Books: Tramp Thoreau

PIPE ALL HANDS—H. M. Tomlinson—Harper ($2.50).

To her jittery crew the small, shabby-British freighter Hestia was unlucky because she was named after a goddess (of the hearth). She had run aground, collided with a Russian ship, caught fire. Now they were waiting off Celebes to replace a captain who had just died full of ominous mutterings. Into this Conrad-like setting Author Tomlinson introduces as main character of Pipe All Hands lean, elderly.

Thoreau-like Captain Doughty. Quietly, competently written, the result is a sea story consisting of gently anarchistic philosophizing, exact descriptions, a travelog plot, the flavor but not the vitality of Tomlinson's best...

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