Acknowledgments

My gratitude to the brave and little-known women who sailed with their captain husbands on merchant and whaling vessels in the nineteenth century. Details of their lives, and some of their adventures, are woven into this novel.

Thanks to the authors and researchers whose books illuminated time, place, and technicalities. Some of them are: Women at Sea in the Age of Sail, by Donal Baird; Hen Frigates: Passion and Peril, Nineteenth- Century Women at Sea, by Joan Druett; The Sea Letters of Grace F. Ladd, by Louise Nicols; Flying Cloud: The True Story of America’s Most Famous Clipper Ship and the Woman Who Guided Her, by David W. Shaw; Around Cape Horn, by Charles G. Davis; The Way of a Ship, by Derek Lundy; Life and Times: Recollections of Eliza Cox Carter, edited by Judith Baxter and Beth Quigley; The Great Guano Rush, by Jimmy M. Skaggs; Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana; and Cochin-China and My Experience of It, by Edward Brown. For a complete bibliography, please visit my website: www.powning.com/beth.

I used a great deal of original material: women’s diaries, captains’ logs, a master’s thesis, photographs and letters. For these, I am indebted to the New Brunswick Museum Archives, particularly the assistance of Janet Bishop. For questions answered, books supplied, and an invaluable day spent viewing wedding dresses, underclothing, workboxes and the like, thanks to New Brunswick Museum curator Peter J. Larocque.

For microfilm of the Weekly Telegraph (1862-64), thanks to the staff at the Saint John Regional Library Reference Room.

For allowing me to experience life in the nineteenth century, and for letting me explore their costume department, thanks to the staff of Kings Landing Historical Settlement, Kings Landing, New Brunswick.

Special thanks to Lucy Loomis at the Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts; and to Glenn Gordiniere, ship’s historian at Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut. For medical details, thanks to Edith Konesni, PA-C; Dr. Suleiman Khedheri; and Dr. David McMillan. For help with creating characters for the novel’s earliest draft, thanks to illustrator Twila Robar deCoste, biologist Inka Milewski and chef Russell Dobbelstyne. My grateful thanks to Ann Patty and Sue Sumeraj. Thanks to Barbara McIntyre at the Quaco Museum; and to Patricia McCaig, Catherine Thompson, Jesse Williams, and Emily Upham.

For meals, peace, birds and kindness, thanks to Sister Kate and the retreat house of the Cistercian-Trappistine nuns of the Notre-Dame de l’Assomption Abbey in Rogersville, New Brunswick.

For the place where the book was born, I am grateful for those who facilitate the Leighton Artist’s Colony at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta.

For reading and fact-checking an early draft, thanks to sailor/luthier Karl Dennis. For advice in the beginning, and for fact-checking in the end, much gratitude to sailor/author Derek Lundy. Any errors are mine.

Deepest thanks to the terrific team at Knopf Canada: Diane Martin, Marion Garner, Deirdre Molina, Amanda Lewis, and Nicola Makoway.

Thanks to Terri Nimmo for the gorgeous jacket and Jake Powning for the novel’s website design.

Heartfelt thanks to my editor, Angelika Glover, for asking the right questions, for making me dig deep, for patience on the long journey and for shepherding the book from start to finish.

For her energy, creativity, and enthusiasm, warmest thanks to Laura Tisdel, my editor at Plume; and thanks to the New York team: Laurie Connors, Lavina Lee, and Lucy Kim.

And to my dear friend and most amazing agent, Jackie Kaiser--I am profoundly and endlessly grateful.

For help with research, and for her inspiring passion for New Brunswick history, thanks to my daughter-in-law, Sara Powning. To my mother, Alison Davis, for her careful reading and commentary on several drafts. To my father, Wendell Davis, for enthusiastic support. To my son, Jake--for love. To my granddaughters, Maeve, Bridget--for joy.

To Peter, husband of forty years, thanks for always lightening the darkness with your belief in me, and for your love.