In this memoir we learn a great deal about the traveling life of a sea captain’s wife. The time period is 1910 to 1913, just as steamers were edging out schooners as long distance cargo ships. The grace and thrill of the schooners, as well as their various vulnerabilities, come across clearly when described by the lively, sometimes contentious, occasionally earthy, often witty, always game Dorothea Moulton Balano.
Here is a well-educated adventurer eager to see the world and enamored of the sea. She brings to life crew members, biases and behaviors of that early part of the 20th century, harbors of small towns, and capitals of the world, such as Rio de Janeiro. Some of her experiences are idiosyncratic to life at sea a hundred years ago how much salted mackerel can you eat without complaining? Some of her experiences are as true today as they were a century ago rude, stingy mothers-in-law have never been easy to tolerate.
The author comes to rely on her diary as her closest friend, to whom she opens her heart and mind. Listeners are in for some revelations, as Dorothea meets and marries, then sails with her husband, Captain Fred, on the ships he commands.