Careenage

London, 1701. Thomas Tewksbury, a 15-year-old orphaned pickpocket, is conscripted into service aboard the slaver Melinda, bound for Africa. On the way, he is apprenticed to the Ship's Surgeon, Mister Durst, from whom he learns the profession, though this hardly prepares him for what lies ahead: blistering heat, tropical disease, and above all the horrors of "The Trade."

Upon Durst's untimely death, Thomas takes his place as Surgeon and when pirates capture the Melinda near Hispaniola, he becomes a Forced Man, serving against his will under some of the most infamous rogues in History: Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, and Bartholomew Roberts.

Along the way, however, he comes to realize that the greatest danger he will face won't come from pirates or pirate hunters or storms at sea, but from the dark inclinations within himself.