Chapman Piloting & Seamanship

Few books in today’s world are used with equal enthusiasm by parents, children, and grandchildren. Few books grow with the changing technology of an age-old art and science. Few books are loved and respected—and at the same time are so authoritative that they are relied upon to set standards in a court of law. One of these rare books is Chapman Piloting & Seamanship, now in its tenth decade.

The story of how this book became so famous and has endured so long has many fascinating parts. The tradition began with a dynamic personality, and its evolution parallels the extraordinary growth of boating as one of North America’s favorite recreational activities, and testifies to the talent and dedication of the hundreds of people who have been directly involved with developing the content and maintaining the very high editorial standards for all the 66 editions.

The story begins during World War I, when Franklin D. Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, asked Charles F. Chapman, editor of Motor Boating magazine, to write a manual of instruction in small boat seamanship for young men who were joining the Navy, Coast Guard, or Merchant Marine. He did so in an incredible three days, and in 1917 the first edition of Practical Motor Boat Handling, Seamanship, and Piloting was published. This small book contained 144 pages in a 5-inch by 7-inch format—its subtitle tells all:

“A handbook containing information which every motor boatman should know. Everything prepared for the man who takes pride in handling his own boat and getting the greatest enjoyment out of cruising. Adapted for the yachtsman interested in fitting himself to be of service to his Government in time of war.”

Some of the information came from government sources. Part of the handbook was a fascinating excerpt from the Cunard Line’s instructions to deck officers on its transantlantic steamships. Much of the book was a paste-up of instructional articles from what was already one of the world’s leading boating magazines.

This is how it all began! Chap assembled material that had been published in Motor Boating magazine, and created a handbook for instruction of volunteer boatmen assisting the U.S. Navy in World War I. This slim volume, which would evolve into the “Chapman” that we know today, was listed in this April 1917 advertisement at a paperbound price of 50 cents.

In addition to preparing the manual, Chapman offered the Navy the use of the Power Squadrons’ “machinery ready to put into instant operation the training of great numbers of men required for the Naval Reserve Forces.” Roosevelt accepted this offer with gratitude and within a year more than 5,000 men who had attended Squadrons’ classes and used the instruction manual entered the armed services.

CHARLES F. CHAPMAN

The man who created and developed this nautical bestseller, Charles Frederic Chapman, was born in Norwich, Connecticut in 1881. With easy access to the nearby Thames River, “Chap,” as he was affectionately known throughout his life, became interested in boats, and quickly decided that his life’s interests lay afloat. At Cornell University he studied naval architecture and marine engineering, graduating in 1905.

Settling in Manhattan, he bought his first motorboat; she was the Megohm, a trim 16-footer powered by a pint-size, one-cylinder Detroit engine that produced all of two horsepower. He joined the New York Motor Boat Club, where he was later to become its commodore. This club was active in the new American Power Boat Association, and Chap became chairman of the APBA’s racing commission, the sanctioning body for motorboat races in the U.S. He wrote the first power boat racing rules, and was secretary of APBA for 25 years.

But it wasn’t all on paper. He began racing himself, and soon was declared a rising star among motorboat pilots. In 1909 the boat Chap was skippering in an ocean race from New York to Marblehead, Massachusetts, caught fire and sank. While three men balanced in a tiny dinghy, three others clung to life by hanging on to its gunwales. Eventually, the entire crew was rescued by a passing schooner. No doubt the incident played a large part in Chap’s lifelong dedication to instruction in boating safety.

As Chief Commander of the United State Power Squadrons, Charles F. Chapman is seen reviewing the fleet at a Squadron summer activity.

Chap continued racing and was a highly ranked competitor in the 1920s. To dramatize the speed potential of motorboats, he organized and participated in long distance races such as Gar Wood’s hydroplane against the famous train, the Twentieth Century Limited. Chap served as navigator when the speedboat won the race from Albany to New York City in 1923. Another boat versus train race was from Miami to New York, and there is still a Chapman Trophy for the fastest time in a powerboat between those two cities.

