A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas - Couverture rigide

Loviot, Fanny

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 1906367000 ISBN 13 : 9781906367008

Editeur : National Maritime Museum, 2008

Synopsis

Fanny Loviot, adventurer, writer and gold digger, emigrated to San Francisco in 1852. Along with 17 others, including a bankrupt bootmaker and a disgraced nobleman, she set sail from Le Havre on 30 May 1852 on the schooner Dunkirk Independence. The ship’s passengers were all to join the Californian Gold Rush as part of a lottery scheme, created by Alexander Dumas, whose aim was to send 5000 unemployed workers to find their fortunes. The journey was eventful, and the ship narrowly missed foundering on a reef, put into port in Rio, rounded Cape Horn in a storm, losing at least one sailor, and finally arrived in San Francisco, the passengers near starving, on 20 November, after an epic journey of five months. Although registered on the passenger manifest as a linen maid, it seems highly likely that she fell into prostitution in San Francisco as did many unmarried women of her time. She invented a sister as her travelling companion in an attempt to cover up her connection to the Gold Rush. She traveled widely in California and beyond, and was taken hostage by Chinese pirates during a voyage to Hong Kong. On her return to France, she published the story of her adventures, which was a huge success, largely because it gave what was at the time a rare account of European emigration to “Eldorado” , written, furthermore by a woman in what was exclusively a male preserve, and was translated into several languages.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Setting sail for California to seek her fortune, young French woman Fanny Loviot has little idea of the adventures that lie in wait. After a business opportunity takes her to China, her appetite for excitement is saturated when the ship is attacked by Chinese pirates. Held hostage and kept alive only in expectation of a hefty ransom, Fanny almost gives up hope . . . A brief introduction by Margarette Lincoln, Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum, provides historical context for this reprint of a long-neglected true-life adventure.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: National Maritime Museum
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1906367000
• ISBN 13: 9781906367008
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 144
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible