Tom Mclear

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Jacket burbs

" But though my belly rumbled with hunger, I lingered at the rail, listening to the gush of the bow wave as the ship sped onwards, my head full of dreams and swirling excitement. This Cornelius, I mused, is bent on taking me away, but to what places I hardly know.
Nor am I any more her prisoner, for today I am set free. Or have I been captured again? "

" I watched the sun dip its lower limb in the sea, flame orange-red, and extinguish itself in the sea-horizon. Night, close and damp, settled on the Atlantic ocean, empty save for the privateer heading purposefully due west, carving a path over the curve of the globe. "

Swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and a young man's quest for justice.
It is the 1690s. England is on the cusp of its Empire, but as the Dutch trade wars come to a close so the struggles with the French for naval supremacy are just beginning.
It is the time of Newton, of advances in astronomy and the study of longitude. The high seas are the most exciting place for a man to be, for fortunes can be made and lost overnight.
Young Matthew Stalbone longs to go to sea in command of his own sailing ship. Studying the new science of navigation is his only means of escape from the Whitby coal wharves. But his dream of plying an honest trade is wrecked on the Essex shoals.
Swept away to the Spanish Main, Matthew is plunged into a bloody life of pillage and prize money. Struggling always to adhere to his own code of honour yet seduced by life at sea, Matthew carries in his heart his hope of being reunited with his childhood sweetheart, and of reclaiming the legacy rightfully his.
Fierce sea battles, lawless privateers, naval skirmishes and ruthless slave traders combine in a story of adventure and high drama during one of the most colourful periods in maritime history.

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Jacket burbs

`The dam' schemer,' I muttered, ejecting a mouthful of bloody spittle.
`What's happening?' cried Noah Spatchears. 'Are we attacked?'
' It sounds as if,' I mumbled through swelling lips, 'we've brought up. all standing. I shouldn't be surprised if we didn't lose a spar or two.
Who's running this blasted ship?'
From the multitude of shouted orders and cries of alarm reaching us from above, a distinct voice called imperiously down the companion.
`Bring Loftus on deck at once.'
It was Sir Thomas's command. Instantly, there came a commotion in the passageway, and a band of men entered the cell in a rush and seized me.

It is 1702, and in the lawless Caribbean sea young Matthew Loftus determines to captain his ship by honest trade rather than piracy and plunder. But his crew lust after the spoils that the fast, well-armed Cornelius can win, and even his love, Abigail, doubts him.
Encountering an old man who chants endless numbers and incantations, he learns of a secret almanac that advances the science of navigation. Falsely accused of mutiny and seeking pardon, Matthew embarks on the cause of solving the Longitude, the lack of which wrecks hundreds of ships and drowns thousands of seamen. But is the almanac what it seems?
Pursued by unprincipled merchants, duplicitous privateers and the English Navy through battles on the high seas and sinister perils on deserted tropical shores, Matthew struggles not only with navigational uncertainties but also with the venal motives fuelling commerce and war in the Caribbean.
The passage is strewn with the reefs and shoals of treachery and 'falsehood, and beset by clashing currents of political trickery, patronage and ambition. Despite loss and injustice, through gales and sea battles, he sails his beloved schooner towards the great goal' he has set himself.