The 'Lady Maud

As the days of sail begin to give way to those of steam, Sir Mordaunt Brookes has built a boat. The Lady Maud is a gleaming thing, a schooner yacht, sumptuously fitted out with shining white decks and all the accessories a Victorian gentleman could require. All of this work of building has been for one purpose: a sea journey across the Atlantic, from Southampton all the way to the West Indies, to benefit the ailing health of his demanding and nervous wife, Lady Agnes.

He has a small crew. He has a doctor, Norie, to minister to Agnes’ needs. His beautiful young niece will also come along, to keep her company. But he has no-one outside the crew with any seafaring knowledge. Then he remembers Edmund Walton, a true friend and former sailor who has been away from the sea for ten years, who happily agrees to come on the journey, his heart hungering for life on the waves.

Several situations test the occupants of the ‘Lady Maud’, including wild weather and two daring rescues. Will the rest of the journey leave them peacefully making headwind? Have they now finally had their share of adventures? Has Purchase, the captain, made the right calculation of their position in this roaring weather? One night, Walton wakes up to a terrific grinding bump and is thrown into the corner of his cabin, the floor almost vertical. Now begins a yet more serious test; this elegant cruise has suddenly become a desperate struggle for survival…

W. Clark Russell’s evocative prose, laden with the colours and moods of the sea and sky, unfolds a tale of tragedy with seemingly effortless control; its lucid and realistic shades make for one of the Victorian era’s finest novels of shipwreck.