This is an early Jack London novel set in his hometown of San Francisco. It is considered the novel of a boys adventure. In the novel, Joe Bronson, dissatisfied with his dull life at school, runs away and joins the sloop team, he sees in San Francisco Bay. He finds that the captain is involved in criminal activity. Navigational actions on board a sailing boat are genuinely described, and there are convincing descriptions of boats that endure stormy weather at sea.