Best seller autobiography, sailing classic, with maritime illustrations by renowned artist Kenneth D Shoesmith, complete with sea shanties and sailors knots - is of real sea life adventure in days before steamships, when life-or-death teamwork instilled salt-of-the-earth camaraderie, regardless of origins, since lost

In this beautifully illustrated sailing classic, which starts with the tragic deaths of the author's sister and father and impending poverty of his mother, it's not hard to imagine the gravely-voiced captain (the author) recalling the era of 'large sailing ships' and why the world stopped being a better place when they were forced off the sea