The Nickerbocker's Tale

A boy is torn from the streets of Ireland and thrown into the sea.

Izod never meant to become a sailor. Dragged aboard a Royal Navy ship by a press gang, he is ripped from his home, his name, and any path back to the life he knew. When the ship is lost to storm and fate, he wakes not in England, and not in Ireland, but among a scattered colony of lawless islands ruled by pirates, deserters, and men who no longer belong to any nation.

The pirate crew of the Laughingstock offers him a single bargain: work the deck, survive their world, and they will help him find his way home.

First published in 1767 and subsequently lost, forgotten, and half-erased, The Nickerbocker's Tale is a short and deeply wrong piece of pre-Victorian folklore that seems out of place in its own century.

Attributed to the obscure poet Collin Caulkry (found dead shortly before finishing the book) the story follows a cast of a singing pirate captain, a young boy, an evil pirate-hunter, and a sea that listens too closely. It reads like a nursery rhyme written by someone who didn't understand children, joy, or mercy.

If you enjoy lost media, eldritch fiction, archival horror, and literary oddities, then this book will get under your skin.