Dana Vacca's Blog: Freedom Calling A Civil War Slave Escapes By Sea - Posts Tagged "sea-faring"

FREEDOM CALLING by Dana Vacca
BOOK EXCERPTS
Celia had never seen a place like New Bedford,.... The busy sea-faring village was a melting pot of cultures and its townspeople, as a whole, were friendly and congenial. One could not find a place more accepting of differences in skin color or customs than New Bedford,...

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FREEDOM CALLING by Dana Vacca
Book Excerpts - The Captain's House

"Facing me was a fine, gracious mansard with an ornately-corbeled roof and a projecting bay, like the arc of a rainbow that made the front of the residence resemble the prow of a ship. At the highest point was a crested turret with windows like large spectacles looking to the sea. Altogether, it bespoke opulence, and that the captain was, undoubtedly, a man of means,..."

County Street, New Bedford, just a short walk from the wharf, was where many sea captains and ship owners built large, magnificent homes for themselves and their families. From rooftop cupola's or widow's walks they had almost a bird's eye view of the harbor and could keep an close watch on their ships being loaded, unloaded or re-fitted.

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A Real Ship and A Real Live Sea Captain!

The ship and the captain in FREEDOM CALLING were inspired by a real ship, the TRUELOVE, & her captain, John Parker. I thought they should be immortalized!

The Truelove was in service for 130 yrs! - the longest of any other wooden hull ship. She was built in 1764 in Philadelphia and was used by America to fight the British during the American Revolution. She was captured by the British, taken to England, and sold as spoils of war. She became a whaling vessel!

Her design was "tumbling home" style, which meant her sides curved up and inward which made her especially seaworthy. She sailed to the Artic on whaling sojourns under Captain Parker, and because of her design, she never got stuck in the ice like so many other vessels. When the ice began freezing around her, because of her hull-shape, the ice just pushed her up, instead of crushing her (many ship that sailed the Arctic were stove in and broken apart by the ice, like the disaster in 1871 when thirty-three ships were lost,... but that's another story, I'll save for later!). As the ice melted Truelove had the habit of being able to set herself gently back down into the sea!

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Book Excerpt: "She was a beautiful ship, the way her bow cut the sea-the feel of her deck under your feet with the sea moving beneath her; the way her rigging sang in the wind; how she would shrug a rough sea off her beam. Some ships have a soul, and to be aboard one like that is to know majesty."

NOTES:
AH! The romance of the sea,.... and the free spirits of brave, intrepid sea captains,.... I LOVE IT! Hope you find this as fascinating as I did! (see links below).

More about the real ship that inspired the creation of the fictional LADY GREY:

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Truelove_(...

https://www.kcomhome.com/hull2017/new...

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Freedom Calling BOOK Link: https://amzn.to/2MfiMiW

Freedom Calling: A Civil War Slave Escapes by Sea