When young Nathan sails from Nantucket with his older brothers Caleb and Jeremy, they hope to discover the facts behind the sinking of the Amy Foster. Then Jeremy dies mysteriously, and Nathan discovers a curious object floating in the waters of Magdalena Bay. As the dramatic events unfold, he realizes that Caleb suffers from some kind of madness, believing that he is Captain Ahab, straight out of Moby Dick.

From the reviews:

"No summary can do justice to a brooding, twilit quality which makes [The Dark Canoe] an adventure more of the mind than of the sea ... Figures and events from Moby Dick are given eerie, shadowy counterparts. ... So quietly, so persuasively, is this accomplished that when Ishmael's ocean-going coffin drifts out of Melville's seas in O'Dell's, it carries no shock for either Nathan or the reader. And when the Alert finally stands out to sea, we do not know whether she is commanded by Caleb Clegg bound homeward for Nantucket, or by Captain Ahab sailing once more in vengeful pursuit of the White Whale."

Book World. Washington Post

"Multifaceted in its virtues, this novel has as its central theme a boy's inner growth through experience and disillusionment."

Library Journal

"...reading The Dark Canoe is an enjoyable voyage. Like other modern stories in this category it is ... a sort of unfolding of events rather than an attempt to shape them."

The Christian Science Monitor