The Mariner’s Library
The Mariner’s Library brings forgotten & obscure sailing books to life, allowing them to pass on their hard-won knowledge to a new generation of sailors. Read by solo, round-the-world yachtsman and host of ’The Mariner’ podcast; Chris Stanmore-Major.
The Mariner’s Library brings forgotten & obscure sailing books to life, allowing them to pass on their hard-won knowledge to a new generation of sailors. Read by solo, round-the-world yachtsman and host of ’The Mariner’ podcast; Chris Stanmore-Major.
Episodes

Oct 13, 2022
Oct 13, 2022
23 min
The seventh chapter of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
Oct 13, 2022
23 min

Oct 12, 2022
Oct 12, 2022
14 min
The sixth chapter of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
Oct 12, 2022
14 min

Jun 7, 2022
Jun 7, 2022
32 min
The fifth section of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
Jun 7, 2022
32 min

Jun 6, 2022
Jun 6, 2022
20 min
The fourth section of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
Jun 6, 2022
20 min

Jun 2, 2022
Jun 2, 2022
27 min
The third section of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
Jun 2, 2022
27 min

Jun 1, 2022
Jun 1, 2022
29 min
The second section of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
Jun 1, 2022
29 min

May 31, 2022
May 31, 2022
29 min
The first section of Brian Connell's 1953 English translation of Dr. Alain Bombard's notable 1952 French manuscript, 'The Bombard Story'.
This is the story of an unbelievable voyage, requiring huge personal sacrifice and with barely mitigated risk, taken solely in the altruistic pursuit of furthering scientific understanding towards providing hard and fast possibilities to help 50,000 ship wreck survivors a year (at that time) hold on long enough for help to reach them.
This is a book that I have wanted to read for many years because it has direct application to the kind of survival situations I might find myself in as a pelagic mariner.
Having personally been in a situation in a round the world yacht race where my desalination machine was reduced in it's capacity to provide fresh water down to only 250ml a day, I know what it is to be surrounded by water but not have drop to drink. In my situation, I was in an equatorial area with no rain showers and with two weeks sailing to the nearest land. I survived by mixing my fresh water with an equal amount of salt water and adding sugar 'to taste/not puke'
My method worked, I finished the leg (3rd!) and I suffered no ill effects, but I am now understandably interested in discovering all I can about Dr Bombard's work and learning more about how it was possible for him to cross the Atlantic, in a rubber boat, in sixty five days with no food & no fresh water.
Let's find out together.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
May 31, 2022
29 min

May 28, 2022
May 28, 2022
21 min
The eleventh & last chapter of Alfred Loomis' 1922 'The Cruise of the Hippocampus'. A delightful tale of a post WW1 voyage from the US to Panama in a 28ft yawl, affectionately nick-named 'Hippo'.
If you have any sailing books published before 1925 that you think would be an interesting read for modern sailors please contact me at csmthemariner@gmail.com and we will see if we can bring them and their forgotten voyages back to life here on Rare Nautical Reads.
If you are enjoying these stories and would like to support the creation of more great free content, please support the podcast by heading over to my Patreon site and joining the community there.
Click here to support the show for $5 a month
Cheers,
Chris Stanmore-Major
May 28, 2022
21 min







