What had there been before such a ship in my life? A dugout canoe on a river journey? A launch in Trincomalee harbour? There were always fishing boats on our horizon. But I could never imagine the grandeur of this castle that was to cross the sea'. In the early 1950s an eleven-year-old boy boards a huge liner in Colombo bound for Engl&. At mealtimes he is seated at the lowly 'cat's table'
- as far from the Captain's table as can be
- with a ragtag group of adults & two other boys Cassius & Ramadhin. As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean the boys tumble from one adventure to another & at night they spy on a shackled prisoner
- his crime & fate a mystery that will haunt them forever...