This novel gives the reader a taste of the hard life on board a collier brigantine in Victorian England in 1881. Feel the salty sea spray drying on your skin, blisters on your hands; the sun and wind weathering your face and the roll of the deck in a squall. Why did mariners follow such a perilous lifestyle?

Based on real people and events of the time this novel takes the reader on a mystery and espionage adventure that reveals how tensions and international relations between European states were so volatile in the late 19th century.

Richard Raine is the master of the collier brigantine “The William Thrift” that enters Seaham Harbour on census day 1881. Richard could never have imagined the adventure that was to unfold when he sailed out of harbour and the part he would play in maintaining the fragile peace that existed in Queen Victoria’s empire. After more than 130 years the real story, “A Master Mariners Tale” is uncovered and his story is finally told. (Approximately 208 Kindle pages including many original photographs and illustrations)