Learning the Ropes: An Apprentice on the Last of the Windjammers

In 1938, Eric Newby signed on as an apprentice on the Finnish four-masted barque Moshulu for a 'round-the-world' voyage transiting between Europe and Australia. It was the toughest imaginable introduction to the sailor's life. Few of the crew spoke English, and he was ordered atop the rigging -- 200 feet above deck -- before he could get out of his best jacket and shoes. More extraordinary still, between his shifts he managed to photograph day-to-day life aboard the antique vessel, and on others like her in various ports of call. Though he did not realize it then, these pictures soon became historic, for with a world war brewing, there would never again be a cavalcade of square riggers such as made the circuit that year. Remarkably, the Moshulu is still afloat and is now a restaurant ship, moored in Philadelphia.  

Eric Newby is the author of fifteen other adventure classics, including The Last Grain Race, A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush, Love and War in the Apennines, and What the Traveler Saw. He lives in London.