“Often, she paused on the porch and looked out at the blue line of Nova Scotia and the silver gleam in the southwest where the bay widened to the Gulf of Maine: the sea spread before her, thundered in her ears; and sometimes she loathed it, since Nathaniel was at its mercy. At other times, she closed her eyes, tossed back her bonnet and breathed deep of the world’s size.”
I am a sucker for historical fiction, throw a bit of swashbuckling romance in there and I’m hooked. When I imagine sea voyage back in the 1800’s I must admit to conjuring up images of impressive vessels smashing their way across the oceans, with grandeur and glamour that can’t possibly of existed. The real stories, like the one that Beth Powning relates in her latest novel The Sea Captain’s Wife, showcases the more realistic side to seamanship – illness, solitude, risk, and the heartache that inevitably follow a life amongst the waves.
Whistler Writer 