He Spent 3 Years Literally Hacking His Way to a Literary Career

For three years, Martin Riegel drove a taxi in central Orange County so he could support his habit. Although he quit the taxi-driving job a few years ago, his habit--writing and publishing books about California’s nautical past--is still with him.

During the past two years, Riegel, 45, has self-published 12 pocket-size books, which he sells mostly through maritime museums throughout the state.

Riegel’s biggest seller is an 84-page paperback called “California’s Maritime Heritage,” which chronicles the state’s development via its sailing ships and steam ships.

The book was published in 1987 and so far has sold 1,000 copies and has been chosen as a textbook for use in a small private college in Northern California.

Although Riegel, who holds a master’s degree in business, says he is now making a profit on his books, he still must hold down another job to make ends meet. He is working as a salesman/manager trainee at an electronics store. And in his spare time, he is researching another maritime book.

“The research is as much fun as the writing,” says Riegel, a San Clemente resident whose fascination with ships goes back to a childhood spent on Lake Erie. “I grew up watching the lake freighters and other ships, so there’s always been a mystique about ships.”

When he moved to California 15 years ago, Riegel was naturally drawn to California’s nautical past and began to read about the early lumber ships, Gold Rush steam ships and passenger lines that served the state.

“I found that there just wasn’t one book that drew all of it (the state’s nautical past) together,” he says. So Riegel began collecting books and magazine articles and compiling information on the subject. Soon he had developed a well-formed habit and had accumulated a library of 200 nautical books.

“Since I have lived here, I have grown to love it very much,” he says. “It (the state’s nautical past) is a priceless heritage, lost in a world of computers and fast cars. So much of nautical writing is based on the Atlantic. There is a void here (on the Pacific Coast) in the nautical-writing field.”

But ships have played a tremendous part in California’s development, Riegel points out. The first exploration of California by the Spanish was via the sea, he says. And the sea served as the primary route for most of the more than 100,000 people who came to California during the Gold Rush years, according to Riegel. The quickest way to California was from New York or New Orleans to Panama via steamship, across the Isthmus of Panama by canoe and foot, and then up the Pacific Coast by steamer to San Francisco--a voyage of 30 days at best, he notes in “California’s Maritime Heritage.”

“People had to really want to come to California,” he says. “Today, people don’t think about these things. But it gives you a whole new appreciation of our modern life.”

Riegel, a member of the National Maritime Historical Society, says there is quite a fraternity of ship lovers like himself. “There are some who love sailing ships and others who love steamships,” he says.

For these readers, he has put together a 164-page, hard-bound book called “A Ship Lovers Guide to California.” For Orange County readers, he has produced a 40-page booklet called “The Ships of the Orange Coast,” and for those interested in Catalina Island, there’s “The Ships of Catalina Island.” The Catalina book, priced at $8.95, sold 400 copies this past summer in Catalina, Riegel says.

“I am currently working on a nautical book for children,” says Riegel, a bachelor who says the book was inspired by his nieces and nephews. “I want to give them this information in an easy-to-read form.”

Riegel not only researches, writes and publishes his books, he also illustrates them. Each volume includes many elaborately detailed drawings of ships, as well as a liberal sprinkling of early photographs. For example, in “The Ships of the Orange Coast,” Riegel includes a drawing of the Argentina, one of two warships ever to attack Orange County.

According to Riegel’s account, the ship, sailing under the flag of Argentina, was captained by a French privateer named Hippolyte Bouchard, who was commissioned to harass Spanish colonies in the New World around 1818. Bouchard anchored in Capistrano Bay, according to Riegel, with a force of 350 men and two armed ships--the Argentina and the Santa Rosa--and burned the village.

Riegel also includes a drawing and a detailed account of the Newport, a 247-ton cargo ship that carried passengers, lumber, livestock, farm products and merchandise to Orange County around 1875.

When asked why he puts so much time, effort and money into producing a series of special-interest books that will be seen by a mere handful of people, Riegel replies: “For me, it is a labor of love. I do it because I want to do it. I think a sailing ship has a certain majesty beyond its utilitarian use. To sail with the wind carrying you silently across the water is a fascination.”

Shearlean Duke is a regular contributor to Orange County Life. On the Waterfront appears each Saturday, covering boating life styles as well as ocean-related activities along the county’s 42-mile coastline.