Winter in the Hold

About this book

Cambridge, 1836. Hollis Wren keeps the ice ledgers for a small firm that has staked everything on one daring cargo: two hundred tons of frozen New England pond bound for Calcutta. He drew the packing. He has never been to sea. He cannot swim. When the man meant to guard the cargo breaks his leg on the harvest field, Hollis is ordered aboard the barque Persis, his widowed sister's savings riding in the hold beside the ice. The crew call the cargo a floating coffin and Hollis the Undertaker. The first mate wants every block overboard. Between Boston and India lie the doldrums, the Cape of Storms and the roaring forties, and a melting hold that could sink them all. Hollis has only his figures, a few unlikely friends, and a winter that is turning to water by the hour.