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Book Review: Global Crossroads and the American Seas

Jekter og jektefart, the title of a recent publication from the Stavanger Maritime Museum, is ambiguous because a "jekt" is customarily a single-masted, square-rigged vessel showing its old norse heritage in a very high and upright stem. Here the author describes what is normally recognized as a "jakt"--the Norwegian sloop. The ambiguity is intentional, however. Hertel-Aas concentrates on the coastal freighters of South-west Norway, many of them built in the fjords between Bergen and Stavanger, where both the ancient and the more modern sloops were called jekt. The two types were distinguished by rig. The most notable feature of the modern jekt--a gaff-sail with boom--accounts for its name, boomsail jekt. The Gjea mastered by Roald Amundsen through the North West Passage is the most famous example of this type. The book is a concise survey of these vessels including details of rigging and methods of building. A glossary explains most of the specialist maritime terminology. Trades in which the vessels were deployed are covered and these are set in an economic and cultural context. This is no small achievement for a book only eighty-eight pages in length. There is only one disappointment, however, the cheap presentation of the work.