Star of the Sea

by O'Connor, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780151009084
• ISBN10: 0151009082
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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Summary

In the bitter winter of 1847, from an Ireland torn by famine and injustice, the Star of the Sea sets sail for New York. On board are hundreds of refugees, some optimistic, many more are desperate. Among them are a maid with a devastating secret, the bankrupt Lord Merridith and his wife and children, and a killer is stalking the decks, hungry for the vengeance that will bring absolution. This journey will see many lives end, others begin anew. Passionate loves are tenderly recalled, shirked responsibilities regretted too late, and profound relationships are shockingly discovered. In this spellbinding tale of tragedy and mercy, love and healing, the farther the ship sails toward the Promised Land, the more her passengers seem moored to a past that will never let them go. As urgently contemporary as it is historical, this gripping and compassionate novel builds with the pace of a thriller to a stunning conclusion.

Author Biography

Joseph O'Connor is the author of several widely acclaimed novels, including Cowboys & Indians, Desperadoes, and The Salesman. He has also written criticism, plays, and screenplays, and edited Yeats Is Dead! He lives in Dublin.

Excerpts

CHAPTER IThe Leave-TakingThe FIRST of our TWENTY-SIX days at Sea: in which Our Protector records some essential Particulars, and the Circumstances attending our setting-out.VIII NOV. MDCCCXLVIIMONDAY THE EIGHTH DAY OF NOVEMBER, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FORTY-SEVEN TWENTY-FIVE DAYS AT SEA REMAINING.The following is the only register of Josias Tuke Lockwood, Master of Vessel, signed and written in his own hand; and I attest it on my solemn honour a compleat and true account of the voyage, and neither has any matter pertinent been omitted.LONG: 1016.7'W. LAT: 5135.5'N. ACTUAL GREENWICH STANDARD TIME: 8.17 P.M. WIND DIR. SPEED: S.S.W. Force 4. BUFFETING SEAS: rough. HEADING: W.N.W. 282.7. PRECIPITATION. REMARKS: Mild mist all the day but very cold and clear night. Upper riggings encrusted with ice. Dursey Island to starboard. Tearagh Isld visible at 524.5'N, 1039.7'W, most westerly point of Ireland and therefore of the United Kingdom. (Property of the Earl of Cork.)NAME OF VESSEL: The Star of the Sea (formerly the Golden Lady).BUILDER: John Wood, Port Glasgow (prop. engines by M. Brunel).OWNER: Silver Star Shipping Line Co.PREVIOUS VOYAGE: Dublin Port (South Docks) - Liverpool - Dublin Kingstown.PORT OF EMBARKATION: Queenstown (or The Cove). 5151'N; 00818'W.PORT OF DESTINATION: New York. 40.42'N; 74.02'W.DISTANCE: 2,768 nautical miles direct: to be factorised for tacking into westerlies.FIRST MATE: Thos. Leeson.ROYAL MAIL AGENT: George Wellesley Esq. (accompnd. by a servant, Briggs).WEIGHT OF VESSEL: 1,154 gross tons.LENGTH OF VESSEL: 207 ft beam 34 ft.GENERAL: clipper bows, one funnel, three square-rig masts (rigged for sail), oaken hull (copperfastened), three decks, a poop and topgallant forecastle, side-paddle wheel propulsion, full speed 9 knots. All seaworthy though substantial repairs required; also damage to interior fittings cetera. Bad leaking through overhead and bulkheads of steerage. Hull to be audited in dry dock at New York and caulked if required.CARGO: 5,000 lbs of mercury for Alabama Mining Co. The Royal Mail (forty bags). Sunderland coal for fuel. (Poor quality the supply, dirty and slaggy.) Luggage of passengers. Spare slop in stores. One grand piano for John J. Astor Esq. at New York.PROVISIONS: sufficient of freshwater, ale, brandy, claret, rum, pork, cocks, mutton, biscuit, preserved milk cetera. Also oatmeal, cutlings, molasses, potatoes, salt or hung beef, pork, bacon and hams, salted veal, fowl in pickle, coffee, tea, cyder, spices, pepper, ginger, flour, eggs, good port wine and porter-beer, pickled colewort, split peas for soup; and lastly, vinegar, butter, and potted herrings. Live beasts (caged) to be butchered on board: pigs, chickens, lambs and geese.One passenger, a certain Meadowes, is lodged in the lock-up for drunkenness and fighting. (A hopeless out-and-outer: he shall have to be watched.) Suspected case of Typhus Fever moved to the hold for isolation.Be it recorded

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Excerpted from Star of the Sea by Joseph O'Connor, Joseph O'Connor
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