Fate Knocks at the Door

For thirty-six hours the Truxton has scarcely moved; beneath her, a shark’s fin cuts a yellow-green sea, and the sky darkens like bluing dropped into water. Seventeen-year-old Andrew Bedient, the ship’s cook, is about to find out what a dead calm can conceal.

In April 1895, between Manila and Hong Kong, the little clipper is trapped in the China Sea, her deck hot beneath a brassy sky. Andrew has sailed with the Truxton for a year, finding a home of sorts in the books and quiet kindness of Captain Carreras, a bashful gentleman unlike any other master at sea. But now the wind is gathering, the crew is uneasy, and the ship’s stillness feels less like peace than warning. A single moment that afternoon will change Andrew’s fortunes—but first, can he and the Captain survive the storm bearing down on them?

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