The navigator - Morris West

Son of a Norwegian master-mariner, grandson of Kaloni, last of the great Polynesian navigators, Gunnar Thorkild carries his birthright within him. His dream is that one day he will pit his skill against the might of the Pacific Ocean and find the legendary isle-of-the-dead of his people.

The sea is Thorkild's kingdom - but even for him the sea proves too strong, and he and his small band of fellow-adventurers are shipwrecked on the very island they seek. Now, Thorkild must assume the mantle of chieftainship and carve a living society out of this place of death. To do so he must forsake 'civilised' laws and return to the ways of his primitive ancestors...