A space vehicle from Earth's distant future is trapped in the 18th Century, lands in the Caribbean Sea, and its crew boards the pirate ship Orinda. The unwitting pirate, Captain Fletcher, must cope with the uncanny problems posed by time-displacement--an alien "cabin boy", captives sentenced to walk the plank who drown but do not die, and an ominous battleship that has sneaked in from a different point in the galaxy.How the "cabin boy" struggles to restore his ship, fight off the enemy battleship, and prevent Earth's history from being irrovecably changed, makes for a wonderful adventure that blends futuristic time-travel with the swashbuckling excitement of 18th-Century pirates.