In 1912, he was brought to the attention of a man busy building his own reputation—William Randolph Hearst. Hearst owned the magazine Motor Boating and was looking for an editor. “It’s yours, Chap. Take it and run it as you wish,” was the assignment. And that is exactly what Chap did—for the next 56 years.

The year Chap took over the helm of the magazine it sold for ten cents a copy and reached a few thousand readers a month. Chap set his sights high, declaring, “The boating business is a sleeping giant and I’m trying to wake it.” Motor Boating soon began to grow in both stature and circulation. The magazine celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2007 at the top of its field before being hit hard by the 2009 recession. The print edition ceased publication in 2011, but Bonnier was said to be preparing for digital publication in 2012.

Chap also used his knowledge elsewhere to further the cause of boating education. In 1913 and 1914 he was one of ten men who first met at the Boston Yacht Club and later at the New York Yacht Club to form the United States Power Squadrons. He was for many years the chairman of the flag and etiquette committee and designed the USPS ensign. At various times, he was Treasurer, Vice Commander, and for two terms, Chief Commander. He administered the first national boating tests. The organization, in recognition of his long and valuable service, gave him USPS Certificate No. 1.A. Charles F. Chapman died in 1976.

As boating grew, so, unfortunately, did boating accidents and fatalities. In an effort to increase safe practices on the water and create a more informed group of participants, Chap used the pages of Motor Boating to start what he called “The Correspondence Course.” Each month an article on a particular subject would appear, and would end with a series of questions. Readers from all over the country sent in answers, and those who passed were given a certificate. This was to become the first formal boating safety course in the nation, and it led to a forerunner of the book you now hold in your hands.

By 1922 Chap’s book had undergone six revisions and in that year was retitled Piloting, Seamanship & Small Boat Handling. Now the emphasis of the book was clearly small-craft operation and safety. Still mostly a compilation of articles from the magazine, the book took on the appearance of a scrapbook of the sea and a self-instruction course in boat operation. It was constantly being revised to keep up with advances in the boating industry and ever-changing government regulations.

The book grew—in size and in usage. The United States Power Squadrons used it for free courses for the public, as well as for advanced courses for its members. The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary adopted it for its courses given by various flotillas around the country. Boaters whose navigating skills were part of their lives took pride in having a copy of the book on board. The book also acquired nicknames: “The Blue Book,” “The Bible of Boating,” and just plain “Piloting” or “Chapman.”

While Chap directed each new edition for almost 50 years, he counted on help from many assistants, and indeed, from the book’s readers. With each new edition came suggestions from staff members, professional boat captains, airplane pilots, amateur sailors, cruising boaters, and others who loved the sea. He also relied on the cooperation of the U.S. Power Squadrons, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Coast & Geodetic Survey and the Lake Survey (both now a part of NOS, the National Ocean Service), the U.S. Navy, and most of all the U.S. Coast Guard. Scores of manufacturers of equipment, boats, instruments, and other nautical gear have always assisted by providing illustrations.

Through all those years, a handful of individuals have made contributions that may be almost as responsible as Chap himself for keeping the first 50 or so editions of this book the most popular, authoritative, and current book on boating published. Their names include William H. Koelbel, who worked closely with Chap for more than 20 years and wrote a number of chapters during that time; Morris Rosenfeld, the famed marine photographer; and Morris’s son Stanley, who continued the tradition; there were also Peter Barlow, Gardner Emmons, Dr. John Wilde; Robert Danforth Ogg, co-inventor of the Danforth anchor, and Gale Foster of the Cordage Institute.

Also to be mentioned as contributors are the readers, the unofficial collaborators. The members and instructors of the U.S. Power Squadrons make suggestions, catch the minor typographical mistakes, sometimes argue with the editor about flag etiquette or fine points of navigational techniques and, perhaps most importantly, ask hundreds of meaningful questions.

“Chapman’s” continued to grow in the years following World War II, in which it was again used for the training of many men in the use of military small craft. But it had something of the appearance of a hodgepodge scrapbook, and in 1966 a complete reorganization of the book was planned by Chap and John Whiting, who succeeded to the title of Publisher in 1968 when Chap retired at the age of 86. The publishing plan became one for a “living book” that could adapt to the technological and governmental changes that were happening to boating.

