The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas

"The Cruise of the Kawa: Wanderings in the South Seas" by Walter E. Traprock is a humorous early 20th-century travel story about an ocean adventure on the yacht Kawa. The author and his quirky crew, including a tough captain, an ex-farmer, an artist, and a scientist, set sail and stumble upon the uncharted Filbert Islands, a place of strange and wonderful beauty inhabited by people known as the Filbertines. Their journey begins with a Fourth of July celebration in the middle of the ocean, followed by a violent storm that shipwrecks them near their grand discovery. The explorers are greeted by the kindness and simplicity of the Filbertines that leads to funny interactions and insights into a very simple life on undiscovered land.