Luke Haggerty

Luke is a thirteen-year-old young man who makes the decision to join the schooner, Phoenix, as an alternative to a jail sentence. He is lucky that his charge is a first offense, but since the offense involved a firearm in a school locker, the judge is inclined to take the incident seriously. As such, he is committed to a month of work as a crew member in a program called Charting a New Course (CNC) in the waters of the Pacific. They were to assemble at the marina in Guam and Luke is met on arrival at the airport by Mr. Radford, the first mate, who immediately calls him, and every other male he meets, Archie. Luke is so embarrassed by the felony conviction that after correcting Radford once about his name, he realizes that there is no point and stays silent.

Luke joins five other adolescents...