Friend of the magazine David Kilmer is a lifelong recreational boat captain, notably of the iconic Sizzler sailboat of Lake Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He is also a prolific writer and published book author. When I got a chance to check out an advanced reader copy of his newest work, The Way of the Captain (Signalman Press, 2025), I eagerly took it.
I’ve become a fan of Kilmer’s writing since reading The Way of the Sailor (Signalman Press, 2024), a series of memoir vignettes about his sailing adventures. Yes, there are plenty of sailing memoirs floating about, but one thing I appreciate about Kilmer’s writing is that he earnestly seeks to elevate his prose into real literature. As a reader, you may be lulled into a false sense that you’re embarking on a standard sailing yarn, only for Kilmer to invoke a hymn from the King James Bible before digging into the why of it all. There’s a relentless romanticism in Kilmer’s writing. He often comes across like a seafaring Rumi praising the glory of it all—even the bad or dangerous experiences are part of the whole.
Another element core to Kilmer’s writing is an all-encompassing desire to learn lessons both for sailing and life. Kilmer’s prose tends to use an engaging experience at sea as a means to earn a nugget of wisdom, often distilled into a memorable one-liner for us readers. This desire for real meaning and the infusion of the aforementioned romanticism makes for earnest and refreshing reading compared to the often nihilistic, dispassionate, and blasé underpinning philosophies common to the contemporary literary mainstream. In my view, there’s a sedentary, disassociated character central to too many books coming out that leave one’s soul abused and sense of self needlessly deconstructed. Not so with Kilmer’s books. I’ve been quoted before as calling Kilmer’s writing “vitality beamed directly to the brain.”
I was happy to find the same experience with The Way of the Captain that combines profiles of over 20 working sea captains (and one pilot, Kilmer’s father Jim), written in their own words, with The Way of the Sailor-style Kilmer memoir. The captain autobiographies make up about the first two thirds of the book, while Kilmer takes the helm and steers us home with his stories for the last third or so. This storytelling method worked for me, and it was a fun surprise to see familiar faces among the lineup. The Pacific Northwest is well represented.
The Way of the Captain is structured entirely around the subject of skippering with each profiled captain distilling his or her “Habits of the Helm” after sharing engaging seafaring accomplishments. Kilmer offers his lessons in a similar fashion at the end. As a reader and someone who has shared similar experiences to many of the entries, I found it amusing how the captains all have very similar and yet somehow also entirely different takes on skippering and life. While Clipper Around the World captain, R2AK winner, and Maiden skipper Nikki Henderson tells us, “The greatest motivator is love,” Matt Rutherford of circumnavigating the Americas unsupported on an Albin Vega 27 and Arctic exploration fame tells us, “Better to sink the boat than quit.” This is only proper. While running a boat may be the common job at hand, we are all individuals bringing our own ethos’ and perspectives to the helm. There is something very human about seeing these often-larger-than-life characters right next to each other in a book, earnestly sharing their lives. I can’t help but imagine how they’d all spark off one another if brought under one roof with access to an open bar.
Hats off to Kilmer for putting in the effort to herd all these individually minded, far roaming cats between the same two covers. The addition of the various captains really makes The Way of the Captain a work of literary journalism, in my view, often reminding me of Jon Krakauer’s book, Eiger Dreams, that brings together and expounds Krakauer’s most engaging climbing profiles when writing as a journalist. The life lessons and memoir aspect brings in a light, positive self-help touch. The book encourages us to mindfully reflect on both what makes a good captain and also a good life.
The Way of the Captain is a Wheelhouse Reads recommend from me, especially for those who work and play on waters in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. At a beefy 400 pages long, it’s a perfect cruising companion to take in bite-sized portions and think about while miles pass under the hull. I think there could also be an appeal here for general audiences who enjoy memoir, literary journalism, and self-help. Skål, captain Kilmer.
