Joseph Conrad 
End of the Tether 

The End of the Tether is one of the many books that author Joseph Conrad wrote about sailors and the sea. Using his own personal experiences as a merchant marine as the foundation for his writing, Conrad produced some of the most realistic sea tales of the nineteenth century. Henry Whalley is a true sailor, earning years of experience as a ship’s captain before his retirement. Faced with unexpected financial problems and a desire to help his married daughter earn her place in the world, Whalley is forced to sell his boat and buy his way back into service on a trade vessel. But Whalley is living so close to financial ruin that any small deviation from his course will put him over the edge…(Goodreads)