A seventy-four gun square rigger is sailing the Atlantic Ocean searching for British naval ships to capture. Its red banner holds bright gold letters spelling out REVENGE. But its crew, all able seamen who had been cruelly mistreated by the British Admiralty, find themselves with a mascot and stow-a-way: Max, a wire haired fox terrier and Zoe Eaton, his owner, who is far away from her home in New Haven, Connecticut. How all this ends is surprising.