The story of the years the author spent in the four-masted barque Silberhorn, running to Oregon and San Francisco, as told in his famous book, Ships and Women, which is reproduced in full, together with many memories and reflections from his no less famous Letters, the odd story and poem, with over one hundred and fifty photographic illustrations of the ships he knew and forty pen-and-ink sketches by W. M. Birchall.