0. General Information
Dear readers,
'The Voyage of the Steadfast' was written by W.H.G. Kingston. The publication date is not known.
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The "Steadfast" is a whaling vessel, based on Liverpool. The whaling grounds are in the Pacific, so each voyage involves a long time away from home. The story opens with the owner-captain's wife and daughter sitting at home during a great storm, in which a vessel is wrecked very near their house.
On board the ship are Harry Graybrook, the skipper's son, and another youngster called Dickey Bass. Leonard Champion is the mate, and is also in love with the captain's daughter, whom we met in Chapter One. There is an incident with a whale which results in the "Steadfast" being separated from a small boat containing the above, as well as an old seaman known as "old Tom", and several other seamen. They try to regain contact with the mother ship, but fail. They run out of food and water, but land on an island where they are catching fish and filling their water containers, when they are attacked by a hostile band of natives who kill some of the seamen. After a long time at sea with very little water and food they are picked up by another whaling vessel, but are treated very badly by her moody and eccentric captain.
Shipwrecked again, and after various adventures, they meet up with some missionaries. Eventually contact is made again with the "Steadfast", and back they go to England, where Leonard Champion marries the daughter, and takes command of the ship on old Graybrook's retirement.