Summary
A salt-scarred fisherman named Stephen Hardy returns to his weather-chewed Maine hamlet to discover that the horizon he once trusted has capsized: the woman he has quietly adored since her barefoot girlhood, Bess Halcomb, has been compromised by his own swaggering brother Tom. In a gesture that smolders of both chivalry and self-immolation, Stephen strong-arms Tom into wedlock, purchases the sturdy two-masted schooner Trenton, and disappears into the Atlantic’s bruised immensity. Months later, anchored in the iron dusk of New York harbor, he plucks a nameless, velvet-cloaked stranger from the black chop—her story a mirror of his own heartache. When the Trenton is freighted with high explosives, Stephen tries to exile her to shore, only to be ambushed by Tom, now a fugitive from both marriage and morality. The brothers’ final reckoning ignites the cargo; the schooner blossoms into a white-hot chrysanthemum against the night. Tom sinks beneath flaming oil, Stephen and the anonymous girl drift ashore on a makeshift spar, their silhouettes inked against a dawn that feels suspiciously like absolution.
Synopsis
Fisherman Stephen Hardy has loved Bess Halcomb since she was a child, so when her father dies he feels it his duty to look after Captain Halcomb's family. Returning home from a long voyage, Stephen learns that his brother Tom has seduced Bess in his absence. Then, after forcing Tom to marry Bess, Stephen buys a boat, called the Trenton, and sails away. Some time later, while anchored in New York harbor, Stephen sees a young woman jump into the water and rescues her. She relates a story of betrayed love similar to his own experience, and he is drawn to her, providing her refuge aboard the Trenton. When the Trenton takes on a load of explosives, Stephen insists that the girl go ashore. Before the boat sails, however, Stephen is confronted by Tom, who has left Bess and, Stephen discovers, is also the betrayer of the girl. In the ensuing fight between the brothers, a lamp is overturned and the vessel catches fire. Tom drowns, but Stephen and the girl escape to safety and face a happy future together.
