|    Friends and Colleagues, It should not be a surprise to anyone that the house I grew up in was full of books. Among them was my Dad’s copy of The Bluejackets’ Manual; It was issued to him when he enrolled in Officer Candidate School in Newport at the beginning of our entry into World War II. As a child, I was enchanted with this artifact from the war that spawned “the greatest generation”. Let me be honest. I didn’t read the manual (or at least not much of it). It was the illustrations I found captivating. There were photographs of battleships. There were diagrams of knots and splices. Most appealing of all were color images of flags and pennants and ribbons. I do believe I studied them for hours. I was not a macho lad. Just the opposite in fact. My interest in going to war was about nil. But still there was something irresistible about The Bluejacket’s Manual. Was it the lure of the sea? Was it a way to bond with my dad, whom I loved and admired? Was it the compelling color images? It was all of these. Today we’re offering a manual from 1927, less common than the 1940 copies which were cranked out for Navy personnel in “the war”. Google tells me that during WWII there were over 3 ½ million enlistment in the US Navy That’s a lot of Bluejacket Manuals. I still look at this book through the eyes of a child. It’s not a bad way to look at a lot of books. Cheers, Nick |  | | | |