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How to Avoid Huge Ships

1982 book by John W. Trimmer

Summary

1982 book by John W. Trimmer

Field	Value
image	Bookcover - how to avoid huge ships.jpg
author	John W. Trimmer
country	United States
language	English
subject	Seamanship
publisher	First edition: National Writers Press
Second edition: Cornell Maritime Press /Tidewater
release_date	First edition: 1982
Second edition: 1993
media_type	Paperback
pages	First edition: 97
Second edition: 112
isbn	978-0881000191
isbn_note	(1st edition)
(2nd edition)

Second edition: Cornell Maritime Press /Tidewater Second edition: 1993 Second edition: 112 (2nd edition) How to Avoid Huge Ships is a 1982 book by Captain John W. Trimmer, a Master Mariner and Seattle harbor pilot. The first edition was self-published from Trimmer's home in Seattle, and carried the subtitle Or: I Never Met a Ship I Liked. It is a maritime operations guidance book, but also attracted some attention due to its title, which some found to be unusual, incongruous, and humorous.

Intended for a specialized audience (the captains or operators of small private boats, such as yachts and trawlers), the book gives advice on appropriate avoidance actions when confronted by the near presence of a large ship such as a freighter, along with anecdotes and background information such as the capabilities and operating procedures of the large ships.

Bookseller/Diagram Prize and subsequent attention

The book won the 1992 Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Title of the Year and was used to title the first compilation of prize winners, How to Avoid Huge Ships and Other Implausibly Titled Books (2008). The book finished third in *The Bookseller'''s 2008 competition for the oddest book title of all time (behind Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers and *People Who Don't Know They're Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It'').

Beginning in 2000, the book attracted humorous reader reviews on its Amazon.com entry. The book, its prize-winning status, and sometimes its accompanying constellation of odd reviews, was commented on by publications ranging from Cracked to the New York Times. The New York Daily News called it "the best book ever" while Publishers Weekly conversely called it "the worst book ever".

In the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, there is a book titled "How to Avoid Colossal Vessels", which is regarded as an easter egg reference to this book.

In 2021, the book was featured in several internet memes related to that year's blockage of the Suez Canal.

References

"How to Avoid Huge Ships (review)". Good Reads.
(September 8, 2008). "Distinctively odd". BBC.
Rickett, Joel. (2008). "How to Avoid Huge Ships and Other Implausibly Titled Books". Aurum Press Ltd.
Flood, Alison. (September 4, 2008). "Greek Postmen win oddest book title prize". The Guardian.
Holland, Christina. (December 21, 2010). "8 Stupid Amazon Products With Impressively Sarcastic Reviews". Cracked.
Lyall, Sarah. (March 27, 2009). "Odd Prize: Judging a Book by Its Title". New York Times.
Lange, Jeva. (February 8, 2013). "'How to Avoid Huge Ships' is clearly the best book ever". New York Daily News.
Habash, Gabe. (July 21, 2011). "The Worst Book Ever is 'How to Avoid Huge Ships'". Publishers Weekly.
(25 March 2021). "Ship blocking Suez Canal prompts flood of memes". www.aljazeera.com.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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