The Shadow-Line

In one of the eastern ports, a shipping company urgently looks for a ship owner to deliver cheap cargo to Singapore. At the port waits an elegant three-masted bark, already loaded and crewed by a Malay crew. By an authoritative recommendation, the owner hands over his sailor to a young, newly appointed captain as his first officer. Distance from port to port: 800 nautical miles—the distance that ships like the one mentioned above cover in ten days. However, the young English captain needs twice as much time. The first command comes with a chain of crises: no wind, the crew falls ill, and on top of everything his crazy first mate believes the ship is being pursued by the evil spirit of the former captain. The thin line—between our carefree youth and adulthood, between our old-new feeling of responsibility for others. Crossing it means you’ll never become the way you were again. For the main character, that line becomes his first time commanding a ship.