Steven Ujifusa is the author of Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World’s Greatest Clipper Ship. Barons of the Sea tells the saga of the great 19th century American clipper ships and the Yankee merchant dynasties they created. It is a story of high-stakes competition on the high seas, groundbreaking technical innovation in shipbuilding, and intense family rivalries. Nathaniel Philbrick described it as “A fascinating, fast-paced history…full of remarkable characters and incredible stories” about the nineteenth-century American dynasties who battled for dominance of the tea and opium trades.”Fron Ujifusa's Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you first get interested in the 19th century clipper ships, and why did you end up writing Barons of the Sea?Visit Steven Ujifusa's website.
A: I have been fascinated by ships and the sea since early childhood. My first book, A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States (Simon & Schuster, 2012), grew out of my love of the great transatlantic ocean liners of the 20th century.
When considering a topic for a second book, I decided to go back a century and look at another type of fast ship that revolutionized global commerce.
Barons of the Sea also is about a quest to build a transcendently beautiful type of vessel, the American clipper ship, but it is also the story of...[read on]
The Page 99 Test: Barons of the Sea.
--Marshal Zeringue