About this story
You are Roswell Gardiner, given command of Deacon Pratt's schooner on the strength of a dying sailor's bearings to a secret sealing ground, while Mary Pratt, the deacon's niece, copies those bearings as a witness rather than trust the secret to one man's memory. A rival schooner out of Martha's Vineyard shadows your course, survives a Carolina gale alongside you, and reaches the same ice months later - trapped this time, in pack ice closing around the boat sent to bring her crew clear.
How it opens
A worn sailor named Tom Daggett reached Oyster Pond with a sea chest and little money.
Uncle, charity loses its name when every kindness returns on an account.
Deacon PrattI provided lodging after Roswell helped sell the old man's remaining nautical tools.
Tom DaggettMy chest has survived three wrecks; what matters now cannot be sold from it openly.
Tom DaggettBefore I die, take these bearings to an unclaimed sealing ground in the southern ice.
He also spoke of treasure hidden on a Caribbean key, leaving two secrets with different dangers.