Every year the whalers sailed to the northern fishing grounds to confront the sea and ice, and to lock in terrible battle with the leviathans that lurked beneath the waters. For Arthur Storm, the newest apprentice on the William Scoresby Senior, going-a-whaling was the fulfilment of every young man's dream. And he was to remember for the rest of his life the sing and thud of the harpoon, the power of the sea, the struggle with death and the bonds - deeper than friendship - forged by the men as they sailed together into the Fishery's worst catastrophe ever.