The Cruise of the Dream Ship

In 1921, Ralph Stock caught the dream that has lured dreamers for centuries: escape to the South Seas. This is the account of how he and a small crew transformed that longing into reality, purchasing and outfitting a ship despite relentless financial obstacles and the artful reluctance of would-be sailors. The prose carries the salt air of genuine adventure, mixing jaw-dropping tropical beauty with the ribald humor of men who discover that fishing from a dream ship is considerably harder than dreaming about it. Stock writes with the self-deprecating wit of someone who knows his grand ambitions look absurd from shore, which makes his determination to see them through all the more endearing. The South Pacific of his imagination meets the South Pacific of squabbling crewmates, malfunctioning equipment, and the occasional moment of transcendent grace. This is travel writing before tourism existed, when the islands still felt like the edge of the known world and getting there was half the story.