The Last Grain Race is a 1956 book by Eric Newby, a travel writer, about his time spent on the four-masted steel barque Moshulu during the vessel's last voyage in the Australian grain trade. In 1938 the 18 year old Newby shipped aboard the four-masted barque Moshulu as an apprentice. His outbound passage from Europe to Australia was via the Cape of Good Hope. His return was around Cape Horn. Moshulu was at the time the largest sailing ship still transporting grain. Newby finds out that his advertising agency, The Wurzel Agency, has lost a lucrative cereal account and he decides to write to... Gustav Erikson of Mariehamn for a place on one of his grain ships, having been inspired with tales of the sea by an old family friend, Mr Mountstewart. Much to his surprise, he is accepted by 'Ploddy Gustav', the owner of the largest fleet of square-rigged deep-water sailing vessels in the world at that time. After fitting himself out with heavy-weather gear, Newby makes his way to Belfast where Moshulu is discharging her cargo in York Dock. He meets some of the crew and they take him out on a drinking binge, but not before the second mate has order him 'op the rigging'.
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| Author: | Eric Newby |
| Genre: | Travel, Fiction, Sailing |
| Year published: | 1956 |
| Number of editions: | 13 |