About this story
Captain Harris swears the ship carries only ballast, but locked hatches and the smell of oil say otherwise. When the hidden hold catches fire, the deck opens beneath you both and Eva's hand slips from yours in the smoke; no other voice answers across the wreck. Rescued alone, you come home to newspapers calling you a hero — and a stranger next door who knows what solitude the doctor prescribed.
How it opens
After failing at the Australian diggings, you found passage home aboard the familiar Lady Jermyn.
Mr. Cole, four months at sea should improve acquaintances or finish them honestly.
Santos is taking me to English relatives before he returns to my mother's grave in Africa.
Joaquin SantosEngland will receive my daughter; I shall return where memory has already settled me.
Captain Harris claimed the clipper sailed in ballast despite guarded loading before departure.
A captain may protect his manifest, but unexplained weight changes how a ship survives weather.