Robb White (from his first words spoken in the early 1940s until his death May 16, 2006) was a master of the art of spinning a good yarn. He was an old salt, dispensing copious wisdom and entertainment in a voice that is part Florida cracker, part biology professor, and always hilarious. Readers got a taste of his stories in How to Build a Tin Canoe. But that volume barely scratched the surface of his total output. Flotsam and Jetsam includes all those stories plus many times more.
His stories mostly revolve around boats and boatbuilding, with countless sidetracks into such esoterica as clams, sawmills, cast-netting, and alligators, to name a few. He delves into sails and paddles and motors with equal passion. His love of the simple joys in life is infectious. His style is similar to his sister Bailey White’s—mining a deep vein of eccentricity and humor, while imparting a great deal of practical knowledge.
As Peter Spectre wrote about him: “At first blush his style seemed to be pure memory dump, but if you stuck with it over the long haul, you would discover that each piece was part of a long, loose tale about what life used to be and still could be without SUVs, personal watercraft, Blackberries, plywood, fast food, and any amount of other useless stuff bought off the shelf. The cumulative, compelling effect was to cause one to examine critically one’s life in light of what he wrote about his. A story by Robb White was beautifully constructed.”
Flotsam and Jetsam is a must-read for anyone who loves boats, and for anyone who values the old ways of doing it yourself.
