Timeless tips and salty stories
Bosun's Bag, by Tom Cunliffe

Bosun's Bag is an essential guide for sailors. The book offers a collection of age-old seafaring wisdom and practical tips on maintenance, navigation, sails, rigging, and seamanship, as well as invaluable advice on diverse topics, from avoiding seized bolts to managing a large mainsail and handling an offset propeller. Enhanced with the author’s engaging sea tales and complemented by Martyn Mackrill's stunning paintings, the book captures the essence of traditional sailing.
Bosun's Bag
By Tom Cunliffe
Adlard Coles, £25
ISBN: 978 13994 11899
Buy this book in the Nautilus Bookshop
While you're there, why not browse the rest of the titles in our unique maritime bookshop, which sells all the books reviewed on these pages.
Buy nowMore Books
Female MN war veterans brought to the fore
Supposed Killed or Drowned by Enemy Action at Sea, by Nina BakerThe people whose lives Baker explores in Supposed Killed or Drowned by Enemy Action at Sea are not relatives of hers, but they are part of the Merchant Navy family. They are the Scottish women who served and died in the crews of MN vessels in the First and Second World Wars.
How to 'make it' in the superyacht industry
Superyacht Success, by Brendan O'ShannassyBack in 2022, we reviewed Brendan O'Shannassy's memoir Superyacht Captain. Now Capt O'Shannassy has returned with a new book that focuses on how crew can navigate their careers.
Love for seafaring conquers all
No Quitting, by Andrea BarkerAndrea Barker's memoir of her 1990s Merchant Navy cadetship tells of her eagerness and determination to follow the career pursued by generations of her family. Unfortunately, there were choppy waters ahead...
Radio revelry
Barques, Sparks and Sharks, by Len WilsonSeafarers are known for their story-telling abilities, and Orkney-born Len Wilson does not disappoint in this memoir of his years as a radio officer