"Ellen Prentiss felt the sea tug at her heart, strong as a full-moon tide. She loved the water so much that her papa taught her to navigate his schooner across Massachusetts Bay. Soon she was racing the fishing fleet! But she dreamed of even bigger adventures, so she married a sea captain and began navigating his ships on the trade route to China. Then Ellen's husband was given command of a fast new clipper ship, the Flying Cloud. Ellen was determined to use every bit of its speed for their maiden voyage: a race out of New York City, down around the tip of Cape Horn, and up to San Francisco, where the Gold Rush was well under way. Ellen battled wild storms, broken masts, and dangerously slow winds. But she not only made it to port as the first woman to navigate that route; her daring voyage set a world record for speed, too!"--Jacket flap.

Ellen Prentiss had always felt the sea tug at her heart, and in 1851, she navigated her husband's clipper from New York City down to Cape Horn and up to San Francisco.