Orphaned and alone, young Owen Hartley must forge his own path through a world that offers little mercy. After his father's death leaves him without family or fortune, Owen is sent from his humble rural life to the brutal streets of Victorian London, where he secures a position with the stern merchant Simon Fluke. But landlocked work cannot contain Owen's restless spirit, and soon he finds himself aboard the trading ship Druid, bound for distant shores. The sea promises adventure but delivers something far harder: a tyrannical first mate who makes life miserable for the crew, and a brutal education in the costs of survival. Yet even in this harsh environment, Owen finds something precious - the friendship of Nat, another young ship's boy whose own suffering at the hands of their cruel superior forges a bond between them. As Owen navigates the ups and downs of his fate, he must learn that courage isn't the absence of fear, and that loyalty to a friend may be the only thing that anchors a young man when the waters of life grow stormy. Kingston delivers a rousing Victorian adventure that captures the grit and grace of a boy becoming a man against all odds.
