Date of Award

Spring 2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

English

Advisor(s)

Dr. Matthew Forsythe

Second Advisor

Dr. Kristin Winet

Third Advisor

Dorothy Mays

Abstract

Maiden Voyage is an adventure story. It didn’t start out that way, but that’s what it has become. The story follows a young woman who stumbles onto her father’s secrets. Alexandra feels trapped in an 18th century English settlement on Nassau. Under her father’s protection, Alexandra is expected to marry and remain on the island. When she discovers a letter in her father’s office naming her as an “asset” she finds herself asking who her father really is. Who is the business associate who comes every month? Why does he really want her married to Lord Dewhurst? When her best friend, Andrew O’Hare, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, reveals he is leaving the island forever, Alexandra decides to search for answers on her own. She incurs the wrath of her father and his violent associate, John Ellond, and finds herself boxed in by expectations, responsibilities, and family secrets. Unwilling to live as any man’s asset, Alexandra chooses to leave the shackles of Nassau and her childhood home. Disguised as a boy she boards the only safe vessel leaving port – Andrew’s ship, The HMS Saint George, a Fourth-Rate Ship-of-the-Line.

Comments

The author has chosen to delay access to this creative work until 2021.

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