to the Barbados, introducing us to the small boats of the northern Atlantic and the communities which depend upon them. In prose that is precise and beautiful as northern light, he shares with us the aesthetic thrill of experiencing an indigenous boat in the environment which has shaped it over time. This book is an absolute delight' Moya Cannon
PRAISE FOR THE FRAYED ATLANTIC EDGE:
COLLECTIVE WINNER OF THE HIGHLAND BOOK PRIZE 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2020
'This book is the product of a considerable physical achievement ... A brilliant book, and a major step towards a genuinely radical reimagining of the history of the British Isles.' Scotsman
'[Gange is] physically resourceful, articulate, clear-eyed, informed, attentive to the realities, and crucially at home in all the elements. A book reliant in the end on one key fact: edges are revelatory.' Adam Nicolson, winner of the Wainwright Prize 2018
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 242 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
542 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-841358-3 (9780008413583)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2026
William Collins
€15.49
Available for download
Person
David Gange was born in the Peak District. He is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of Birmingham and has published history books with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Oneworld Publications. He has appeared on BBC2 and Smithsonian television as well as at the Hay Literary Festival and in the TLS. His writing as published nature writing and photography in various books and magazines. Recently, he held a research fellowship at the National University of Ireland, Galway.
His book The Frayed Atlantic Edge was collective winner of the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the Wainwright.
www.mountaincoastriver.blogspot.co.uk.
His book The Frayed Atlantic Edge was collective winner of the Highland Book Prize and longlisted for the Wainwright.
www.mountaincoastriver.blogspot.co.uk.