A fourteen-year- old merchant navy apprentice called John Tate, sent eleven letters back to his mother in Gateshead over a six-year period in the 1830's. The letters allowed the joint authors to piece together his journey from a Newcastle collier brig to a Royal Naval man o' war in the Mediterranean. Whilst keeping in touch with his life back home, this ordinary young sailor got caught up in some daunting experiences, including a midnight flit, a false name, involvement in a war off the coast of Syria, a Holy Land tour, ending with a mystery after his return to England.