Review: All Hands on Deck by Will Sofrin

One of my kids is a sailor. I can just about bang around in a small sailboat without needing to be rescued and I’ve always thought learning more about sailboats would be fun. Not sure if the kid would be willing to teach me or not! Now that I’ve read Will Sofrin’s account of crewing on the 18th century replica, the tall ship Rose as the boat sailed from Cape Cod to San Diego to be refitted to serve as the HMS Surprise in the movie Master and Commander: Far Side of the World, I am both more and less certain that truly learning to sail would be fun. I might just stick to reading about sailing rather than sailing itself.

Sofrin was already a professional sailor and ship’s carpenter (chippy) when he signed on as a deckhand to get the Rose from the East Coast, through the Panama Canal, and up to California for the movie studio owners. He recounts the average, the extraordinary, and the terrifying that all made up the voyage, from daily watch, to a dismasting, to hurricane force winds threatening to sink the leaking wooden ship. Sofrin narrates the experience of sailing on Rose generally as well as his own personal experiences on and offshore with his fellow crew mates. These first person accounts are also combined with brief asides about what life would have been like on a warship like Rose in the 18th century as well as pieces of the O’Brian source material in the series Master and Commander. This is really a memoir of Sofrin’s months onboard, his friendships and a blossoming relationship, and account of the journey itself (there’s very little about the movie included) but sailors, unique bunch that they are, and those who are attracted by the romance of a sailing life will enjoy reading about this once in a lifetime trip.