Maurice Trevor has disgraced himself at school and is kicked out. Unable to face his family he runs away to join the navy and seek his fortune across the perilous seas. It is a dangerous age where raiders from North Africa enslave crews of European ships, the Royal Navy battles the transatlantic slave trade, and malnourishment and disease make for horrific living conditions on ships that are at sea for up to three years before returning to Britain. Maurice must learn to survive or find an early grave at sea like so many others.