The war diary of former German naval officer Otto Giese recounts a seafaring career of extraordinary scope. It begins with the dawn of World War II, while the author is a junior officer on board the ocean liner SS Columbus, and continues through his confinement in a British prisoner-of-war camp after the war.

This book showcases more than one hundred high-quality photographs taken by Giese throughout his wartime service to present a unique historical overview. Interspersed among tales of hardship and loss are colorful anecdotes that relay the camaraderie surrounding plots to escape detention at Angel Island, the unlikely processing of German seamen at Ellis Island, and Giese's experiences policing guerrilla warfare in the Malayan jungle. He greets the incongruous movements of war with equanimity and offers an unwavering assessment of the dictates of duty.

The late Otto Giese served aboard square-riggers and numerous oceangoing freighters through World War II and started his own shipping line after the war. James E. Wise Jr., a retired captain in the U.S. Navy who served as a naval aviator, is the coauthor of several books, including Soldiers Lost at Sea. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.