The fascinating history of a 17th century trading vessel and its master, a unique account of shipping and trading hundreds of years ago.

The George was probably a product of the well-established shipbuilding industry in Leith, during the latter part of the seventeenth century. A wealth of information is included on topics such as the construction of the hull form and fittings, an inventory of equipment, details of the navigation instruments that were used, how the tonnage was calculated and the different types of sails.

Details of the ships expenses show the food purchased which consisted mainly of meat, beer and bread - apparently standard fare for all voyages for the master and crew! (Perhaps this would have brought to mind the old saying that 'God sent the food and the devil sent the cooks'!) Freight such as salt and coal were carried to surprisingly diverse places as Rotterdam, London and Norway as well as more local ports and extracts from the accounts show the cost of so doing.

One erstwhile master of the George, James Forrester, was seized by French privateers in 1710 and held for ransom and it was only due to the efforts of his wife, Janet Johnston, that he was eventually released. This absorbing account was taken from the records of an Admiralty Court case in Edinburgh that she had raised.

Extract from foreword by Professor T.C.Smout, Historiographer Royal in Scotland
'Mr. Hustwick's achievement is to use the remarkable accounts of the George to take us exactly into the seventeenth-century mariners' world, to explain how every part of such a ship worked ... So we have a fine book, informed at every step by a scholarship that does justice to the seventeenth-century mariner's work and its economic and social setting. It is in studying the texture of lives like this that the true history of Scotland's people comes alive'.

'The George of Port Seton presents a unique record of the cost of operating a 17th century ship based upon the accounts maintained by her Master and provides a wonderful insight into the mariners' world of the period. ... This is a fine book, well researched and certainly does justice to the work of the 17th century mariners and the economy and working conditions under which they had their being'. World Ship Review

'This is an excellent book and well worth buying and keeping by your bedside. It is written by a thoughtful, sensitive man who, nevertheless, has his feet on the ground, the ground in this ca'This is a finely researched book that opens up the working practices of 17th century Scottish shipping basd on the Firth of Forth. ... The author has been able to offer the reader an intriguing insight into the equipment, construction and operation of the small sailing craft of that period. ... These dry accounts of Captain James Forrester's nine voyages show that seafaring in 1690 was a tough and dangerous business'. The Nautical Magazine