Hammond Innes · 1965 · sea

Hammond Innes's 1965 novel. A naval officer put ashore after twenty years is drawn into the boardroom feud of a decaying shipping house, and then sent east to find a missing director. The search runs to the Maldives and beyond, where the sea bed is lifting - and an island rising out of deep water turns out to be worth more than the company that owns the charter.

1. 1
   London

   Geoffrey Bailey, retired from the Navy against his will, is pulled into the affairs of Strode & Company - a shipping family in decline, its ships old and its board at war with itself over what is left.

2. 2
   Aden

   The search for the missing Peter Strode leads east by way of Aden, the coaling and bunkering hinge of the whole eastern trade, where the company's captains and agents know more than the London board has ever been told.

3. 3
   Addu Atoll

   At Addu Atoll in the southern Maldives, Strode has been living among the islanders and quietly financing a trading venture of his own - and knows something about the sea floor that no one in London has thought to ask about.

4. 4
   The Indian Ocean

   Out where the ocean is deepest, volcanic activity is pushing new land above the surface - and the question of who owns an island that did not exist last year becomes a matter of ships, charters and a great deal of money.