Black birded from Navigator's Islands at just eleven years of age, thrown overboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, rescued by a whaling ship and brought up by aboriginals at the Oyster Cove aboriginal station, William Henry smith took the name of a convict and rose from ship's boy, aboard the 'Offley', at thirteen years of age, through the ranks of more than a dozen whaling ships, to become the only black whaling ship's Captain in Tasmania.

The whaling Barque, Marie Laure, her captain, William Smith, his wife and two babies, with his brother's, Domingo Jose Evorall, Black Louise the Portugese, and 'Black Jim' Smith, sailed from Hobart to places as far afield as the Bering Sea, in the oldest whaling ship afloat.

This is the true story of cannibalism, murder, racism, joy and heartbreak of the most unsung, yet the most adventurous whaler ever to come out of Tasmania.