Arthur Ransome was working as a journalist in Russia during the First World War when he got the idea to build a sailboat. He asked his friend, a boat designer, to design one, and in 1922 it was finally completed in Estonia. But Ransome didn’t have enough time to sail it to England before winter, so instead he enlisted two unnamed companions, the Cook and the Ancient Mariner, to join him for Racundra’s maiden voyage across the Baltic Sea, from Riga to Helsinki and back.

Racundra’s First Cruise is Ransome’s travelogue of this six week trip. Between both pleasant faring and treacherous weather, he and his tiny crew engage in various cozy episodes across the coasts and ports of Estonia, taking in the local color, haggling with the officials, and getting to know their new sailboat, all in a spirit of gentle adventure.

Though unnamed, the Cook is actually Leon Trotsky’s ex-private secretary, Ransome’s lover and later wife Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, and the Ancient Mariner is Captain Carl Sehmel, who is also featured as a character in Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, in Peter Duck and Coot Club .