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Reviews
The Journal of a Sea Captain's Wife, 1841–1845
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By Lydia Rider Nye, edited by Doyce B. Nunis, Jr.
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Arthur H. Clark Company, Spokane, Wash., 2004. Photographs, maps, bibliography, appendices, index. 254 pages. $32.50 cloth.
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Reviewed by Nancy Pagh
Western Washington University, Bellingham
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Historian Jo Stanley recently wrote about the need for books
on women at sea. "How can gender issues be raised in a discipline
(maritime history) that traditionally uses straightforward social
and economic history approaches rather than drawing in tools available
from cultural studies, women's studies, and post-colonial studies?"
she asked in a review essay in Gender & History (April 2003,
p. 136).
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The Journal of a Sea Captain's
Wife is a beautifully designed, traditional scholarly edition
of Lydia Rider Nye's journal, including her account of traveling
from Boston to Hawai'i to meet her husband and trade voyages to
the Pacific Coast. The book includes a prologue and epilogue, giving
it some narrative shape, and numerous appendices — including
accounts of the British seizure of Honolulu in 1842, King Kamehameha
III's restoration, and the California hide and tallow trade. Given
the current interest in women's accounts of sea travel, this text,
promoted as "the only known journal kept by a wife of a ship captain
during a voyage along the Pacific Coast prior to 1848" (although
Frances Barkley's 1787 account of Nootka predates it), will garner
interest by feminists, social historians of Hawai'i, and economic
historians interested in the hide trade.
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Nye herself points out, "I do not
want for matter, but language, O that I had the pen
of a ready writer" (p. 91). Unlike the fascinating journals of Caroline
Leighton and Libby Beaman, Nye's writing lacks a sense of personality
and reflection. Early entries wear a heavy mask of piety (the editor
finds this rhetoric "genuine"; I credit her fellow passengers, who
were missionaries). Readers will be disappointed by the Victorian
veneer that stops Nye from expressing what her journey is
toward — namely, why she chose this moment to chase her absent
husband around the globe. And yet, small moments of humor and sincerity
surface:
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"This morning early went on board
the Julia Ann to see Mrs. Ray and her family off. On my return
was taken prisoner. What do you say? Taken prisoner!! By whom? By
my husband to be sure. Got in the boat to come to the ship as I
supposed, when [my husband] Gorham says to me, it is a beautiful
morning, don't you want to go ashore? I exclaimed no! no! for I
was in my morning dress, blue cloak and hood. But you are most there.
Stopped to see Mrs. Spear's and dined. Came off about three o'clock.
Must say I have not enjoyed myself better at any time. Gorham says
it was because I was not afraid of the fog taking the starch out
of my ruffles, not having any on. Ha! Ha!" (p. 152).
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Nye's journal first came to the attention
of historian Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., in 1967, but he "was unable to
give the revision ... priority attention" (p. 10). After nearly
forty years of work, Nunis has made the journal available with meticulous
notes about the social history of nearly all persons and ships mentioned
and clarification of Nye's language. Sadly, this text bears little
evidence of an understanding of what has happened in the study of
maritime history since 1967. The lengthy bibliography cites no sources
from the past fifteen years and few from the past forty. No mention
is made of the larger context of captain's wives' journals or of
Joan Druett, whose work dominates that field. The prologue and epilogue
both posit Captain Nye as the truly interesting character and Lydia
Rider Nye as a mere appendage to real history. This book isn't the
answer to Jo Stanley's question, but it does offer carefully prepared
traditional material.
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