The Death Ship

A cult masterpiece and a darkly comic tale of survival on the high seas, inspired by the mysterious author B. Traven's own life

‘Whoever survived the Yorikke could never be frightened any more during his lifetime by anything’

Stateless and stranded after he loses his passport, sailor Gerald Gales flees arrest and persecution across Europe, until he finally finds work on the Yorikke, a decrepit ‘death ship’ bound for destruction. Condemned to stoke the furnaces, Gales must navigate a labyrinth of surreal rules and the brutal realities of life at sea if he is to make it out alive. First published in 1926 and thought to bear the traces of the mysterious author B. Traven’s own experience of migrating to Mexico, The Death Ship is a darkly absurd, raging tale about what it takes to survive when life is cheap.