Bartholomäus von Werner participated in the first Prussian expedition to East Asia. As the commander of the corvette SMS Ariadne, he undertook an extensive South Sea voyage from 1877 to 1879. The ship's journey went from the Strait of Magellan via Valparaiso to Panama and Nicaragua, the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Society Islands, to the Bismarck Archipelago, New Zealand, Tonga, and back. During this time, he concluded a friendship treaty with Samoa as well as agreements with the chiefs of the Marshall Islands, acquired two ports in the Bismarck Archipelago, and prevented the Samoan government from placing their islands under the protection of a foreign power by occupying two ports. After his retirement, he became active in literature, providing popular descriptions of life on warships as well as the nature of the sea and the regions he visited. The present volume is.