EMBARCADERO

This would appear to be mostly for old California hands and sailing buffs. Mr. Dillon tells, in a series of chapters unrelated except that each of the incidents is somehow related to the San Francisco waterfront, stories of horrendous wrecks at sea and harrowing rescues, mutinies, cannibalism, and shanghai-gangs. There seems to be no reason to quarrel with Mr. Dillon's accuracy, and his research has apparently been enormous. Dates of sailing and captain's names, technical nautical terms and sailor's slang proliferate sometimes alarmingly. The case is not helped by the fact that James Michener has dealt with some of this material in Rascals in Paradise, and to considerably more interesting effect. Still, for the limited aficionado audience, Embarcadero should prove very welcome.