As the shadows of World War II gather, the SS Lichenfield is westbound across the Pacific carrying 80,000 barrels of highly explosive naphtha. The cargo alone makes the journey perilous. But yet another sort of peril haunts the Lichenfield. Even beyond their day-to-day existence, the lives of the crew are mysteriously intertwined. Though each has his own history, dreams and jealousies, longing and rage, all are connected by a deadly web of chance and circumstance. Some are desperately fleeing the past; others chase an unknown destiny. 

When Anna Konig first meets Bairn, the Scottish ship carpenter of the Charming Nancy, their encounter is anything but pleasant. Anna is on the ship only to ensure the safe arrival of her loved ones to the New World. Hardened by years of living at sea, Bairn resents toting these naive farmers - dubbed "Peculiars" by deckhands - across the ocean. As delays, storms, illness, and diminishing provisions afflict crew and passengers alike, Bairn finds himself drawn to Anna's serene nature.

Harvey Cheyne, the pampered son of an American millionaire, is swept overboard from the deck of a liner and picked up by a small fishing boat, one of several trawling the Grand Banks. He is rapidly confronted by the harsh realities of life and comes to terms with himself amid the hard labour and morality of the redoubtable New England fishermen.

This exciting full-cast presentation is like nothing you've ever heard before! Adventure begins on the sea as a spoiled rich boy falls from an ocean liner. Rescued by fisherman, an exciting journey of discovery begins as the boy sails the open seas, learning about friendship and the rewards of hard work.

Michael has never seen a whale - at least, not a real one. Everyone knows they disappeared from the waters around the little island of Liberty years ago. But then a mysterious stranger comes to Liberty and offers Michael what he's always dreamed of: his very own boat. All he has to do in return is help the stranger find the whales - and promise to never tell a soul. Michael is about to learn that sometimes dreams come at a price....

In 19th-century northern Scotland, Mac McDonnell's traditional way of life is challenged when Lord Gordon lays claim to their island home and threatens to replace farmers and fishermen with sheep. Mac leads a protest, but when evictions turn violent, Mac must decide what he is willing to risk - to protect his family, his sweetheart, Deidre, and his livelihood.

James Culdee, a career US Navy noncom who has served his country with distinction for 20 years, is suddenly and unfairly forced into a disgraceful retirement. Devastated, Culdee retreats into alcoholism until he is rescued by his daughter, Miranda, a charter boat skipper whose sloop, the Seamark, has been stolen. When Miranda learns that the Seamark has been sighted in the dangerous and primitive Flyaway Islands of the Philippines, father and daughter sail off in pursuit, on a voyage that will carry them across the Pacific.

Absorbing and richly observed, The Restless Sea is a masterful story of the turbulent years of the Second World War. Three lives collide in a way that only the war makes possible.... Jack, a child of the Blitz, has fled the law to become a seaman in the Merchant Navy. The frozen world of the Russian Arctic convoys may be harsh, but it opens his eyes to a new life.

Curious, pin-bright Oona Britt dreams of setting sail with her ship’s captain father for a life of excitement on the wild waves. She has read stories of a magical creature - the Nardoo - who swims through the stars at night, and she stows away on whaling boat the Plucky Leopard for an adventure full of myths and marvel among the ice caps. In her second outing, Matilda Woods has crafted an enchanting, charming story of bravery on the ice-tipped ocean.

The gunners on the Golden Ray were a strangely assorted bunch. There was the professional, Sergeant Willis, in love with his job, Vernon the intellectual, and Miller the tragic communistic misfit who found his Russian Mecca not quite what he expected.

Told in mesmerising prose, with a charm and rhythm entirely its own, Castle of Water is more than just a classic castaway story. It is a stirring reflection on love's restorative potential as well as a poignant reminder that home - be it a flat in Paris, a New York apartment, or a desolate atoll a world away - is where the heart is....

Orca - the killer whale - is one of the most intelligent creatures in the universe. He hunts in packs, like a wolf. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible vengeance -across seas, across time, across all obstacles.

World War Two is over and the Cold War beginning when Brett Manning is sent to do some business in Archangel. But on his way, in the thick fog and darkness of the Barents Sea, disaster strikes and his ship is run down by a much larger vessel. Only Brett and one other man are picked up. The two survivors find themselves on board a Russian freighter bound for a secret destination. Slowly it dawns on Brett and his companion that they now know too much for their own good.

New Year's Day, 1888: It is the first day of Marantha Waters' new life on San Miguel. She has come with her husband, a Civil War veteran who has taken over the operation of the sheep ranch on the island. But this promised paradise proves to be a damp, wind-ravaged wasteland. As her husband grows increasingly distant from her and their adopted daughter Edith, Marantha's blighted lungs grow weaker.

Raised together in a small German circus town, a boy and an elephant formed a bond that would last their entire lives, and would be tested time and again: through a near-fatal shipwreck in the Indian Ocean, an apprenticeship with the legendary Mahout elephant trainers in the Indian teak forests, and their eventual rise to circus stardom in 1940s New York City. As the African Sun-Times put it, Modoc is "heartwarming...probably the greatest love story ever told".