A Sailor's Life Author:Jan de Hartog No cover description. My summary of preface: A young reader from Germany requested "a few hints aout what every young sailor should know before setting out for his first voyage. . . . So I started a collectionof small hints meant for a young sailor . . . When the book was finished, I discovered that . . . I had provided him with a portrait of t... more »he author as a middle-aged man. . . The purpose of this preface is to reassure the general reader that this book is neither technical nor nautical."« less