Sailing Ship Elissa (Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University)

For more than a hundred years the four-hundred-ton barque Elissa worked the world's waters, first as a sailing ship and then as a motor vessel. Built in 1877 when steam vessels were beginning to overtake large sailing ships as prime cargo carriers, Elissa survived for more than a century on the strength of her hull and on the economic niche that ships of her size could fill. In Sailing Ship Elissa, Patricia Bellis Bixel provides a complete history of the ship: her building and launching in Aberdeen, Scotland; her prime years of sailing under British, Norwegian, and Swedish flags; her decline as a Greek smuggler; and her eventual restoration as a tall ship for Texas. Included also is a view of the life of staff and crew on board the ship during a sailing season today. Photographs by Jim Cruz and others wonderfully illustrate Elissa's history and bring to life the difficulties of restoration, the labors of her crew, and the grace and beauty of a sailing ship whether docked or underway.