The Sea Captain’s Wife
By Beth Powning
Vintage Canada Publishers
This story by Canadian, Beth Powning, is a tale of love and adventure on a sailing ship circa 1861.
Azuba Galloway, is a woman who thinks the traditional roles of wife and mother would be tedious and repetitive, compared with the life she imagines she would live if she could sail away and see the world.
When she falls in love and marries Captain Nathaniel Broadcast, captain of the sailing ship, Traveller, out of Whelan’s Cove in New Brunswick, he promises that she will not be left on shore to wait for his infrequent visits.
Azuba’s father builds the young couple a home and they settle in, but when their daughter Carrie is born, Captain Bradstock changes his mind about taking them on the ship, knowing that the sea is no place to raise a child. Azuba is disappointed and furious, but he will not relent. Letters are infrequent, and some trips by sea take many months. Mother and babe lead a life of waiting; waiting for mail and waiting for visits.
Azuba visits with other captain’s wives, who live very well on shore, enjoying expensive gifts their husbands have brought them from exotic places. These women have nothing but contempt for wives who take to the sea, reporting that their skin is wrinkled and brown and their ways are manly and coarse. Aruba sees only the adventure of being somewhere else, where things are happening.
When a new young minister, Rev. Walton, comes to the church at Whelan’s Cove, he and Azuba and Carrie become friends, which makes tongues wag. Captain Bradstock hears the gossip and makes plans that Carrie and Azuba will sail on his next voyage.
These years, 1862-1865, are the dying years of the sailing ship.
The Traveller handles whatever payload can be found, including coal and guano. The sailors are rough and ready.
Their journeys take them into the North Atlantic, around Cape Horn, to San Francisco and Antwerp.
Life on a sailing vessel in the 1800’s, is not fun or fancy. The captain’s word is law, and he has no time for his family. The adventure Azuba imagined was a dream. She had no conception of the terrible storms, with decks awash, and men shouting.
She and Carrie are below, fearful but with no knowledge of what’s happening, until it’s over.
The story covers an interesting time in history, and the fact that some wives accompanied their husbands on a voyage was news to me. Still, there are unimaginable challenges, one disaster follows another, until there is doubt they will survive to see New Brunswick again.
This book misses the “historical romance” novel designation, (but only slightly) by the fact of the authors thorough research and readable style. Azuba’s second pregnancy goes undetected by her husband, apparently a good captain, but not that observant. Still, this a good book to wind up your summer reading.
Beth Powning is the author of Hatbox Letters and Shadow Child.
Peggy Freeman is a freelance writer living in Red Deer.