by Maya Robertson
Bankrupt and desperate, Captain Torstein Grøn of the whaling ship, Håpet decides to gamble with the lives of his crew to save his fortune. With winter closing in and the ice encroaching, he makes the dangerous choice to chase one final catch, a vanishing pod of bowhead whales. But when his crew discovers a stricken whaler locked dead in the sea ice, it seems his prayers have been answered. The ghost ship's hold is full of oil, enough to free the captain from his debts and save his family from ruin. The captain soon realises that they retrieved more than just oil from that ghost ship as a darkness descends upon the Håpet and the miracle from Heaven quickly turns into a nightmare from Hell.
No streak history
Rank updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Entry forecast updated 13 Aug 2026, 04:15 UTC
Overall Rising Stars shadow rank
deep field · ~#6563 of 7,531 · 6513 below #50
By genre
beats 70% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 77% of similar stories
Firing on all cylinders
Traffic and conversion are both strong for a story this size. Readers are finding it and sticking — if Rising Stars is the goal, this is the moment to push.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.
