A boy sails as a passenger on his uncle's ship, is caught by a mutiny and a wreck, and grows up in the time it takes to cross an ocean. George Manville Fenn wrote some 175 books for boys and knew the sea trade of his day at first hand. The seamanship is exact, the discipline is harsh, and the villain is a man doing what his contract allows. Fifty-eight plates by Turner, Canaletto and others trace two centuries of harbours, quays and shipping, the exact world of sea trade and discipline the boy enters.