In December 1875 the steamship Deutschland left Bremen, bound for America. On board were five nuns, exiled by a ban on religious orders, bound to begin their lives anew in Missouri - their journey would end when the Deutschland ran aground at the mouth of the Thames and sank. Ron Hansen tells their harrowing story, but also that of the poet and seminarian Gerard Manly Hopkins, and how the shipwreck moved him to write a grand poem, a revelatory work read throughout the world today. This title combines a thrilling tragedy at sea, with the seeming shipwreck of Hopkins' own life.