The black barque : a tale of the pirate slave-ship Gentle Hand on her last African cruise

A weather‑beaten sailor fresh from the chaos of war drifts into the bustling port of Havre, hunting for a new command. He soon finds himself among a ragtag collection of former navy men, privateers and hopeful merchants, all pressed into service on the barque Gentle Hand. The ship’s crew—American boatswain, Danish seaman, Norwegian deckhand and a host of others—forms a tight, uneasy knot as they set out on what promises to be a lucrative, if morally dubious, voyage.

On board, the narrator discovers a world where commerce and cruelty intersect, as the Gentle Hand trades in human lives along the African coast. Friendships blossom with fellow deckhands and even the enigmatic trader Yankee Dan, while the ship’s officers—Captain Howard and his officers—maintain a rigid hierarchy that masks the growing tension below deck. As the vessel charts its course, the crew’s disparate loyalties begin to clash, hinting at unrest that could soon upend the fragile order of life at sea.