Windjammers and Sea Tramps is a classic sea adventure/sea exploration biography by Walter Runciman. "I went in at the hawse-hole and came out at the cabin window." It was thus that a certain North Country shipowner once summarised his career while addressing his fellow-townsmen on some public occasion now long past, and the sentence, giving forth the exact truth with all a sailor's delight in hyperbole, may well be taken to describe the earlier life-stages gone through by the author of this book. The experiences acquired in a field of operations, that includes all the seas and continents where commerce may move, live, and have its being, have enhanced in value and completed what came to him in his forecastle and quarter-deck times. Contents: Introductory -- Peculiar and uneducated -- A cabin-boy's start at sea -- The seaman's superstitions -- The seaman's religion -- Safety and comfort at sea -- Wages and wives -- Life among the packet rats -- Brutality at sea -- Bravery -- Chanties -- Jack in ratcliffe highway -- The matter-of-fact sailor -- Resourcefulness and shipwreck -- Manning the service.