Part I of the book describes how Elis grew up on Vårdö, became intimately familiar with both the land and sea, and developed an early competence in sailing small boats within the close-knit, and widely-travelled seafaring and farming community. Part II tells how, in 1919, he became a crew member, and learned the ropes, on a three-masted schooner which sailed around the Baltic Sea, and then, at the end of 1924, signed up on the four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie bound for Australia under the captaincy of his sister’s husband Ruben de Cloux. Chapter 4 conveys his excitement at joining this famous vessel, the severity of a storm they soon encountered, and the harsh nature of life aboard this hard-worked vessel. However, the food had been so bad that he felt he should join a dozen others in deserting ship, despite the family relationship he had with the captain – who discharged him !
After an unchronicled sojourn in Australia, he rejoined the same ship again, at the end of December, 1925, in Port Lincoln. Initially they sailed westwards because they were short-handed with only nineteen men on board, but de Cloux changed his mind after encountering head winds and they eventually rounded Cape Horn. With this diversion, the hull being foul and the cargo originally making the ship down by the head, they ended up making the vessel’s longest European passage to date, of 139 days to Falmouth. It was 150 days before they set foot on land again, at their final destination in Hamburg.
After having the hull cleaned, they set out again for South Australia on September 9th , 1926 with a crew of 29, arriving December 11th. Their return passage was a very fast 88 days to Queenstown where they took orders again for Hamburg. The ship then sailed into the Baltic to load timber for South Africa, but Karlsson left her in Sundsvall, Sweden, to take a holiday and navigation classes in Mariehamn. This secured his next job as Mate aboard a three-masted barquentine trading to England in 1928 and then on Erikson’s Penang as Second Mate for a voyage carrying timber from Sweden to Sydney and returning home in ballast. Next it was a voyage carrying anthracite from Swansea to Luderitz in South West Africa and on to South Australia in ballast to load wheat for London and then back to the Aland Islands. Next came difficult voyage to South Australia and Falmouth for London. After another session at Navigation school in Mariehmn in the winter of 1932-33, Elis earned is master’s ticket, and accepted the job of First Mate aboard Gustav Erikson’s Herzogin Cecilie, sailing under Sven Eriksson. Karlsson describes how, as First Mate, he completed several more voyages to Australia aboard the ship and how she was wrecked on the coast of Devon in April 1936.
The final part of the book describes the further misfortune of him being aboard the steamer Bodia, under captain Ruben de Cloux when she was wrecked near Alesund in Norway later that year.