LANE, CARL [DANIEL] (1899–1995). Carl Lane, a nautical writer and
illustrator born in New York City, developed his love for the sea while vacationing in Maine, where he eventually settled. Lane wrote The Fleet in the
Forest (1943), a Great Lakes* historical novel about the construction of
Commodore Oliver Perry’s Lake Erie fleet during the War of 1812 and a
prophetic shipwright’s anticipation about an unsettled wilderness lake.
Other fiction includes River Dragon (1948), a historical children’s novel
about steamboats, The Fire Raft (1951), and Black Tide (1952).
A noted sailor, designer, and builder of yachts, Lane revamped the Boy
Scouts of America’s Sea Scout Manual; wrote for several publications, including Saturday Evening Post, Sea Power, and Collier’s; and penned his own
authoritative sailing handbooks: Boatowner’s Sheet Anchor (1941), The Boatman’s Manual (1943), How to Sail (1947), and The Cruiser’s Manual
(1949).