Describes the life of a colonial merchant, his business, family life, home, social life, and his role in the War of Independence. Includes a glossary of terms.

Tells the dramatic life-and-death tale of the Vermont native who, in April of 2009, was held captive on a tiny lifeboat off Somalia's anarchic, gun-plagued shores. It was just another day on the job for fifty-three-year-old Richard Phillips, captain of the Maersk Alabama, a United States-flagged cargo ship that was carrying, among other things, food and agricultural materials for the World Food Program. That all changed when armed Somali pirates...