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Frank Reed recommended E F Knight's "Falcon on the Baltic", and I agree.
This was a cruise from Southern England, through the inland waterways of
Holland, and through the Eider to the Baltic; a route that predates the
Kiel Canal and is still available. The voyage dates, as I recall, from
around the 1890s, shortly after one of the regular wars between Germany and
Denmark.

No engine in those days, of course, so how did they manage in those Dutch
canals? Sailed when they could; hired a tow-horse when they could;
man-hauled when they had to; and often managed to hitch a tow behind a
steam-tug with a string of barges.

Knight had a hired hand, a shipmate with whom he had previously made a
deep-water voyage. It's interesting to note the social distinctions of that
period. Not on christian-name terms, each man had his own end of the (tiny)
vessel. When Knight made an outing, or went to a cafe for a meal, his hand
wasn't invited, but was expected to look after himself. Not that they were
on bad terms; that was the way it was done in those days.

Knight had written, earlier, "The Cruise of the Falcon", (a different, and
larger Falcon), in which he explored quite far into the rivers of Uruguay:
but I enjoyed his Baltic cruise by far the best.

George.

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