Unfamiliar tales grounded in folklore include accounts of a nineteenth-century Jonah, a plagued Russian freighter, and the ghost of the U.S.S. Constellation

In this tale of life at sea the author tells of voyages round the Horn and his time in the Aland Islands where he fitted out a small boat and sailed with the lovely Elsa. He describes the trials and pleasures of life under sail, including adventures with sharks, drunken captains and a stowaway.