Nautical adventure, with its share of robust incident and romance, oddly set in today's background but with full flavor of the past. (Frankly, the fact of World War II going on only penetrated my consciousness towards the close -- the style seems almost Capt. Marryat, over-written and old-fashioned.) The story deals with the last voyage of the last of the Gloucester sailing vessels on a bare chance of salvaging from the grasp of a creditor who wanted to transform her into a dragger and betray her good name. Her owner, a girl, and the man who loved her, took the long chance -- and brought it off, despite the forces of evil against them. The rescue of a sunken hull, needed for its lead; the finding of a bank teeming with halibut; the paying off of an old debt and a new; the tragedy of death at sea, of betrayal, and the miracle of unswerving, unasking loyalty, make for a good sea yarn, despite its archaic style.