The story of a Victorian philanthropist who reformed shipping laws, saved thousands of sailors' lives and became a national hero'A story of ambition, treachery, libel, political intrigue and cold-blooded murder on a mass scale' Herald'Nicolette Jones charts Plimsoll's course with skill, insight and elegance' Sunday Telegraph'Splendid and meticulously researched' GuardianIn the second half of the nineteenth century, an astonishing campaign stirred a nation to save the lives of the hundreds of British sailors who were drowning unnecessarily every year.Overladen and ill-repaired ships set sail, their doomed crews sacrificed while mercenary shipowners profited from the insurance.Samuel Plimsoll blew the whistle on these scandalous practices, devoting his life to a campaign for maritime reform.Plimsoll caught the public imagination: under his banner working men and women stood side by side with enlightened aristocrats and industrialists, their clamour almost toppling a prime minister.