Intrigue

When earthy Dolly Portland is rejected by Captain Gaskell in favor of a socialite, she aids Jamesy McCardle, in league with Malay pirates, in his plot to seize Gaskell's ship.

Dynamic Alan Gaskell captains a ship bound from Hong Kong to Singapore. Gaskell tries to turn over a new leaf from his hard-drinking lifestyle after becoming re-attached to a refined high class English lady, Sybil Barclay. His former girlfriend Dolly is extremely jealous of the budding relationship and tries hard to get the Captain back. He is apparently unimpressed with her loud, obnoxious, and uncivilized manners, even though she is extremely beautiful. After a temporary takeover of the ship by gold-seeking Asian pirates, Captain Gaskell must deal with the fact that Dolly and her drinking pal, Jamesey MacArdle, are implicated in the crime.—Gary Jackson <garyjack5@cogeco.ca>

Former British naval officer Alan Gaskell has captained the Kin Lung for six years, a passenger and cargo ship making the journey between Hong Kong and Singapore. His crew members generally view him as unreasonably harsh on them, while he laments having what he considers the least adept of the crew working for the company. On this latest sailing from Hong Kong to Singapore, there is one additional crew member in that category, third officer Tom Davids, a disgraced former captain in demonstrating his cowardice when his ship was pirated. Gaskell is proud of his record of never having been pirated. Also on board this trip are two women from Gaskell's life, neither of whom he was previously aware was going to be on this sailing: brash exotic dancer Dolly Portland, working under the name China Doll, who Gaskell sees more as a casual fling while she in turn wants to be Mrs. Gaskell; and recently widowed Sybil Barclay, Gaskell's former love, her marriage and his resulting broken heart the reason that he originally left Britain and the navy. Beyond needing to navigate the two women, Gaskell has to deal with the regular perils of the sea, including Mother Nature. What he is unaware of is that there is wolf in sheep's clothing in passenger Jamesy MacArdle, a businessman who, while pretending to be a friend, has a plot underway for a group of Malays to pirate the ship of a cache of gold purportedly being shipped on this sailing.—Huggo