Welcome to the changes, hardships, and improvements during the Age of Sail. As part of a family who participated in 18th century land-based military, I knew a minimal amount about the hardships of the time, and as an RN since the 1960s, I have a small grasp of the advances in medicine that war and its hardships brings. This volume brings to light many of the engineering advances in shipping, shipbuilding, and life on board that today we take for granted. But this work is so much more than the usual Publish or Perish volume. It is written on many levels of understanding in a way that the reader can choose to advance their knowledge in a particular area or skim over what is found to be "above their pay grade" and move on to something found to be more comprehensible. Well worth having, but vision problems moved me to donate the print copy I read after winning it in a LibraryThing Giveaway to the Duluth, MN Public Library. @mcfarlandpublishing @ibrarythingofficial @duluthpubliclibrary #nonfiction #ageofsail