NOVEL OF THE SEA

Southland Times, Issue 22873, 24 April 1936, Page 13

NOVEL OF THE SEA

“Silas Crockett” Silas Crockett. By .Mary Ellen Chase. Collins. 7/-. Our copy from Hyndina.ns Ltd., Invercargill. Among the flotsam and jetsam of the vast ocean of novels which is continuously floating eastwards to New Zealand there is occasionally to be found a rich treasure chest. Rare delights are experienced as the contents stand revealed and the full measure of their worth is appreciated. Nothing better has come to these shores in recent months than “Silas Crockett,” the third, and the best novel which Mary Ellen Chase has written. Those who enjoyed “Mary Peters,” which was acclaimed by The Daily Mail as a “book of the month,” will find “Silas Crockett” even more enjoyable. It has all the picturesque charm, the brilliant delineation of character of the earlier book, and the theme is much better sustained. “Silas Crockett” is dedicated “to the seafaring families of Maine and to their descendants, who still retain within themselves the graciousness and the dignity of their heritage.” It is the story of four generations of a Maine seafaring family, and with a realism which comes not only from a careful study of the various aspects which make up the background of the story but from an innate love of the people who lived in Saturday Cove the author pictures the maritime life of the coast during the hundred years which stretch from 1830 to 1930. She admits that she has placed more emphasis upon setting and character than upon plot and incident, but the book gains rather than suffers from this. There is, however, plenty of heroism and adventure on deep water and a variety of incident in the busy little sea-coast town which she so brilliantly etches. The first of the Crocketts whom the reader meets is young Captain Silas. In the clipper ship Southern Seas he voyages to Canton, Australia and other distant ports, prospering greatly in his adventurous life. While his son Nicholas is growing up competition from steam begins, but the Crocketts remain faithful to their early love and Nicholas becomes first officer of a schooner rounding the Horn to San Francisco. The representative of the third generation, Reuben, lacks the stature, fire and verve of his forbears. He is content to remain captain of a small passenger steamer serving the Maine Coast. Finally there is another Silas who in the depression of 1930 has to leave the university, forgo his prospects of a brilliant medical career and be content to work in a great herring factory. No less interesting than these four male Crocketts are their wives. There is Solace, wife of Captain Silas, who has a horror of the sea but who so loves her husband that she voyages with him to the ends of the earth. There is Deborah, an artist who dislikes Saturday Cove and whose ambition and discontent cause Nicholas to lose his life in frozen winter seas. Then comes Hukdah, a God-fearing- schoolteacher who brings great contentment to the easy-going Reuben. And in the closing pages there is Ann, a nurse with whom Silas falls in love, and who in many respects typifies the capable Plunket nurse to be met in New Zealand.

Perhaps, after Joseph Conrad, Miss Chase’s description of sailing ships and their exhilarating but perilous voyages lacks vitality, but she draws a charming picture of Saturday Cove where the Crocketts live and experience the vicissitudes due to the triumph of steam. The sound of hammering from the shipbuilding yards ceases and rank grass grows where in the prosperous times hundreds of men were at work. But unchanging is the faith of the Crocketts whose brave philosophy of live is the key-note of an uplifting, picturesque and absorbing story. H.K.S.