Over the course of her journey, Charlotte learns that the class system of which she is a part suppresses good people and props up bad ones. At first, most of the men on the ship are scary to her, both because of their gender and their class. Charlotte initially struggles to make friends, but she surprises herself by befriending Zachariah, an elderly Black sailor who wants to help her protect herself from whatever mishaps may occur on the trip. At first, she dismisses his words of warning.

She also makes friends with the captain, a man of her class who treats her as befits her status, even parading her around the ship for all to see. He promises to protect her from any untoward actions of the crew. He speaks ill of his men, however, and treats them disrespectfully, explaining to her that they quickly become lazy and incompetent unless harshly controlled.

Charlotte soon learns that he is using her simply to spy on the sailors. When she reveals to him a conspiracy against him, he suppresses the mutiny harshly, killing the leader and whipping Zachariah, apparently to death. Charlotte’s horror at all this gives her second thoughts about the captain; it only gets worse when he steers the ship into a hurricane in an attempt to make more money, murders his own first mate, and pins the murder on her.