Just Finished Reading: The Guineaman by Richard Woodman (FP: 2000) [216pp]

England, 1755. William Kite is convinced that, despite his innocence, he will hang if they find him. So he runs towards the only place that he can think of to save himself – the port of Liverpool. Determined to gain access to the first ships master that will have him his luck suddenly changes and he is hired as ships surgeon on the Guineman Enterprize. Completely naïve to the ways of the sea, and even the very trade mission they are on, William throws himself into all aspects of the ships operation and even gains the grudging admiration of the captain and crew. But William is going to be tested to his very limit as the cargo of slaves bound for the West Indies is loaded and the awesome responsibility of ensuring that as many as possible of survive the passage rests on his shoulders. As he starts his duties he is torn by sympathy for his charges and his duty to the ship and its master. Crossing the Atlantic for his first time disaster strikes as Yellow Fever starts to ravage the ships compliment. If he can survive he might become a financially independent young man – but first he must bring the ship to port. Once in Antigua he is far from sorry to see the back of the slave trade but still needs to make a living for himself and his new ‘family’. Again at sea and trading throughout the Caribbean he is developing a deep love for the ocean only to see the dark clouds of war on the horizon. The Seven Years War is about to break out and throw all of Williams plans into doubt.

I picked up a two volume book – containing this and the second book in the series (reviewed shortly) – some years ago and, as usual, propped it up on my bookshelf and promptly forgot about it. But lately I’ve developed a strange hankering for all things nautical so thought it was about time to give it a go. I was so pleased that this rather short though packed book was a delight from end to end. Firstly William Kite is such a great character. He does have a slightly anachronistic ‘modern’ feel to him but that might either be to resonate more with a modern readership or it might simply be my misunderstanding or ignorance of the times he lived through. Either way he is definitely the true hero of the piece. As much of the time is spent either at sea or in conversation about trade at sea there is a heavy sprinkling of naval terms and much of this is not explained – as it shouldn’t be between people who have spent much of their lives on the oceans. Some is explained to the younger William but much needs to be picked up by context or a quick Google search if required. This is nowhere near as thickly spread as a Patrick O’Brian novel but be warned you might end up knowing more about spinnakers and reef sails that you ever imagined that you would need to. Naturally as a goodly chunk of the novel is about the trans-Atlantic slave trade there is a fair amount of brutality and offensive language that might upset more sensitive readers. But I certainly guarantee that any such imagery and language is many times less than the reality of the situation. The author handles the unfortunate trade in other humans with as much humanity as he can in the context of the times and, though both disturbing and distressing shouldn’t cause too much outrage – at least not enough to stop you reading. There is certainly nothing here for ‘entertainment’ value and the author, through his characters, gives a nuanced discussion of the trade a hearing that is worth reading. Overall this is an excellent book and a great introduction to the main character William. It is well paced and has very few faults (actually the only one that springs to mind is the too often repeated fear that William will need to answer for his suspected crime if he ever returns to England). I will definitely be searching out more of the author’s works. Many more naval adventures to come!