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Books by Rod Heikell

The Gift of a Sea: A short history of yachting in the Mediterranean

In the 18th century Samuel Johnson opined that ‘The grand object of travelling is to see the shor... more In the 18th century Samuel Johnson opined that ‘The grand object of travelling
is to see the shores of the Mediterranean’, and for the young Romantic poets
of the early 19th century the remark, throwaway or not, was taken to heart.
The tangled history of Percy Bysshe Shelley and George Gordon Byron, more
commonly abbreviated to just Lord Byron, and their self-imposed exile to
Italy was to end in tragedy and death.1 Shelley drowned off the shores of the
western coast of Italy in 1822, Byron died in the fever-ridden swamps of
Missalonghi in Greece two years later. The two deaths are intimately bound
up with the sea and the rivalry between the two poets, each vying to best the
other, not only in verse, but also in their prowess on the water.
It was on Lake Geneva that Shelley and Byron
first went sailing. They hired a boat and spent
days cruising the shores of the lake. Shelley had
already sailed on the Thames and the Rhine,
and the inference from this was that his abilities were limited to calm inland
waterways. In fact, lake and river cruising has its own perils and the chance
of strong winds ripping down mountain valleys and raising dangerous seas
that can endanger small craft is ever-present. We can be sure that Shelley
was not the most experienced sailor when he arrived in Lerici in 1822, but
whatever he was not, we can be sure that sailing on the sea was a deep passion
for the poet, a passion that is written large throughout his poetry.

The Gift of a Sea: A short history of yachting in the Mediterranean, 2019

The Gift of a Sea, 2019

Rod Heikell has spent more than 40 years sailing and writing about the Mediterranean, in the prog... more Rod Heikell has spent more than 40 years sailing and writing about the Mediterranean, in the progress amassing an extensive collection of papers and books on the history of yachting in the Mediterranean and participating in the modern era of that history. In this book he has painstakingly put together the history of sailing for pleasure in the Mediterranean from the ancient Egyptians up to the present.
Beginning with the royal yachts of the pharaohs, the book looks at the Greeks and the influence of the Odyssey, the excesses of Caligula and the poems of Catallus, the scant history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the Romantic poets, and Shelley’s sad demise on his yacht. It explores the French writers and artists who sailed these waters, the Victorians and Americans who toured the Mediterranean in their yachts, up to and through the 20th century. The social and political upheavals of the last century changed the world and gave the impetus for many to escape the woes of a post-war world and sail down to the azure waters and warmth of the Mediterranean.
Despite recessions and the age of austerity the numbers of yachts has exploded in the 21st century. The author looks at the voyages around the inland sea in yachts large and small and examines the development of the yachting infrastructure around the countries bordering the Mediterranean.

The Gift of a Sea. Published volume from Taniwha Press UK, 2019

Chapter 18 of The Gift of a Sea: A short history of yachting in the Mediterranean. Chapter covers... more Chapter 18 of The Gift of a Sea: A short history of yachting in the Mediterranean. Chapter covers early cartography up through portolans to yachting guides and the digital world in the Mediterraean.

2019

A sailors's take on Skylax as the first person to write sailing directions for the Mediterranean.

Appendix 4 from Sailing Ancient Seas publ. by Taniwha Press UK. For the ancients navigating aroun... more Appendix 4 from Sailing Ancient Seas publ. by Taniwha Press UK.
For the ancients navigating around the Mediterranean and down into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean was quite probably more sophisticated than is generally imagined. Academic opinion is that there was little in the way of navigation equipment or information. This is not true from an evidential point of view and more importantly from the natural instinct of homo sapiens to draw something to help him understand, the 'picture is worth a 1000 words' perspective.

Appendix I: Could ancient ships sail to windward? There is plenty of evidence that ancient sailin... more Appendix I: Could ancient ships sail to windward? There is plenty of evidence that ancient sailing ships plied up and down the coast with voyages against the wind. These tubby traders were difficult to row and anyway there was insufficient crew to row for long periods. That means that these voyages must have been made under sail and given the prevailing winds, voyages were often against the wind. A square rigged vessel cannot make much more than 90° to the wind so if the wind is dead against it then it would make virtually no progress against the wind. There has been much speculation about how these traders sailed their craft around the coasts and islands of the Mediterranean, not to mention voyages in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Misconceptions about how these craft sailed has mostly been from some academics with little knowledge of sailing craft of this type and of the winds and sea conditions these boats faced in their everyday trade. Ancient sailing ships did not just wait for favourable winds aft of the beam or they could have waited for months. Almost certainly these sailing craft could make some progress to windward under sail. There are two possible explanations for how ancient sailing ships went to windward. Actually there are more, but two will do for now. 1. The small forward sail rigged on a stubby mast in the bows, known as the artemon to the Romans, greatly helped the ability to go to windward. It gives balance, it directs wind through the slot over the mainsail, acting as a primitive foresail of the type found on modern yachts. It is likely that a ship rigged with an artemon could make 60°-70° to windward depending on the sea conditions. The artemon is commonly depicted on pictures of Roman sailing ships, but is also depicted in various forms in earlier periods. Casson has an illustration of the merchantman from the Tomba della Nave in Tarquinia from the early 5 th century BC showing a two masted vessel that we can interpret as either an artemon or perhaps a square rigged schooner.1 There are also depictions of sprit rigged sails from as early as the 2 nd century BC.2 A sprit rigged boat can make quite good progress to windward, possibly 60°-70° off the wind, because the sail is given stability by the spar as well as the cloth. The Thira friezes from Akrotiri of around 1500 BC show vessels with what looks like an artemon and may be a two masted boat. Hierro also mentions a three masted boat from the 2 nd century BC.3 2. If we look at the few depictions we have of craft at the time we can learn a little about square rigs and how they worked, though there has to be an allowance for artistic license on the part of the artist drawing the depiction. Nonetheless the rig of ancient square sailed vessels can be assembled from the various depictions we have of them. Up until the late Bronze Age the squaresail usually had a yard top and bottom. Around the late Bronze Age, perhaps 1000-800 BC, the bottom yard of the squaresail was lost so there was just a top yard and the bottom was loose footed. A squaresail was rigged with usually two halyards to haul the top yard and the sail up, brails to furl and reef the sail, sheets on the yard and bottom corners, a forestay, backstay and shrouds of some sort. All of this standing and running rigging would have likely been in hemp or flax cordage. With a squaresail with just a top yard it would be comparatively easy to partially brail the sail so that it more resembled a triangular or quadrilateral lateen sail. Bowse down the forward end with the top sheet while easing what becomes the forward halyard, brail the sail progressively from back to front and then re-rig any standing rigging. The advantage of this rig with the 'top' of the triangle