The Voyage of the "steadfast": The Young Missionaries in the Pacific
1877
The Voyage of the "steadfast": The Young Missionaries in the Pacific
1877
The novel opens with a ferocious storm battering the Welsh coast where the Graybrook family watches helplessly as their men sail into harm's way aboard the whaling ship Steadfast. Captain Graybrook's son Harry and his friend Dickey Bass are aboard, along with Leonard Champion, the second mate whose heart belongs to the captain's daughter left ashore. What begins as a whaling voyage into the treacherous Pacific quickly descends into a nightmare of shipwreck, starvation, and violent encounters with island peoples. The young men must draw upon courage, faith, and each other to survive against odds that seem almost certain to destroy them. Kingston weaves a tale of adventure that pulses with genuine danger while exploring what it means to be young, far from home, and utterly dependent on one's wits and moral compass. The novel captures an era when boys became men through trials at sea, their fates swinging between heroism and disaster with every turn of the tide.
