The Ship Wife by Anne Vines
Image: Book cover for Anne Vines Ship Wife
Review by Irina Dunn
On the ninth day of Christmas, our reviewer sent to us a review of this exceptional work by
Anne Vines.
The Ship Wife by Anne Vines is a fictionalised account of a real individual called Elizabeth
Rafferty, an Irishwoman who was transported to Australia in 1797. It is a feminist re-interpretation of the female transportation story, based on the life of a woman remarkably independent for that time.
Despite suffering abuse, beatings, rape and imprisonment at the hands of men, some better
than others, Elizabeth decides to fight for her life by becoming “The Ship Wife” on her
voyage to Sydney, thus escaping the hold where many convicts perished from starvation,
disease, or beatings.
Her beauty brings her to the attention of the Captain of the ship and she has a child by him.
When he dies, she discovers he has left money and land to her and their son in his will, and
this enables her to become an astute businesswoman in the thriving port of Sydney.
Alliances with two other men give her more children, but her status as a convict prevents
marriage, even though the men were not already married.
In Captain Dennett, Elizabeth meets tyranny and racism. With explorer Captain Rhodes, she
finds passion and encounters the ideals of liberty and equality. With genteel Captain Walker,
she discovers poetry and understands abolitionist principles, but his compassion does not
extend to convicts.
The fictionalised Elizabeth wins her readers through her patience, forbearance, compassion
for others, including convicts and Aborigines, and perhaps most of all, her determined drive
to remain independent and to provide for her children and grandchildren.
This is a great saga which takes Elizabeth from her young teenage years as a housemaid to
her becoming a grandmother, and gives us an understanding of what such a woman had to do
to save her life and survive 220 years ago.
The Ship Wife by Anne Vines
Glass House Books 2023
