When 14-year-old James boards the steamship Valencia in San Francisco's harbour in 1906 he knows his nightmares are omens of an ill-fated passage. Apprehensively, he explores the ship with Alex, a fellow traveller who introduces him to oblivious passengers and crew. When a violent storm and thick fog reduce the navigators to dead reckoning, James braces himself for the worst. The vessel runs aground in the Juan de Fuca Strait, 50 metres from shore, in seas too rocky for rescue. While victims cling to the masts in the gale, the boys board the last lifeboat . Only 20 people survive and over 200 passengers and crew are killed-a sea disaster as horrible as the sinking of the Titanic-as the Valencia sinks to its watery grave off what is now the West Coast Trail.