Annie, a good one. I'm sure no self-respecting seaman would fail to have a copy of that. It is still in print, and I saw a first edition for almost £500. Reprints from a fiver. I'm quite tempted.
Updated 12:07. It is almost poetic. Here is an extract.
"A philosopher of the East, [13] with a richness of imagery truly Oriental, describes the atmosphere as “a spherical shell which surrounds our planet to a depth which is unknown to us, by reason of its growing tenuity, as it is released from the pressure of its own superincumbent mass. Its upper surface can not be nearer to us than fifty, and can scarcely be more remote than five hundred miles. It surrounds us on all sides, yet we see it not; it presses on us with a load of fifteen pounds on every square inch of surface of our bodies, or from seventy to one hundred tons on us in all, yet we do not so much as feel its weight. Softer than the softest down — more impalpable than the finest gossamer — it leaves the cobweb undisturbed, and scarcely stirs the lightest flower that feeds on the dew it supplies; yet it bears the fleets of nations on its wings around the world, and crushes the most refractory substances with its weight.". Physical Geography Of The Sea.
Martin