by Edward A. Salisbury and Merian C. Cooper
This is the story of what was to be a circumnavigation but which ended one sea short unhappily, in Italy, with the burning of the Wisdom . Before she died however, she sailed from Los Angeles, throughout the Pacific and into Malaysia and North Africa. From the Prologue, "I know of no good reason shy she should have been called the Wisdom unless it was because the men on here were wise enough not to stay in cities when there was the open sea before them and all the world to roam. Or perhaps it was because the ship itself was as wise a little vessel as ever sailed when it came to knowing the ways of the sea. At Lloyd's she was probably listed as an 88-ton sailing yacht, with auxiliary gasolene engine. But if she could have spoken she would have denied this prosaic description, for if there ever was a ship in search of all the romance and adventure to be found in the queer corners of the earth this was one. She followed no regular traveled route nor any schedule of time, but sailed where and when she pleased. In fact, if she could have spoken and you had asked here to what category of vessels she belonged, she would have been quite surprised at your ignorance and said, "Why of course, I'm a sea gypsy." First published in in 1924
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