The story, covering more than a century, of three generations of the Griffiths family of Nefyn, Gwynedd, North Wales, who went to sea. The story begins with the small Llyn port of Porthdinllaen, which at one time had more master mariners per square inch than anywhere else in the United Kingdom. By the end of the 19th century the family moved to the growing major port of Liverpool, which was becoming the "capital of North Wales", before William Griffiths moved in the early 20th century to his wife's home village of Benllech, Anglesey, and the Penrhyn slate ships.