I had longed intended to make a voyage in one of the very few modern steel sailing ships that still survive, feeling that their story deserved writing while the opportunity still remained.

Foreword.

The invitation to write a foreword to Mr. A. J. Villiers' book is a compliment which I appreciate very much indeed, for I feel very strongly that it is a book which will prove a valued addition to the literature of the sea.

Introduction, by Frank C. Bowen.

If a passenger steamer had been in the vicinity of Cape Otway, off the southern coast of Australia, on the morning of Saturday, December 17th, 1927, her passengers would have seen the sight of their lives: two great four-masted barques, relics of an age that had passed for ever, racing under all sail to a stiff southerly breeze.

Chapter I. Two four-masted barques.