For readers drawn to true stories of adventure, teamwork, and survival at sea, All Hands on Deck offers a gripping, firsthand look at a journey where the only way forward was to keep sailing.
In the late 1990s, Hollywood needed a ship—and found itself with a problem. The Rose, a full-scale replica of an eighteenth-century warship, was sitting in Newport, Rhode Island. Filming for Master and Commander was set thousands of miles away on the West Coast. The only solution: sail it there.
In All Hands on Deck, Will Sofrin takes readers aboard that unlikely journey, joining a crew of thirty misfits tasked with delivering a historic tall ship across two oceans and through some of the most treacherous waters on earth. What begins as a job quickly becomes something far more demanding—and far more dangerous.
Facing hurricane-force storms, equipment failures, and a ship few people knew how to operate, the crew is forced to relearn the skills of another era while navigating the realities of the modern world. Along the way, personality clashes, shifting alliances, and the pressures of constant risk test not only their seamanship, but their ability to work—and survive—together.
Blending immersive storytelling with rich maritime detail, Sofrin brings to life both the physical experience of sailing a tall ship and the human drama that unfolds onboard. The result is a vivid, accessible account of adventure, resilience, and what it takes to see a seemingly impossible mission through.
"Thrilling. This is an adventure story of the highest order." —Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the National Book Award–winning In the Heart of the Sea and Mayflower
Praise
“Fact stalks fiction in this epic tale. Huzzah!”Peter Weir, Academy Award–winning co-writer, producer, and director of Master and Commander: The Far
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“High-spirited and finely detailed . . . Sofrin intersperses details of life aboard the Rose with tidbits of tall ship history and enlightening commentary on Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin novels . . . this adventure tale will delight sailors of all stripes.”Publishers Weekly
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“Enthralling . . . Experienced sailors and landlubbers alike will find Sofrin’s work a pleasure to read.”Kirkus
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“Sofrin spares little detail, making all the issues of sailing and shipbuilding much less intimidating through carefully rendered diagrams, with all parts of the ship’s superstructure and complex rigging meticulously labeled. Fans of the movie and serious sailors will revel in Sofrin’s tale.”Booklist
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“A tale worthy of Patrick O’Brian himself … All Hands on Deck is a vivid reminder not only of how far the sailing world has come, but also of how much we still share with the Jack Tars who came before us.”Quarterdeck
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“All Hands on Deck...offers a special, tightly packaged vignette exploring the serendipity of this brief but compelling career as a shipwright and deckhand.”Woodenboat Magazine
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“A thrilling account. Readers needn’t have ever set foot on a boat to enjoy this story.”Tracy Edwards, trailblazing round-the-world sailor
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“Will Sofrin takes us on an unbelievable ride on the high seas . . . I have played pretendDan Shotz, executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning Starz series Black Sails
on the open ocean. Will Sofrin has lived the real experiences and survived to tell the tale.”
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“Like many a sailor, Will Sofrin is a wicked good storyteller, with a jaundiced eye, an impish sense of humor, and a nose for the telling detail. Lovers of the Aubrey-Maturin novels and the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World will find his account a worthy addition to the salty O’Brian world we love. You don’t want to miss it!”Dean King, national bestselling author of A Sea of Words, Patrick O’Brian: A Life Revealed, and Skel
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“While researching for paintings I have probably read hundreds of ships' logbooks from the glory days of the Royal Navy, just as Patrick O'Brian did, so I know what things looked like from the quarterdeck (there are very, very few surviving accounts from the crews). But with this book Will Sofrin gives us a great insight into the intense working life of the lower deck, now just as it was then, constantly battling the elements, gear failure, and sometimes each other.”Geoff Hunt, marine artist and illustrator of the Patrick O'Brian book covers
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“Will Sofrin’s thrilling account of the eventful, sometimes terrifying delivery of the tall ship that starred in Peter Weir’s adaptation of Patrick O’Brian’s The Far Side of the World is a must-read. Even if you haven’t seen the movie or read O’Brian’s novels, this is an adventure story of the highest order.”Nathaniel Philbrick, author of the National Book Award–winning In the Heart of the Sea and Travels w
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“All Hands on Deck is a fascinating read: a combination of a travelogue to distant lands, maritime history, and adventures and misadventures on the high seas. Through it all, author Will Sofrin is learning to live in tight and uncomfortable quarters on a tall ship alongside crewmembers of very divergent personalities. They ultimately form a team with the common goal of staying alive on an unforgiving and unpredictable ocean.”Michael Tougias, New York Times bestselling author of Extreme Survival and A Storm Too Soon
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“In the canon of classic literature is a disproportionate volume of epic tales of the sea. Almost invariably these tales focus on a young, green hand signing aboard a ship, casting off, and heading out into the great salty unknown for the first time. In All Hands on Deck, by Will Sofrin, we have a latter-day tale of a seagoing apprenticeship under sail. Lucid, personal, funny, and instructive, it could be read next to Two Years Before the Mast with no apologies. Ships and times may have changed, but the sea and young souls drawn to the sea have changed but little. This story is a worthy tale of a young man and a ship and the sea. I enjoyed it immensely.”Captain Daniel Moreland
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“People love tall ships, but the lives and culture of modern tall ship sailors are a mystery to most who attend sea festivals and the like. In All Hands on Deck, Will Sofrin accomplishes two things: He brings to light the real world of today’s traditional mariners while telling the thrilling tale of how he himself was plunged into that world. With accomplished and insightful storytelling, Sofrin recounts an extraordinary, often hair-raising voyage, and in doing so reveals to readers the lives of the modern-day sailors of the big rigs.”James L. Nelson, award-winning author of the Norsemen Saga and Benedict Arnold’s Navy
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“In 2022, Will's twenty-year-old memories of 2002 with the Rose plunge up and down, from the present to historical descriptions of their passages and landfalls over the centuries, what life aboard these kinds of ships is now, and what it used to be like. With a cast of shipmates on the replica tall ship, from bowsprit to capstan, a door is opened for the reader between a developed modern world on a well-traveled ocean route and long-gone days when it was first being sailed, written, and talked about. A lively blend of new and old adventure stories, this book bromantically and informatively bridges time on the timeless seas.”Tania Aebi, bestselling author of Maiden Voyage and the first American woman and youngest person to
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