Wreck Ashore! The call to save shipwrecks or exploit them?

Journey back to 1841 to Key West at one of the most exciting and least talked about times in history as vast fortunes were made salvaging or "wrecking" in the Florida Straits!

Wreckers: A tale of tragedy, bravery, and redemption!

In 1841, the Straits of Florida were one of the world's most trafficked but deadly sea passages in the young country called the United States of America. Four ships a month will wind up victims to Florida’s storms and razor-sharp reefs. As boats with crew and cargo plunge into the sea, who will save them?

The Wreckers out of Key West will sail out to rescue crew and cargo, but their fortunes are in the cargo, not the people. Some call the Wreckers saviors. Some call them thieving opportunists. Regardless, the wrecking industry is creating more wealth in the Keys than anywhere else in the United States. Key West has become a mixture of wealthy southern aristocrats and ruffian wreckers that flaunt their newly found wealth, drawing in all kinds of characters: the enterprising and the unscrupulous.

When a small, uniquely designed Bermuda rig lands on the sandy shores of Key West, the ship’s captain, crew, and passenger are one and the same: 23-year-old James Lowe. And Key West will never be the same as this Connecticut Yankee has come to seek his fortune, or die trying, or…just to die.

James graduated top of his class at Yale Law School, and he had the comfort of being the son of a wealthy and famous shipbuilding family in Greenwich, Connecticut. But the life so carefully charted out by his father altered course when an unfortunate accident at sea killed his beloved older brother and the twelve crewmen aboard.

The sea and James were once the closest of friends. Sailing brought him more joy than anything in life. Until the sea betrayed him when he and his brother made a secret midnight voyage down the Long Island Sound and into the rivers flowing around New York City. However, James' fateful navigational decision to go down the East River and face the colliding currents and rocks of Hell Gate sent his brother’s new but poorly designed ship to the bottom of the river, killing everyone but James.

His family was heartbroken. The townspeople of Greenwich whispered of James’ recklessness and the deal with the devil he must have made to be the only survivor. James cannot face a life of snickering and sneering, and the sadness he sees in his parents' faces is too much for him to bear. So, James seeks to find his fortune and redemption as a “wrecker” in Key West.

But what kind of man with so much promise would choose the treacherous profession of hauling out cargo with nothing but block and tackle in the middle of a hurricane? Only a man who seeks to cheat Death…a game he will surely lose.

James’ early success as a skilled wrecker and his legal training used to defend his “libels” in the Federal Court of Key West quickly gained him money and success. Jealous of this upstart, the gossip spreads like wildfire when word reaches of his Hell Gate shipwreck, and he is cursed, slandered, and shunned from Key West society.

With no crew that will work for him, James finds his crew amongst the other undesirables: Seminoles, freed slaves, and other men who are down and out. They see his genius but also the darkness that hovers above him, and they dub him “Captain Stormcloud” as he leads his crew of misfits, fighting for freedom and survival against the worst nature and evil men have to throw at them.

For James, it is no longer about money and status; he is driven to find redemption in the people he saves, those who are taken from the jaws of death by his spurned love, the sea. But how many ships and crew will he have to save to ease the pain from the loss of his brother? It will take his humble crew of rebels and the daughter of a famous naval commander to help him live in a world where he can live with himself after losing everyone he loves.