"I could smell rotting fish, the stench of rum barrels and unwashed bodies. I could also smell myself, because it had been quite a while since I had a bath. I didn't bathe much, the dirt kept me from looking like a woman….I was dressed like a boy because my mother has always dressed me that way to protect my chastity….she had contracted syphilis years before and the end was near. Either I remained a boy and signed on with one of the slave smuggling ships, or I became a doxy like my mom and likely suffer her fate."

In this historical romance the sea beckons Kit Black to come and find her fortune.  Life on sea in the early 1800s is hazardous and treacherous with no quarter given.  Life is short and without value. Only the resourceful, wary, and relentlessly strong can make and hold a place for profit and fame.