I'm happy to announce a new book for sale, and the first not published directly by SeaWatch. A few years ago Nick Starace self published his memoire White Sails Become Me. It's a great book from a man who has led an extraordinary life. I actually know Nick from my ship model club (The Ship Model Society of New Jersey) and a get together recently he told me about his book and gave me a copy. I knew that I wanted to expand the SeaWatch collection to more general interest maritime subjects and I thought this was a great first book to add.
Starace’s journey spans over eighty countries, navigating personal loss, triumph, and adventure. With heart-wrenching honesty, he shares the tragedies that befell his family, and how they survived by virtue of a strong determination to fulfill their destiny in America. Starace saw the world from quaysides and ship-decks. But it took the miniature version—model ships—for him to see his family. His grandfather was a boatbuilder and seaman from Procida, an island near Naples, who immigrated to Brooklyn in the late 1800s.
He brought with him an unusual passion that he would pass on to his grandson: model-ship-building. His grandfather’s teachings and a shared passion for all things nautical had a profound effect on Starace’s career path. His grandfather’s old hobby would also help him form a crucial bond with his son Nicky, before his untimely death at twenty-six. Nicky’s death woke the family—and especially Starace—to the chaotic nature of life, and to utter despair. Starace began to look for his family’s identity as a way to make sense of not only loss, but terrorism, divorce, near-death accidents, earthquakes, cancer, military death in the family, and even the pleasant trauma of retirement. Notwithstanding the many setbacks, you will see the author living life to the fullest with an insatiable thirst for travel, challenge, and adventure. White Sails Became Me is a gripping adventure of a life spent around ships, boats, and the sea. And while the central theme is nautical, it truly has something for everyone.