With Patrick O'Brian riding the crest of fame for his series of bestselling naval adventure novels, avid readers of men's historical fiction are returning to the dark and tempestuous world of the oceangoing adventure like never before. They will find no better helmsman to steer them than Philip McCutchan, one of the most acclaimed and prolific action novelists ever. Apprentice to the Sea introduces a thrilling new McCutchan series, set in the late nineteenth century and abrim with all the seafaring excitement and rich characterization that marks all his work. Its hero, Tom Chatto, is a young apprentice seaman, fresh from the west of Ireland, learning the ways of a square-rigged windjammer the hard way. Its plot involves heavy seas, treachery, and twists reminiscent of Hitchcock's Lifeboat. And its appearance, as the first new McCutchan series in years, will delight seafarers of every shore.