Like Forrester and O'Brian before her, Pamela Allen uses factual accounts of H.M Royal Navy during the age before steam to flesh out the bones of her fictional characters. Sadly, the flesh is meagre and quickly becomes a bloated bloodless corpse becalmed in a sea of ennui.Too often we see young childrens' book writers tackle great themes only to founder in their own syntax. Sadly, there are no great themes here, and Ms. Allen is not a young writer but an aged academic who has spent too much time in libraries and not enough on the Main, hoisting herself through the lubber's-hole over the futtock shrouds.Tales of Adventure on the high seas this ain't. Rather, a prolix insight into one man's wasted life in the cafeterias and chat-rooms of an East-Anglian polytechnic. Without any malice I would suggest the author make a sea-change and open a video shop.