John Rousmaniere

John Pierce Rousmaniere is an American writer and author of 30 historical.

technical, and instructional books on sailing, yachting history, New York history, business history, and the histories of clubs, businesses, and other organizations.

An authority on seamanship and boating safety, he has conducted tests of equipment and sailing skills and led or participated in fact-finding inquiries into boating accidents.

He has been presented with several awards for his writing and his contributions to boating safety and seamanship.

John Pierce Rousmaniere (pronounced "Room-an-ear") is the oldest of the eight children of the late James Ayer Rousmaniere, of Boston and New York, and of the late Jessie Broaddus Pierce Rousmaniere, of Louisville and Brownsville, Texas, the daughter of a U.S. Army general and a cousin of Mayor Andrew Broaddus, who integrated Louisville's parks in the 1950s.

He is a descendant of a Frenchman who fought for the American side in the American Revolution, of the Easton family that co-founded Newport, Rhode Island, and of pioneer settlers in Brownsville, Texas.

He spent his early years in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at age 11 moved with his family to Oyster Bay, on Long Island, New York.

He is an alumnus of the Episcopalian-affiliated St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire (1962); Columbia University (BS 1967, M.A. 1968); and Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (M.Div., 1988).

After U.S. Army service as an Infantry OCS-trained, Airborne-qualified officer and Assistant Professor of History at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Rousmaniere was an editor at Yachting and Natural History magazines before becoming a freelance writer in 1978.

His sailing experience, and his writing about the 1979 Fastnet storm, led Rousmaniere to organize or participate in more than 100 safety at sea or seamanship events, including tests of equipment and studies of accidents, as well as safety-at-sea seminars under the aegis of the U.S. Sailing Association (US SAILING) or North U (the educational arm of North Sails).

Rousmeniere's Fastnet, Force 10 (W.W. Norton, 1980) is his first-person account of sailing in the tragic 1979 Fastnet Race, in which 15 sailors died.

His sailing manual, The Annapolis Book of Seamanship (Simon & Schuster), has gone through four editions since its initial publication in 1983.

His experiences in and about the Fastnet Race storm led him to attend Union Theological Seminary, where he earned the Master of Divinity degree in 1988 and met his wife, Leath Ruth Robinson.

Rousmaniere has sailed more than 40,000 miles, including nine Newport Bermuda Races (two in the second-place boat), two Fastnet Races, three transatlantic races or cruises, other long races or cruises, and extensive day races that included winning championships.

Books he has edited include All This and Sailing, Too, the autobiography of the yacht designer Olin J. Stephens II, (Mystic Seaport, 1999);, as well as Dennis Conner's autobiography No Excuse to Lose; The Enduring Great Lakes, on the ecology of the Great Lakes; Desirable and Undesirable Characteristics of Offshore Yachts; and Michael Levitt, Herding Tigers: The North Sails Story (North Sails, 2009).

In television and video, Rousmaniere has written the scripts for several sailing shows produced by Gary Jobson for ESPN and other outlets.

It was followed in 2002 by After the Storm: True Stories of Disaster and Recovery at Sea, about the causes and consequences of storms at sea as seen through biographies of sailors and seamen, stories of gales and wrecks, and Rousmaniere's own experiences.

He worked in New York City and his home in Stamford, Conn., where he raised his two sons, before moving to Manhattan in 2005.

Rousmaniere writes on a wide range of topics but may be best known for his books on storms at sea, boating safety, yachting history, and sailing instruction.

Rousmaniere co-organized the Crew Overboard Rescue Seminar at Sausalito, Cal., in 2005 and wrote its final report recommending rescue equipment and skills.

He later served as coordinator of the Hanson Rescue Medal Award presented by US SAILING.

In 2010–16, he spoke at or moderated more than 20 safety seminars or related events: for the Transpac Race, Marion Bermuda Cruising Yacht Race, Isla Mujeres Race, U.S. Naval Academy Safety at Sea Seminar, Sailing Foundation in Seattle Safety at Sea Seminar, Chicago Strictly Sail Boat Show, Newport Bermuda Race and other venues.

He contributed 40 essays to the 2nd edition (2010) edition of The Encyclopedia of New York City.

He is a former trustee of The Evergreens Cemetery Preservation Foundation.

In 2011 he served on Independent Review Panels in US Sailing Association inquiries into two fatal sailing accidents, one involving the death of a young sailor in a 420 dinghy at Annapolis, Md., and the other the deaths of two sailors in the Chicago Yacht Club's race to Mackinac Island, on Lake Michigan.

The reports are available on the US Sailing website.

In 2012 he conducted a review of an incident in the 2012 Newport Bermuda Race, and also wrote the report on tests of sailor retrieval, capsize recovery, and entrapment that were held in California and New York.

Rousmaniere has written a number of history books on a broad range of topics that include the America's Cup, ocean racing, yacht clubs and other clubs, New York history, business history, and the history of yachting.

He has also written about maritime photography (Sleek and A Picture History of the America's Cup).

For many years he was Consulting Editor of The Dolphin Book Club, the maritime division of the Book of the Month Club.

His book reviews have appeared in "WoodenBoat," "Cruising World", "Sea History," and other publications.

He frequently lectures on maritime history and New York history at historical associations, yacht clubs, and other venues.

Beginning in 2012, he has led a monthly book discussion group concerning publications on maritime topics, meeting in the New York Yacht Club library.

His non-boating books include histories of the law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, the Union League Club of New York, and Piping Rock Country Club.

Rousmaniere's writings about New York City include a history of settlement houses (his Columbia M.A. thesis).

His Green Oasis in Brooklyn is an illustrated history of a large, classic 170-year-old cemetery on the Brooklyn-Queens border.

The revised and updated fourth edition was published in January 2014.

A video series of the same title is based on the book.

Published in several languages and still in print in 2016, this was the first of his two storm books.

He retired as a safety seminar moderator in 2016 and continues to make presentations, for example at the 2018 Newport Bermuda Race safety seminar.