Many friends and acquaintances advised me to write the story of my adventures, and I finally decided to start this work, despite my lack of talent and preparation. As a sailor by profession who was educated in a simple school in my hometown, it isn’t easy for me, Captain Jesper Bagge, to explain to the public the unusual events I witnessed and to make plausible for the skeptical readers things that go beyond ordinary occurrences in the everyday life of a modern person.