The author has created a character from the early 1700s-Thomas Doty, who lives on a family farm outside of Whitemarsh, Pennsylvania. He meets a weathered sea captain who is down on his luck and short of hands aboard his sloop, the Shannon. Intrigued by adventure, Thomas goes to sea, but ends up shipwrecked and seized by a band of surly cutthroat pirates. Now, amid the designs of some sordid brigands well-acquainted with wanton cruelty, Thomas...