[3]
"By turns feisty, opinionated, inquisitive, and contemplative, Abby Morrell lives and breathes on these pages. Many will want to read Captain’s Wife as a tale of adventure, but what has stayed in my mind is the character of the incomparable young woman who told these tales. Recommended."
—Pirates and Privateers [5]
“This small volume joins Basil Greenhill’s path breaking work Women Under Sail: Letters and Journals concerning Eight Women traveling or working in Sailing Vessels between 1829 and 1949 and recently published accounts of women aboard whalers in the nineteenth century.”
— The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord, October 2012
During the nineteenth century it became increasingly common for merchant service masters to take their wives to sea. Among the first, and most accomplished literature about this subject, is Abby Jane Morrell’s account of a voyage between 1829 and 1831 that took her from New England to the South Pacific. Apart from the descriptions of exotic places, much of the interest in this book is the traditional, centuries-old world of the sailor as seen through the eyes of a thoughtful and well-educated woman.
Abby Jane Morrell was born in New York in 1809. She insisted on accompanying her husband on a sealing voyage that was to last three years. However, after their son was born in 1831, she remained at home.
Reviewed on the website, HistoricNovelSociety.org [6]
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