Eschels, a great-great-grandchild of whaling captain Matthias Petersen,[1] was born in Nieblum on the North Frisian island of Föhr, where many seafarers of the early modern era came from.

In 1769, aged eleven, Eschels joined the crew of an Amsterdam whaler as a deck boy, repeatedly lost his ship in the Arctic, but returned unharmed.

By his journeys, he had gathered certain assets and now worked as a manufacturer of tobacco products, as merchant, shipowner and expert in nautical questions in the then Danish town of Altona (which is now a part of Hamburg, Germany).

His comprehensive and enthralling autobiography was written based on diaries and ships' logs prior to 1832; originally, it was only intended for family purposes.

The 355-page book not only provides a wealth of information about contemporary seafaring, but also offers a view on everyday life and thinking of the time.