I was a competitive and recreational sailor in my youth on the east coast.  Managed university degrees from Northwestern and the University of South Carolia (Ph.D.).  An avid sailor with three circumnavigations and a deep seated love for the sea and all its mysteries.  For the past fifty years, I have collaborated with students studying political science and far-away places as they search for their identities and destinies. The teaching has left me convinced that the fast-changing and challenging period of the American Rebellion is paralleled by the uncertainty and choices faced by young adults today.  The book is an story about those choices constructed around the characters who make up the crew on the sailing ship, Commerce.