Cast From The Sea

1849. Adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Starving. Dehydrated.

Desperate…

Trapped on a whale boat set adrift in 1849, two friends win a battle for survival and start an epic, twenty-seven-year journey that begins on the sun seared Pacific Ocean and ends on the violent prairies of the American frontier.

Nathan Rodgers and Thomas Talbot are among the few survivors of thirty-five days on an open boat.

Horrible things took place on that tiny boat.

Things that shaped the destinies of both men irrevocably.

Nathan returns to his wife and two sons in New Bedford, tries to hide from his conscience and eventually must flee west with his family.

Thomas heads west to seek his fortune and redeem himself.

Neither man ever sees the other again, but Thomas hugely affects the lives of Nathan’s wife, Jenny, and sons, Rob and Will.

The Rodgers’ neighbor, Samantha, goes from being a withdrawn child, living in a sod hut with abusive parents, to a true heroine while undertaking a great journey with Rob and Will that ends in the fulfillment of an unlikely love.

A brutal Kiowa warrior chief, Satanta, becomes intermingled with the struggles of Thomas, Samantha, the Rodgers family and actual historical events and ends with the destruction of a way of life.

Set during the time of the California gold rush and the battle between the Plains Indians and the US Army, Cast from the Sea is a beautifully written epic tale of the costs of survival in a harsh land.

Praise for Cast from the Sea

‘an epic story on land and sea’ – Richard Foreman

Gerald Baum is also the author of two, contemporary, character driven, western novels about an authentic American hero.