Considered to be the saltiest river in England, the Blackwater in Essex provides the background for John Leather's story of Essex seafaring. It is an accurate study of men and craft that have sailed from the small communities beside this broad estuary and river. It is a varied story, where fishermen, bargemen, boatbuilders, sailmakers, wildfowlers and smugglers join the sailing smacks and barges , brigs, bumkins, and gunpunts in the workaday watery world. Lots of b/w photographs. Pb. 200pp.