Sailor: Vintage Photos of a Masculine Icon

From his trademark white cap to his bell-bottom pants, the sailor has a prominent place in our common imaginations, an icon of virility, adventure, and romance. Sailor gathers from private collections 150 never-before-published snapshots and portraits spanning more than a century of maritime experience and masculine camaraderie. The photographs in this book provide intimate glimpses of this larger-than-life figure, showing us sailors at sea and at play--swabbing the deck, manning the guns, swimming and boxing, "jumping the line" in the traditional virgin-equator-crossing hazing, roaming foreign ports and red-light districts, wrestling and butting heads in photo-booths, puffing cigars, and hoisting beers. In shots that are arresting and utterly unique we see a deadpan sailor in a grass skirt; one sailor straddling a palm tree and another a torpedo; three swabbies dangling head and shoulders from the barrels of the ship's big guns; and a mob of sailors astride tiny burros. For lovers of old photographs and serious collectors, for those with nostalgic memories of Navy days, and for anyone who has ever daydreamed of a sailor's life on the high seas--this must-have volume is a treasure of striking visual art, historic artifacts, and prime examples of Grade-A beefcake.