Tomorrow morning, the Martha’s Vineyard Museum will host a gathering of book authors at the Pease House on School street in Edgartown. Among the distinguished lineup will be Tom Hale, who at 11 a.m. will sign copies of a newly printed edition of a 19th century book, Mr. Hardy Lee, His Yacht. The book, Drawn by Chinks and originally published in 1857, is widely considered the first on yachting in America.

Mr. Hale, 86, is a consummate maritime enthusiast and Vineyard Haven resident who ran the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard from 1961 to 1986 before turning the family business over to his son.

A whimsical story told beautifully through 24 lithographs, Mr. Hardy Lee was written in the day of sail. The story opens with Mr. Hardy coming into a lot of money and he decides: “By jove, I can keep a yacht.” And he has one built.

In an interview this week Mr. Hale said the project to reprint the book is grounded in his early love for the sea. “Shipping, maritime history, stories of the sea come naturally to me. The sea has been a large part of my life,” he said from his home on Hatch Road.

Chinks was a pseudonym for Dr. Charles Ellery Stedman, a Boston physician, sailor and artist with a sense of humor. Mr. Hale is the doctor’s great-grandnephew. After 1857, the book was printed again in 1950. In 2001 and in 2004, Mr. Hale published a small edition of the book for family and friends. The most recent printing is larger although still limited. There are 300 copies; Mr. Hale is selling the book for $50.

There is some evidence that the artist Winslow Homer had a hand in the lithographs used in the book. Homer is famous for his paintings of sailboats and the sea. But before he became a painter, he worked as a book illustrator. It is understood that Dr. Stedman penciled the drawings for the book and Mr. Homer took the drawings and rendered them into stone lithographs.

The book contains a chapter written by the historian Eric Rudd, who makes the case that Homer not only made the lithographs but also left behind signs in the images that prove the point.

In an afterword in the book, Mr. Hale thanks Mr. Rudd for his contribution to the story behind the story: “To me it matters not who took the last brush or pencil stroke, Mr. Hardy Lee is a great yarn and in many ways is as true today as it was in 1857.”

Produced by the staff at the Tisbury Printer, the book includes copies of the original 24 lithographs, as well as nearly all of the original pencil sketches that were later copied into the lithographs.

Owner Chris Decker credited graphic designer Don Groover for much of the work that went into capturing the spirit of the 154-year-old book.

Mr. Decker said that Mr. Hale was at the print shop on a regular basis in the last year to watch the various parts of the book come together. Mr. Hale’s enthusiasm for the project was contagious, he said.

Mr. Hale said he is deeply pleased with all who helped and the final outcome.

Other writers appearing at the museum tomorrow include Cynthia Riggs, Lynn Christoffers and Stephen Wesley at noon with the book Victoria Trumbull’s Martha’s Vineyard; Tom Dresser at 1 p.m. with his book,The Wampanoag Tribe of Martha’s Vineyard; and Alison Shaw at 2 p.m. with her book, Photographing Martha’s Vineyard.