Summary
A restless tide of brine and ambition sluices Matt Peasley and Murphy through San Francisco’s fog-choked docks, where a deftly aimed fist at a prowling pickpocket ricochets into destiny: the rescued purse belongs to Florrie Ricks, heiress to a weather-beaten armada commanded by her iron-willed father Cappy, whose beard still drips with the spray of clipper-ship glory. Signed aboard one of the old man’s freighters, Matt learns that the sea is a shifting ledger of debts and loyalties; when the skipper’s blood darkens a Polynesian beachhead, the young tar assumes the helm, steering the scarred vessel to Samoa’s emerald refuge only to be told his temporary sovereignty is over. In a burst of mutinous pride he decks the imported captain and sets a course back to the Golden Gate, where Cappy’s apoplectic roar rattles every coffeehouse porthole along the Embarcadero. Banishment seems certain, yet the tycoon’s true reprisal is subtler: he spirits Florrie aboard a liner chaperoned by the oleaginous clerk Skinner, a tempest traps them on a reef, and Matt—commandeering a soot-black tug with Murphy stoking the boilers—slashes through foam to haul the grateful castaways home. Salt-stung, contrite, and finally perceptive, Cappy lowers his cutlass of opposition, letting love finish its own voyage.
Synopsis
Seaman Matt Peasley drifts into San Francisco with his pal Murphy and rescues Florrie Ricks, daughter of shipowner Cappy Ricks, from a pickpocket. Peasley and his friend are signed on one of Cappy's ships. When the ship's captain is killed by savages, Matt takes command and brings the ship to Samoa; but when the owner informs him that a new captain is arriving, Matt rebels, thrashes the newcomer into submission, and sails for San Francisco. Ricks is furious over his disobedience and enraged to learn that his daughter loves Matt. The old man sends Florrie on a cruise with Skinner, one of his officials, and the ship is stranded in a storm. Matt and Murphy rescue the party in a tug, and realizing Matt's worth, Cappy withdraws his opposition to his marriage to Florrie.
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