Essential Seamanship presents, in abbreviated form, the most important and practical elements of seamanship and nautical knowledge needed by today's small boat skipper. It will serve aboard any vessel as a ready, up-to-date reference of essential information in condensed and simplified form. Topics covered include boat evaluation and fitting out, getting under way and securing, basic rowing, sailing and maneuvering under power, rules of the road, heavy weather, anchoring and mooring, and boat care and maintenance. To serve the novice, most boating terms are defined when they are introduced. Numerous drawings and photographs illustrate the clear text. Sail magazine has written of Henderson: "Probably no other sailor-writer on the American scene consolidates recent technical advances in gear and design with the older, more traditional precepts of the sea quite so well."