A bracing maritime adventure from the golden age of juvenile fiction. The Academy Squadron sets sail aboard the Young America for the windswept coasts of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, carrying a crew of American students whose curiosity about the world matches their courage on the open sea. But before they even reach Scandinavian waters, they spot something extraordinary: a small boat drifting through the North Sea, and inside, a mysterious Norwegian boy named Ole Amundsen, barely conscious after hours adrift. His evasive answers about how he came to be there hint at secrets beneath those stormy Nordic skies. What follows is a grand tour through fjords and cobblestone streets, where young American adventurers encounter Viking history, Scandinavian customs, and the enduring bonds of friendship forged in the face of the unknown. Oliver Optic writes with the verve of a storyteller who knows exactly what hooks young readers: exotic locales, unexplained mysteries, and the intoxicating freedom of the open ocean. This is adventure literature at its most unapologetically joyful.
