First published in 1918, the course was conceived by Van Gaasbeek at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in response to the desperate need for new ships on the eve of the United States' entry into World War I. Van Gaasbeek developed the program "to assist the great army of house carpenters and other woodworkers in transferring from their usual occupations to the wooden boat and ship building industries." He saw the book "as a response to the demand caused by shortage of skilled labor in these industries."
“To be able to build a boat well, and to his own ideas and plans, requires that the amateur should be both a designer and builder, which, in their turn require that he should be an efficient draughtsman and carpenter.
This reprint edition of Boat-Building and Boating by D.C. Beard shows beginners how to build everything from a log raft to a houseboat. Originally written for boys aged 12 to 18 by a co-founder of the scouting movement in the United States, Boat-Building assumes potential builders will have only the most minimal of skills but want to enjoy an outing on the water in an inexpensive vessel they have crafted themselves.
Harold Patterson's Small Boat Building was one of the first attempts to take the mystery out of boat construction for the average man. His book emphasizes the "do-it-yourself" attitude that amateur boatbuilders must bring to their work. He takes pains to explain just enough of the basic techniques of boatbuilding to give the beginner a good understanding
Adventures of a Tropical Tramp "... fascinating reading and we can only hope for future volumes detailing his later itinerant travels to far away places and foreign climes."
