The perahu's crew is yelling in Malay for us to stop. Samuel is shouting that they are pirates and that they will rob us. I'm hiding my diary and pencil inside my shirt . . . Billy Shanghai Hamilton has been blackbirded-snatched by pirates in the Torres Strait and forced to work on a pearling boat. Greed for pearls drives men mad, and the seas are full of danger. Soon Billy is fighting for survival in a dangerous world of assassins, treasure hunters, deep-sea diving, underworld crime and mutiny.