Ships and destinies

The motto of this richly illustrated book from 1934 ("The ship depends more on the rudder than the rudder on the ship") simultaneously symbolizes its content: It also tells the stories of the people who have faced the great dangers of seafaring for centuries, who sacrificed their lives and those who returned home. The book describes the era of the great sailing ships, the specifics of their voyages, the strains of extreme travel times, the challenges around Cape Horn, and much more. Other chapters deal with the clipper ships and the background of their emergence, which was nothing other than the opium trade, and describe the fates of well-known and lesser-known sailors, such as the "Maria Rickmers," the "Preussen," several Laeisz clippers, the "Training Ship Pommern," the "Bulgaria," and many others. It also addresses shipwrecks and catastrophic losses of then more modern vessels like the "Guten.".