Hearts of Oak Books

With the Vera B’s captain dead in Melbourne, Australia, Alice Packard thinks the worst has happened, until she learns the crew has deserted her husband’s ship in favor of the goldfields. Only one old man, Gypsy Deak, sticks by her, but Gypsy alone can’t raise a crew from the depleted population. In desperation, Alice turns to the only source of plentiful workers: the women of Melbourne. In a bold move, she and Gypsy empty a brothel, promising the escaped women a new life. Her all-woman (save one) crew put their backs and hearts into the voyage, but Alice finds training her sailors much harder than she expected. Her faith is tested to the limit. With a cargo to sell, angry brothel and tavern owners in pursuit, pirates to evade, and a mysterious stowaway, will the seafaring women of the Vera B. survive to tell the tale of this daring adventure?

Pirates capture a beloved crew member of the Vera B., but Alice Packard and her female sailors believe there is always hope.In Java, Fiona Campbell is kidnapped and taken aboard a stolen ship. The mutineers beat Captain Stark and cast him ashore, but keep the ship’s first mate, Tommy Mercer. They force him to navigate to a distant island, where they hope to recover a treasure. Captain Stark seeks help from Captain Alice Packard and the female crew of the Vera B., not telling her the pirates’ captain told him to bring the ship of women to him. While her friends search for her, Fiona concentrates on staying alive. The pirates warn her that if she misbehaves, Tommy will bear the consequences. Can Alice and her intrepid sailors rescue them? And what about Stark and his two men—can they be trusted?