First, Elbert S. Maloney (better known as “Mack”) was assigned to the work of completely rewriting the book, several chapters a year, with updates in every chapter as a flood of governmental and technology changes swept over recreational boating.

Tom Bottomley joined the crew working on the book in 1968. It was indeed a crew. There was an exceptional degree of cooperation and dedication between Bill Koelbel and Tom, and between the various outside contributors and the staff at the office. In particular, among the notable support staff was Ruth Smith (Mrs. Harold McCann), who was Mr. Chapman’s famous assistant for four decades. Tom Bottomley (just like Bill Koelbel) had first been on the editorial staff of MotorBoating magazine. Bottomley’s involvement with “Chapman’s” began in 1968, and he served as the book’s managing editor for a dozen years. His familiarity with every law and regulation passed over the years, and his technical acumen and book production expertise were called upon countless times. This book could not have reached its state of excellence without the benefit of Bottomley’s work.

The New York Yacht Club, where many of the early organizational meetings of the United States Power Squadrons were held.

Mack Maloney, in sheer volume of work as well as its excellence, deserves special singling out. He spent his boyhood in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where his front yard was the Atlantic Ocean. Since then he has never been far from salt water, even during his 28 years in the Marine Corps. By the time Chap was preparing to retire, Mack had already written a number of chapters in the book and was recognized as an authority on many boating subjects. It was Chap’s personal request that Mack step in for him and take over the principal authorship of the book.

Even in retirement, Chap kept his eyes on the book. In his home, “Bylandorsea,” situated on the Connecticut River near Essex, he welcomed visitors from the staff. He deferred comments, saying “You are closer to it all today,”—but the staff always had in mind keeping up the same standards with the new book that he had set for the original volume sixty years and nearly two million copies ago. He was honored in 1955 by the Ole Evinrude Boating Foundation with a silver bowl bearing engraved “No other man deserves so much from so many of us in the World of Boating.” Mr. Chapman died in Essex on March 21, 1976.

Beginning in 1965, Mack Maloney became the man in constant touch with the appropriate agencies in Washington D.C. and the man behind the typewriter and computer keyboard, working with the editors in the planning of each new edition. In 2000, for the 64th edition, Mack was given the opportunity to make broad changes in the book. He extensively reorganized and added chapters to Chapman and rewrote the text from the first to the last page. Many new color photographs and illustrations were added as well.

In 2007, Charles (“Chuck”) B. Husick assumed the responsibility for preparing and editing Chapman’s 66th edition. Husick had served on the BoatUS Advisory Council, the American Boat & Yacht Council, the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS) Implementation Task Force, and the Radio Technical Committee for Marine Services (RTCM). He was also a journalist who had written about marine engines, electrical systems, communications, and radar for many boating publications and was a contributing editor for others. An avid sailor for more than 40 years and an experienced executive in the marine, aviation, and electronics industries, Husick brought his respect for age-old seamanship and enthusiasm for technology to the tradition of Chapman in the 66th edition.

Chuck passed away after preparing the 66th edition, but a highly qualified team came together to assemble the 67th edition, once again anchored by Mack Maloney, the indispensable constant in the Chapman tradition for 48 years. Mack passed away in early 2014, at the age of 94, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The editorial team for this 68th edition includes one member (Jonathan Eaton) who worked closely with Mack on the 67th edition and two new members (John Wooldridge and John Whiting) who have read and consulted Chapman throughout their careers on the water.

Chap was an avid and highly competent motorboat racer. Over the years, he won many trophies, including the Gold Cup shown above.

Chapman Piloting & Seamanship has passed its three millionth copy sold and is now in its 100th year of continuous publication. It is somewhat astonishing to realize that the book has had only a handful of principal authors, four publishers, and just two publishing companies in all those years. This famous book remains in its rightful place as the indispensable “Bible of Boating.”