After growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, Michael E. Paul chose a life at sea and served in the U.S. Naval Reserves aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt. After his life aboard ship, he returned to his home port, bought a sailboat, and started sailing the Chesapeake Bay while pursuing a career in teaching. He received his master's degree in education from the Johns Hopkins University and now teaches at Calvert School in Baltimore, where he has taught third through sixth grade for the past thirty-four years. To his students, he is known as Pirate Paul. Mike lives with his wife, Betsy, aboard their boat, Godspeed, in Baltimore harbor where he does much of his writing.