"Look, David," Bob shouted and pointed.
David looked in the direction of Bob's pointing finger. The wreck had been shifted by the last sea, and the searchlight's beam illuminated the whole of its length. David almost sank to the ground in horror. He could see the ship's name painted in white on the black and water-dripping hull. It was the "Mary Baines".

David and the rest of the crew of Dauntless had been thrilled when their old friend Captain Blake was given another command, the coaster Mary Baines. But then one stormy night they hear the rocket signals calling out the lifeboat and discover to their horror the distressed vessel is the Mary Baines. And, what is worse, it appears that the loss of the ship is the result of negligence on Captain Blake's part.

David, and his friends Bob, Tim, Alex and Bruce are sure this cannot be true and that Captain Blake has been framed. The rest of the story tells of their determined efforts to find the missing compass from the Mary Baines and prove their old friend's innocence. Whether they succeed or not is told in a thrilling climax in which the searchers are cut off by the tide in a remote cave . . .

Another in the well known series of books about the ex-French crabber, the Dauntless, and her crew - five boys who restored her to life in the last year of the Second World War and then sailed her in their holidays. Peter Dawlish, the author, spent most of his life at sea and skilfully combines a thrilling story with accurate information for every young reader who has ever sailed or longed to sail a boat.

ISBN: 0 86391 046 7
192pp Hardback
Our RRP £6.95