Swin, Swale, and Swatchway: or, Cruises down the Thames, the Medway and the Essex river

The Magic of the Swatchways, by Maurice Griffith the English Author, Yacht Designer and journalist remains one the classics of yachting, continuing to enchant each generation of readers with the gentle tales of cruising small boats around the estuaries of Britain. Griffith credits this book Swin, Swale and Swatchway as the inspiration not only for his Swatchway tales, but with his whole, rich and delightful series of yachting yarns.

Dr Jones was a leader in ‘electrical’ medicine and eventually became the head of the X-Ray department of “St. Barts” the famous teaching hospital of London. He, like Griffiths, worked in the city but escaped at weekends to paddle and cruise around the myriad of cuts, swatches and creeks of the Kent show more and Essex coasts.

This book, with the direct narrative style of Jones’s writing, is all too easy to read and enjoy. The creeks and adventures do not perhaps have the drama of Conrad, the creeks dangers are mild compared to Blue Water sailing, but the descriptions entice and thrill. As an added pleasure the photography that was another hobby for this busy Doctor and Author is valuable to those of us involved boating, in the sport, in the boats or the period. Jones was an early customer and user of the Eclipse box camera of 1885 and used it in his researching of his technical and medical books. So, as you would imagine, the photographs have both quality and composition and like these yarns, enchant.

n.b. Jones also wrote another cruising book, the Last Cruise of the Teal, but chose to use a pseudonym of Ray Leigh, or Leigh Ray. show less