Part 1

Ship of Fools begins in the Mexican port town of Veracruz, where a group of travelers is about to embark on a twenty-six day voyage to Europe. The August weather is hot, and the local people, who dislike the travelers who pass through their town, try to exact as much money from them as possible. The travelers are hot, tired and frustrated at the bureaucratic delays that are put in their way. All they want is to get on the German ship Vera that waits in the dock and hurry away from the unpleasant town where there is labor unrest and the threat of social revolution.

The travelers are introduced at first as a collective, anonymous group, and then gradually they are individualized, but still nameless, described only in terms of their physical appearances. The exception to this is Dr. Schumann.

The passengers are a mixture of...