The Sea Captain's Wife

Beth Powning’s historical, novel The Sea Captain's Wife (2010), tells the coming of age – or at least coming to maturity – story of a woman whose youthful romantic notions of what a life at sea might be like run smack into the often harsh reality of this kind of life. Set in mid-nineteenth-century Canada, the novel centers on the main character as she comes to terms with the differences between her husband’s family and captainship personas, wrestles with her place in his life, and tries to bridge the gap between her wifely duties and her personal ambitions and talents.

Azuba Galloway grows up the small town of Whelan's Cove, New Brunswick, Canada. As she watches the ships coming into the town’s harbor, she dreams of adventuring on them to escape the confines of her life. When at the age of nineteen she marries a seasoned merchant sea captain, Nathaniel Bradstock, it seems that all her childhood wishes are about to come true: the Bradstocks share with each other their fantasies of spending their lives together on his commercial ship, Traveller. Not only will this allow Azuba to see far-flung lands she has only read about, but it will also mean that instead of only seeing Nathaniel once every two or three years, she will spend her days with him.

Soon after their wedding, Azuba becomes pregnant. Worried about how she could possibly tolerate life aboard ship, Nathaniel changes his mind, breaking his promise – instead of going with him, she must stay home like any other captain’s wife. After he leaves, Azuba is miserable with longing for Nathaniel. Still, she does her duty, raising her daughter, Carrie, and taking care of her house with the help of her loving parents and grandmother (and of course servants).



Five years into the marriage, Azuba is pregnant again when her husband leaves for another voyage. However, this time, the pregnancy ends in miscarriage, and Azuba is distraught enough to seek comfort outside her extended family. She grows close to the local vicar, Reverend Simon Walton, who is new to Whelan's Cove and who understands Azuba’s love of the sea. The two become close friends, but the relationship is seen as inappropriate by townspeople. When Azuba and Simon are trapped by the rising tide and forced to spend the night outside together, her willingness to be alone in his company is seen as scandalous.

Nathaniel returns and is shocked by the gossip about his wife. To fix her reputation, he is forced to take her and Carrie with him to sea. Azuba is at first thrilled that she is finally getting what she has wanted, but as soon as she and Carrie are aboard, she realizes that Nathaniel’s gruff captain persona is the one that dominates on Traveler, not his warm husband one. He barks orders at Azuba and Carrie, treating them as crew and confining them for the most part to their small cabin.

Life at sea is both exhilarating and terrifying, as Azuba finds out. On the one hand, she gets to see places like London, San Francisco, and Hong Kong, getting her fill of the exotic and the new. On the other hand, she has to live through harrowing situations such as a stormy passage around Cape Horn that almost ends in shipwreck, and a near-starvation period in the doldrums, waiting for the wind to pick up. Even more horrifying is Azuba’s experiences witnessing the slave trade. Although Nathaniel doesn’t traffic in slaves, they stop at the Chincha Islands near Peru to pick up a load of guano – and there, Azuba sees enslaved people commit mass suicide.



Through her travels, Azuba remains primarily a mother, cooking for, teaching, and taking care of at first just Carrie and then her other children as well. She worries that life aboard ship was the wrong choice for them, since they are witnessing many things at such a young age that they might be scarred for life. Often, she thinks about how much easier it would be to just give up and go back to her old life of waiting for Nathaniel while enjoying the wealth his voyages bring. However, this temptation is outweighed by the way proximity allows Carrie to bond with her father. Often, this curious, observant, and intelligent girl is the only one who can connect with the distant man during the hardships of their voyages.

Eventually, Azuba realizes that Nathaniel’s distance is caused in equal parts by his resentment of her relationship with Simon, and by his fears about his inability to protect her and the children on the ship. She sees that giving up this life to live in Whelan’s Cove would mean the end of the kind of marriage she has fought for – one where her husband respects and trusts her.

Deciding to stick with Nathaniel no matter what makes Azuba grow into a more mature woman. She reads books about sailing in order to learn his craft, she questions Nathaniel about his decisions as captain in order to offer her own ideas about managing people, and she solves problems on the ship, causing him to see her once again as the woman he fell in love with rather than a burden by which he is weighed down.



However, this coming together isn’t enough to avert tragedy. Towards the end of the novel, just south of China, Traveler is attacked by pirates who board the ship, killing most of the crew in order to loot the goods being carried. Although Nathaniel, Azuba, and the children are left alive, the horror of what they have seen will always be with them. After the family makes it home to Brunswick, Nathaniel decides he must give up being a captain. Instead, the Bradstocks are forced to live the lives of “normal” people. Neither Azuba nor Nathaniel are content with this kind of existence, and the book ends on a small hopeful note as Nathaniel starts making plans for the future.