The Duchess and the Captain’s Wife: Herzogin Cecilie and Her Circle

Certain ships, like certain people, grow larger than life over time. In maritime history the Herzogin Cecilie sails on, her splendour undiminished. The circumstances of her shipwreck still evoke heated feelings eight decades after her drawn-out tragedy.

Surrounding the Duchess, as the ship is affectionately known, bustle a cast of finely drawn, large characters as if written for the opera: voices that carry over the roar of the ocean, costumes cut for dramatic effect, backdrops created from thousands of metres of sail, tall ships racing from the ports of southern Australia, Cape Horn and the Devon coast.

An exciting find of photographs lies behind this book. Ulla-Lena Lundberg’s text is a breathtaking true story about the young sea captain Sven Eriksson and his wife Pamela Bourne. Pamela’s unique photographs depict everyday life on the ship on the oceans. The crew, the officers, the sea form a triangle drama which captivates the reader far beyond the horizon of the past.