Relatively little has been recorded about the activities of the hundreds of coasting schooners that operated along the east coast of North America in the first part of the century. This unusually thorough history recounts the entire career of one of the last of these colorful sailing ships in American waters, the Albert F. Paul, from construction and launching in 1917 to her loss at sea in 1942.

Aided by his personal acquaintance with the Paul over a ten-year period and by his own experience of serving on a similar ship in his youth, Robert H. Burgess follows the schooner's service under her captain of sixteen years and includes a seaman's journal that describes general living conditions aboard the ship, various mishaps at sea, and the schooner's paint scheme, shipboard duties, and rigging details. Photographs, drawings, and sketches illustrate the Paul's crews and various shipboard scenes.