When men toiled to build our canals, fortunes made on distant oceans paid for their labour and materials. We follow two young men growing up, living the horror of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and the terror of the Baltic traders who imported the massive supplies of timber. While the great engineers and 'navigators' were transforming our landscape, Napoleon was marching across Europe and making alliances with our trading partners. We travel from building the great aqueduct in Lancaster, to Britain's merciless attack on the friendly state of Denmark, Yet trading partnerships were established which continue today. Likewise, the great Lune Aqueduct draws today's tourists to marvel at its massive structure. Historic accuracy is an essential element of the novel, and accounts from many sources have been studied to create the precise environment for the fiction.