The stories and excerpts I found interesting, especially the last one by Belloc from "Hills and the Sea"; the poetry, not so much. This old sailor never heard anything poetic come out of the mouths of his aquatic friends at any time on any ship although the tall ships of the period chosen for this book were before my time. I was also a bit disappointed that, apart from John Masefield's "Cargoes", steam ships didn't turn up in a book designed and printed in early 1920s. A story or two about boilers or steam engines could have made the book better, in my opinion. ( )