Having returned from his last trip James was exhausted and he was given laudenum to help him sleep. After seven days he wakes and returns to his ship. He leaves orders for her to be careened while he visits his friends.When they hear he is going to New York they ask asks him to take a portrait and her younger sister who has just qualified as a doctor.
Back aboard ship, he appoints a young orphan Zack Evans as his new apprentice to replace Mr Jones who has left to get married. The boy is a keen student and very popular.
They sail, and on passage James rescues the survivors from two shipwrecks.
After unloading he heads to Halifax for a cargo furs. On passage he runs aground on a sand bar and meets two Eskimos who guide him into port.
The woman who sells the furs is from England and once they are fully loaded he sets sail but is attacked by a schooner which he sinks and rescues some of her crew. It seems they were regular traders and felt he had stolen their cargo.
He hands them to the police and the woman he bought the furs from turns up saying the Captain of the schooner murdered her boss and she escaped on her dog sled and James agrees to carry her to England.
Back home, James finds some unopened mail in his saddle bag. In it is a letter from his agent Rebecca Watson written 7 months ago with some alarming information.