Vanderdecken

1922. The age of rum-runners and pirates who sail under legal colors. George du Cane, a wealthy orphan on the cusp of fortune, finds himself drawn into the most dangerous game on the Atlantic: the hunt for Vanderdecken, a yacht raider whose name makes merchant captains cross themselves. With Hank Fisher, a roguish adventurer from the Bohemian Club who needs the reward money more than he needs his life, George purchases the decrepit yacht Wear Jack and sets sail after a phantom. They will face storms, mutiny, and the cold steel of Vanderdecken's guns before this chase is done. Stacpoole writes with the breathless pace of a man who knows the sea, and the result is pure turn-of-the-century adventure, full of bold characters, narrow escapes, and the romance of hunting a man who may not want to be caught. It's a remnant of a wilder age, when a ship and a dream were enough to risk everything.