Blow the Man Down!

A weathered manuscript discovered among old papers was the foundation of this powerful book. James H. Williams' spellbinding recollections of his adventures before the mast in sailing-ship days bring alive again that gruelling but romantic era on the seas. Though he called himself a common sailor, James H. Williams (1864-1927) was a most uncommon man. An African-American seaman with reddish hair, he left his Massachusetts home to go to sea at the age of eleven. Yet in spite of his limited formal