The role of the flatboat in our country's evolution is far more significant than most Americans realize. Buck chronicles his adventure building a wooden flatboat from the bygone era of the early 1800s and journeying down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He cast off down the river on the flatboat Patience accompanied by an eccentric crew of daring shipmates. Over the course of his voyage, steering a fragile wooden craft through narrow channels dominated by massive cargo barges, Buck rescues his first mate gone overboard, sails blindly through fog, breaks his ribs not once but twice, and camps every night on sandbars, remote islands, and steep levees. He explains how the western rivers in America became a floating supply chain that fueled national growth, and confronts the bloody truth behind settlers' push for land and wealth. -- Adapted from jacket.