WINNER OF THE MOUNTBATTEN MARITIME AWARD Second edition, revised and with over 100 photographs. When Australian journalist Alan Villiers sailed on the last of the giant merchant windjammers in the 1920s and ‘30s, his writings and photographs made him famous. Villiers crewed on beautiful Herzogin Cecilie and tragic Grace Harwar, took tiny Joseph Conrad around the globe, sailed on Arabian dhows, led wartime landing craft, captained Mayflower II across the Atlantic, and inspired modern sail training and ship restoration projects. Drawn from his personal diaries, this award-winning biography of the author-adventurer reveals both his mythmaking and his achievements. It is a tribute to the greatest sailing ships ever launched - and to the extraordinary man who loved them.