Generations of children and their parents have delighted in Arthur Ransome's `Swallows and Amazons' books, but one of them stands out from the rest as being of a different order altogether. "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" is both larger of theme and tighter of plot; it is a rite-of-passage tale quite unlike the others, and in describing the experiences of its protagonist John it illuminates much of Ransome's own psychology. "Good Little Ship" is a blend of literary criticism, maritime history and sheer celebration. Peter Willis combines an analysis of a classic of maritime literature ("a book of which Conrad would have been proud" - Hugh Brogan) with the story of the "Nancy Blackett", Ransome's own boat which appears as the "Goblin" in his story. He describes her life, near-death and restoration, and her renaissance as an ambassador for Ransome and his tales.

During their two-and-a-half-year circumnavigation aboard the sloop Maverick, Tony Johnson and Terry Shrode survived a number of harrowing engagements with the forces of nature. In Tahiti, a midnight gale caused Maverick to fetch up on a dangerous coral reef. In Indonesia, faulty navigational charts, heavy winds and high seas led the crew to run the boat aground. And thirty miles from a safe landfall after a twenty-one day Atlantic crossing, water in the bilge triggered the discovery that the hull had begun to tear itself apart. Only a heroic effort by the skipper and first mate kept them from sinking within sight of land. Along with tales of adventure, the Captain's chronicle contains accounts of natural wonders including orangutans in the wild, observed on a dreamlike jungle excursion up the Kumai River in Borneo, and the nighttime Arabian Sea glowing ghostly white from horizon to horizon, the result of a rare bloom of phosphorescent plankton. Woven through the journal are revealing and sometimes surreal encounters with a host of fascinating characters including native guides, fellow cruisers, and would-be pirates. These cross-cultural experiences assume added poignancy in the period following the World Trade Center attack, when, despite the warnings of family and friends, Tony and Terry decide to carry on with their voyage through the heart of the Islamic world and fly the American flag. Sections on Odysseus, Drake, Columbus, Plato, Socrates, bullfighting in Spain, Mediterranean geology, and Junior Walker and the All-Stars ensure that the book will satisfy the reader's wanderlust for cultural and intellectual, as well as nautical, adventure.