TREACHERY AT SHARPNOSE POINT
Unraveling the Mystery of the Caledonia's Final Voyage
By Jeremy Seal
While walking through a cliff-top graveyard in the village of Morwenstow, Cornwall the author encounters a wooden Scottish maiden trimmed with emblems and a shield. On close inspection, he realizes that the maiden, now a guardian for the graves she overlooks, was once the figurehead of a merchant ship.
He learns that she adorned the Caledonia, a ship wrecked on the Cornish coast in 1842, and that the crew had been benevolenty buried there by the villagers. Further investigation leads Seal to suspect those villagers, and chiefly the village's parson, Robert Hawker for the Caledonia's sudden demise.
Author researched maritime logs and burial registers, broadsides of the day, diary entries, and other first-hand documents. He weaves history, travelogue and imaginative narrative in this piece of detective work, bringing a mystery of the best kind--the sort that really did happen.
Hardcover, with dust jacket, as new, 6x9, 316 pages, published 2001, $8.00
