Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. Unfortunately, I was not able to get into it. It really is just too dated. Since I didn't finish it, I won't post a review on Goodreads. Thanks anyway!

Anyone interested in sailing, shipbuilding, international trade, and politics, would find this a fascinating book. You follow the fortunes of a family as they risk everything to keep their shipyard going. They convince a town to invest in the building of a ship, but they will have to overcome spies, saboteurs, and uncharted waters or they will lose everything.
I thought it is a really fun way to teach about the economic and political turmoil following the Revolutionary War. It shows the people's still conflicting loyalties, the uncertainty of the success of the new nation, the troubles of a too weak central government, and the economic ruin brought about by the war. Meigs manage to teach all of that in a fairly interesting story format. There were parts that were a little slow, especially the middle part. That is where they are facing financial struggles. After that though, it picked up and there is some wonderful action with assassins, pirates, Indians, and treasure. had
I really appreciate the patriotism of the main character. He believes in his new country and tries his best to support it and his family. I also liked the way they discussed the principles of freedom that were on trial through the first few years after the Revolution. It was done very naturally in the flow of the story and didn’t interrupt the action.
It was a good adventure story. It was perfectly clean and acceptable for any age, though it is written for a teen audience. The vocabulary was really very good. I didn't really care for the illustrations and found them a little blocky and the color illustrations were a little odd.
I received this as a free ARC from NetGalley and Dover Books. No favorable review was required. It was my pleasure to provide my honest opinions.