In 1945, the last year of the Second World War, five Cornish boys find a derelict French fishing boat abandoned in a creek near their home, and decide to adopt her. With the help of Captain Blake (a retired sea captain with a tin leg), they clean up the Dauntless (as they decide to name her), restore her and fit her out for sailing. And, though none of them has even been to sea, they appoint themselves her unofficial crew.

One day, they are camping on board when three escaped German prisoners-of-war commandeered the boat, and the boys are unable to stop them taking Dauntless out to sea in a bid to escape to Spain. But the crew of Dauntless is not beaten. With a combination of deception, force - and a large dose of luck - the boys manage to overpower the Germans and recapture their boat. But then their difficulties have only just begun. They have no practical experience of sailing a boat; they are without charts, navigation lights or anchor, and they have only tied ropes and split sails, yet they have no option but to try to sail Dauntless back to England and safety.

This exciting sea story in the Arthur Ransome tradition will be enjoyed by every young reader who has ever wanted to sail or own a boat, and it is only the first of the Dauntless adventure stories, well-loved and widely read when they were first published, and which have now been revised for a new generation of young sailors and would-be sailors.

ISBN: 0 86391 001 7
189pp Hardback
Our RRP £6.25