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 sailors 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.