The Last Grain Race Paperback – January 1, 2014

It's non-fiction and thus completely episodic, but the picture of day to day life on board sailing vessel designed to carry thousands of tons of freight is really compelling. At its heart, it is a delightful coming of age story, but the details of life on board a ship that uses only the wind to propel her from England to Australia and back are magnetic in their attraction to my need for true adventure stories. It is a little like Melville in its detailed descriptions of the drudgery and joy of being an able seaman on a sailing ship. I loved it.

I was fascinated. It is a book of a different age. The end of sailing ships and the economy that they supported. It was the story of the author, Newby, who spent a year aboard the wind jammer Moshulu. The work he did on the boat was absolutely grueling and dangerous . In the modern day it would be against all labor laws and for fear of life and limb for virtually no pay.This book is not for everybody. It names the parts of a sailing ship with little or no description. Fortunately there is Wikipedia to help. Then Newby quotes the Finnish mates in Finnish without translation just so you know how he had to learn enough Finnish one the fly.I actually was enthralled by the book. I gave it four stars because not every fearless reader would enjoy the slog.

Another one of this author's books that did not last nearly long enough - why oh why was Eric not as wordy as say Norman Sherry, or Simon Schama!Having gone to sea just before my sixteenth birthday, and arrived for the first time in America nine weeks later, I can attest the truth of this account, not the sailing though as by then those beauties of the seas were rarely seen at all. Eric is a strapping eighteen and ... perhaps fearing that his first ship, on a world circumnavigation, in a four masted barque would not be challenging enough ... he joins a Finnish ship with no knowledge of any of the languages the orders were issued in by his Swedish, Finnish and other polyglot officers. He joins with a wildly inappropriate and insecure Louis Vuitton "folio" sea-chest, is sent immediately up the main-mast to the very truck and trades nicknames as he acquires skills and acceptance, from "Kossuri" an aristocratic derision to match his trunk, to a respectful Strongbody" after the usual first-trip fight, that he won.The trip turns out to be (1938) the last of the `grain races' from Australia back to Europe and Moshulu sails magnificently enough to actually win - through storms of force 8 and 9 to near hurricanes. He is thrown onto the deck when "she ships them green" and nearly, more fatally, falls from the top mast when furling.On his first working day he drops a hammer over the side and his pay is docked. I was once washed off the flying bridge and onto the well-deck in a gale, surfacing from the tons of green, cold water to find myself in the scuppers hanging on with everything - teeth included. My pay was subsequently docked too - I had let go the coffee pot I was carrying, and it joined Eric's hammer.Yet the author is wistful in his goodbyes to seamanship, "I look back to my time in her with great pleasure", perhaps feeling, like me and Conrad, who wrote in Youth - "Wasn't that he best time when we were young at sea?"

Newby is a great writer. I am sorry it took me so long to discover him. I am now collecting and reading all his books AND buying them for gifts. I love his writing and his sense of fun and the ridiculous

The Last Grain Race is not sailing in the sun and spray but rather a vivid tale of life before the mast. It is remarkable that a young English lad of 18 signed on as a raw hand on a steel four masted bark in 1938 and wrote about his life sailing to Australia around the Cape of Good Hope and home via Cape Horn. The work is punishing, terrifying, exhausting, with not enough sleep or food and shipmates who were mostly young but non-English speakers. It is a modern companion to Dana’s Two Year’s Before The Mast and remarkable that so little had changed in 100 years.

Eric Newby's first book is excellent reading from a world that no longer exists. Details about sailing and the ship may seem slightly too much for some readers, who (the same readers) might have hoped for more details about the crew members. What happened to the man with the syringe and how did the primitive sami man conduct himself?

I live in UK and posted this to pen friend in prison in US. Not heard from him since... did it send him over the edge - did I do wrong? Personally I love the book. Maybe life on tall ship and prison experience too close for comfort.

Very interesting but very technical and quite a difficult read - but worth it.

The Last Grain Race offers an enthralling glimpse into the world of mid-20th century maritime adventure. This compelling read chronicles the final era of grain races, a tradition where sailing ships competed to transport grain across the Atlantic. With its vivid descriptions and gripping narrative, the book immerses readers in the challenges faced by these intrepid sailors. The author’s attention to historical detail and the human stories behind the race make this book a must-read for maritime enthusiasts and history buffs alike. It’s a captivating journey through a bygone era of seafaring glory.

This is a splendid book. I've read numerous books about sailing and sailing ships, of all sizes, and especially about the great sailing ships on the tea, nitrate and grain trades, etc etc, and I reckon this is the most enjoyable, well written and informative books of any of them. Newby writes very well, and with great humour and self-deprecation, about all aspects of life aboard Moshulu, the biggest working barque of the time. After an initial chapter describing Newby's pre-Moshulu life ashore, the remainder of the book concerns the voyage out to Australia (from Belfast) in ballast; then the few months in Australia,loading; then the voyage home again, to Queenstown (Cobh) for orders, and then to Glasgow. Along the way, we get a really detailed description of things like the deck layout, the watchkeeping system, daily life on board, the rigging and sail-handling, etc etc.Poor Moshulu, after this glorious part of her working life, she was seized by the Germans. Her rigging was removed and put into storage, and was subsequently destroyed by bombing raids. Moshulu spent a long time then as a floating grain store/warehouse, before eventually crossing the Atlantic and being put to use as a museum ship and (I think) as a restaurant, from 1970, in New York and then Philadelphia.But this was all long after her great last grain race glory-days of 1939/1940.If you're interested in sailing ships, or if you just like a well-written book, this is for you. Very highly recommended.

This is historically a special story

Arrivato puntualmente, è un ottimo libro autobiografico..I marinai di quei tempi non erano uomini di lettere e la maggior parte di essi ci ha lasciato solo uno scarno Giornale di Bordo. Eric Newby (come Richard H. Dana - Two Years before the Mast - e pochi altri) era uno che sapeva scivere e che ci ha lasciato una testimonianza preziosa. Un libro che ho già consigliato a molti amici "marinai".

A fascinating look into a dying world. This was a side of Eric Newby I didn’t know about. Who would have thought he was as hard as nails?