"Beating up under all sail..."
Progress, delays and sailing home
During a long voyage, contrary winds can come at any point. So it has been for the last several weeks of production. However, despite the vicissitudes of life – some poor physical health, engaging in elder care, supply chain delays for things like 22K gold foil, and being a bit overwhelmed by the state of the world – progress continues, albeit at a somewhat slower pace than anticipated. I hope that all of you too are navigating troubled waters with love and support. We are so close to finishing, yet I do not want to rush things. We have been taking great care in producing this edition, and it would be a shame to have haste lead to mistakes at this point. So, this is a brief update of progress in completing Master and Commander.
Anchor Edition
Spoiler Alert!
If you wish to keep the finished book a surprise, you may want to avoid watching the video below.
With the continued help of the intrepid Emiland, we are drawing near the completion of the Anchor Edition. As you can see in the video, our books have leather, marbled paper, and endpapers done on most of the copies.
Realistically, we need another month to complete them all. At that point, we will ship out the copies that do not include the clamshell case. An additional month’s work should see the copies with the clamshell case ready to be sent out.
Victory Edition
The Victory Edition should be finished just a few weeks after the Anchor Edition. Dan Ecklund will be completing the covers over the next couple of weeks. Once the teak from HMS Victory was milled, he concluded that it would be better to “stabilize” the wood to reduce the possibility of its warping in different environments. The lumber has lived most of its life exposed to cold and salt water only to be transported to the dry desert. And with copies of the edition finding homes in libraries across the globe, we wanted to be sure that the covers would continue to be as resilient as they are beautiful. Despite the weeks needed to finish stabilizing all of the wood, the final milling process is taking place as we speak.
Victory Wooden Boxes
Callum and David Robinson report that the Victory wood boxes – for the lucky few who ordered them – are nearly complete. Indeed, we anticipate their completion and delivery to precede the completion of the Victory Edition. Although we will hold off on showing the completed boxes, Callum shared a photos of his father’s ongoing work on the carvings.
Next Steps
Once we are ready to ship the Anchor Edition, we will contact backers to
Confirm shipping address and preferences
Request final payment for the book and the shipping cost
Thanks to all of you for your continued support!