Here is seagoing as it really was. Captain Blaisdell spent 50 years in the North Atlantic carrying trades, and this reconstruction of his career gives the best available picture of a shipmaster's role in transporting the commodities of the Atlantic world-sugar, cotton, manufactured goods, and emigrants-during the "golden age" of America's merchant marine. This is a poignant tale of the endless search for a profitable voyage, punctuated by shipwreck, orchestrated by maddeningly unpredictable markets, and requiring years of separation for the captain and his family. This book will be of great interest to maritime scholars and enthusiasts. An award-winning title, the book was judged the best maritime biography of 1988 by the North American Society for Oceanic History.