Publisher's Synopsis
When Ben Jacardi is caught stealing coal by boat builder Josiah Armstrong, it is the first stroke of fortune in his short life. With his father dead and his mother vicious and cruel, Ben decides to run away and join Josiah and his wife Kathy. Then Josiah's real son Patrick returns home to rob his father. Unable to pay Ben as his apprentice, Josiah offers him payment in kind: the boat GREY LADY. Ben accepts and with his wife, Faith, begins a career on the English canals.