Marooned

by William Clark Russell

William Clark Russell was a popular writer of sea yarns in the mid-Victorian period. In this novel, first published as three volumes in 1891, we find Clark Russell returning to a familiar theme of his story’s hero being tested as both a man and a sailor.
Dick Musgrave is tasked by Alexander Fraser, his cousin and close friend, to find a berth on an suitable ship and accompany Amelia Grant from London to Rio. When Amelia arrives in South America Alec intends to marry her. The half Spanish, half English Amelia has a profound affect on “This is the handsomest creature I have ever seen!”.
Passage is secured aboard the Iron Crown but the passengers soon find that Captain Guy Broadwater is cruel and indifferent to his crew as well as being a glutton and a drunkard. The voyage that Dick anticipated as being an easy sail and “a complete and healthy change” starts to go awry from almost the moment that they set sail.
Join Dick and Amelia as they embark on an adventure that has lasting consequences for all those involved in the story.
This edition consists of all three volumes and has been freshly typeset.

354 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 18, 2017

About the author

William Clark Russell was a popular American writer of nautical novels and horror stories.

Russell gained his experience of sea life during eight years' service as a sailor. Then he was a journalist on the staff of the Daily Chronicle before he took to writing his many novels, only a few of which are listed here.

As a testament to the popularity of Russell's novels in his day, one can read about him at the beginning of the Sherlock Holmes story "The Five Orange Pips," where Doctor Watson is shown 'deep in one of Clark Russell's fine sea stories'.

According to modern scholar John Sutherland, The Wreck of the Grosvenor (1877) was "the most popular mid-Victorian melodrama of adventure and heroism at sea."[1] It remained popular and widely read in illustrated editions well into the first half of the 20th century.[2] It was Russell best selling and most well known novel.[2] Russell noted in a preface, the novel 'found its first and best welcome in the United States.'[1]

William Clark Russell was the son of composer Henry Russell, the brother of impresario Henry Russell, and the half brother of conductor Landon Ronald. His horror work has similarities to the nautical horror stories of William Hope Hodgson.