"This marvellous book should be hailed as an instant classic." ---- David McCullough For young men more than a century ago, "going to sea" was as much a rite of passage as making a grand tour of Europe. Sea Struck brings alive the final decades of square--rigged sail through the accounts of voyages made on three ships by three young men from Massachusetts. There is plenty of adventure here-- storms, men overboard, discipline that bordered on brutality, and exotic ports. There is also a fascinating immersion in the lore of the sea and sail and the global web of connections in the New England maritime community.