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 administer 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.

Soon after leaving the Solent, they happen upon an adventure: a lost pleasure-boater in the English Channel needs their help to return to land. Walton wonders if this will set the tone for the rest of the trip, and also begins to detect, with his sharp sailor's eye, that all is not right with Purchase, the Lady Maud's captain. Has Sir Mordaunt selected wisely?

Way out in the wild swells of the mid-Atlantic a very different challenge meets them. The Wanderer, a sailing ship, has been torn to shreds in a howling gale. All that is left is a slowly sinking hulk with four poor souls clinging onto it for dear life. With the seas pounding and danger at every turn, Walton and several of the crew risk their lives to rescue them.

Have they now finally had their share of adventures? Will the rest of the journey leave them peacefully making headwind? Has Purchase 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.