James Wait is a dying West Indian black sailor on board the merchant ship Narcissus sailing from Bombay to London. Wait becomes seriously ill during the voyage, and his plight arouses the humanitarian sympathies of many of the crew. However, the ship’s captain and an old sailor named Singleton remain concerned primarily with their duties to the ship and appear indifferent to Wait’s condition. CuriousPages Edition This book is a CuriousPages edition, which has been edited by an experienced literary editor, then formatted to produce a book that is a pleasure to read. These editions are printed by CreateSpace (an Amazon company), which produces exceptional printing quality (of a higher quality than most trade paperbacks) at a reasonable price.