In the age of Nelson, a village orphan is thrust from hardship into a world of sea fights, moral testing, and imperial danger. When William Gilmore is left behind in the bleak fishing hamlet of Scarcombe, the kindly clergyman and fisherman John Hammond give him a home, and Miss Warden's lessons awaken both his mind and his ambition. But the coast's smuggling culture soon puts his conscience to the test. When he renounces the trade, he is branded a traitor by his neighbors and driven toward the career he has long prepared for: the sea. With courage, loyalty, and quick intelligence, Will proves himself in small and dangerous ways, rescuing a friend from drowning and uncovering clues to his mysterious birth. Yet his new life offers no safety. Sailing with the Tartar to the Mediterranean, he and his companions are ambushed by a Moorish vessel, captured, and carried to Algiers. There, amid brutal labor, hunger, and heat, they confront the misery of slavery and the constant hope of survival. Henty's tale combines naval adventure, patriotism, and moral resolve in a fast-moving story of a boy's rise through adversity. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.