The Last Days of the Schooner AMERICA: A Lost Icon at the Annapolis Warship Factory, by David Gendell. Lyons Press, 4501 Forbes Blvd., Suite 2000, Lanham, MD 20706. 345 pp., hardcover, illus., index. $34.95.
The schooner AMERICA was without question one of the most successful and influential designs in the history of yachting. Although many devotees of sailing lore are familiar with the vessel’s early years and remarkable accomplishments, the closing chapters of her 91-year life are not nearly so well known. David Gendell, a veteran maritime author from Annapolis, Maryland, has now set out to recount the saga of that later period.