Zebulon Northrop Tilton was a huge cross-eyed schooner captain, born in 1867 on Martha''s Vineyard Island. It is said that he could have sailed the "Alice S. Wentworth to Chicago on a heavy dew. His rigorous and celebrated life afloat, his countless shenanigans ashore, his love for women and for his "Alice, his enormous skill, strength, and wit form the image of an unmistakably real American folk hero. Zeb and his famous coastal schooner experienced the heyday and the closing of an unforgettable era hauling all manner of freight under sail from New York''s South Street Seaport to the icy Kennebec River in Maine. Polly Burroughs has faithfully recreated Zeb''s incredible life and times from masses of newspaper accounts and family records, from the words of friends and cronies, and from a wealth of historic photographs, many by Alfred Eisenstaedt and other prominent photographers. The result is the true chronicle of a hard and hearty seafaring life richly and colorfully spiced with authentic Yankee humor and with the many personalities who crossed Zeb''s path. Though Zeb died in 1952, his legend lives on, not only in this remarkable biography but also in two folk songs, a Martha''s Vineyard country store named after him, and the countless admirers who keep his memory alive. While depicting an island icon, this book also offers a portrait of Martha''s Vineyard around the turn of the twentieth century and a panoramic look at several decades of northeastern coastal life and the shipping trade.
- ISBN10 0762738421
- ISBN13 9780762738427
- Publish Date 1 May 2005 (first published 1 December 1979)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 22 November 2012
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
- Imprint Globe Pequot Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 160
- Language English