The Cruise of the Mary Rose; Or, Here and There in the Pacific

A rousing Victorian adventure tale that follows young David Harvey as he sets sail aboard the Mary Rose into the shimmering, dangerous waters of the Pacific. Raised in a devout Christian household by a father whose faith runs as deep as the ocean itself, David carries with him both a religious conviction and a young man's hunger for the extraordinary. When he discovers his Uncle John's weathered journal chronicling years of missionary work among the islands, the pages crack open a world of coral atolls, trading schooners, and encounters with cultures as varied as the sea is wide. The Mary Rose becomes a vessel not just across water, but across profoundly different understandings of faith, civilization, and what it means to be human. Kingston writes with the confident sweep of a man who believed adventure still lurked around every horizon, and his Pacific is both beautiful and treacherous, populated by peoples whose traditions, beliefs, and sometimes violent customs challenge everything David's upbringing has taught him. The novel considers with genuine curiosity the moral complexities of bringing one's gods to foreign shores, while never losing its appetite for shipboard drama and island discovery.