Books with author Ron Nicholson

From bamboo rafts to the double-hulled voyaging canoe, this book is a celebration of the traditional boats of Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The people of these island countries depend on the sea, and their ships reflect their mastery of sailing and shipbuilding. Early sailors built simple dugout canoes, but the invention of the outrigger and the double-hulled canoe allowed the Polynesians to navigate rough waters and sail thousands of miles more than 1,000 years before the Greeks and Romans mastered the Mediterranean. From New Zealand to Hawaii to Indonesia, this book discusses fishing techniques, navigational methods, and boat building facts.

"In offering this volume to the public, the Editor avails himself of the opportunity it affords of explaining its objects, and the circumstances which led to its publication. A History of Galloway was recently issued, from his press, containing all the most important information relating to the district up to the date of its appearance. For that work he had been at much labour and expense in collecting information, books, manuscripts, &c. ... The amount of matter, which accumulated on his hands through the kindness of friends and his own researches, was very considerable. The principal part of the information so collected was incorporated in the History. Still several articles remained untouched; either because not altogether appropriate to the character of that work, or because they were too long to be inserted entire and did not admit of abridgment without greatly impairing their value. Under these circumstances, faithful to the impulse which prompted him to originate a his­tory of his native district, he again solicits the patronage of the public to a collection of those pieces alongst with several original compositions; being assured they will form a not unacceptable volume,―and which, while it may be considered a pendant to the History, is nevertheless complete in itself. The title which he has given to the work may perhaps be objected to as not sufficiently descriptive of the contents. On perusal however he is satisfied the reader will find it correct enough in the main, and greatly preferable to the loose and general term of Miscellany, which has been suggested to him. Every tale in the collection is founded on incidents which happened, or traditions which are current in that part of the south of Scotland, which constituted the Lordship of Galloway in its most flourishing days, or written by individuals connected with the district; and the locality of the scenes, as stated on the title-page, has accordingly been made commensurate with the ancient boundaries." -- From the Preface.