Twelve-year-old Ben Huntsmore is the son of a shipowner, an only child who loves the farming life on his mother's family estate, Badger's Hill. But when Ben's father loses their ancestral home in 1809 as payment for a gambling debt, Ben reluctantly joins him in a desperate venture to win it back, capturing enemy trading ships off the west Australian coast. While at sea, Ben must face not just the giant waves of the Southern Ocean but also the guns of a Dutch ship, along with unexpected treachery. And only the friendships of the mysterious convict Higgins and the young Indigenous sailor Guwara will help Ben survive, as well as show him the true meaning of loyalty and riches. From renowned children's author Jackie French comes a book filled with swashbuckling adventures and which uncovers Australia's hidden history as a pirate port and slavers' den.