The Wreck at Sharpnose Point
By Jeremy Seal

     Wandering through the Morwenstow's churchyard in North Cornwall, the author happens upon a most unusual statue: made from whitewashed wood, it depicts Scotia, the romantic 19th century embodiment of Scotland and was the figurehead of the Caledonia, wrecked in 1842 with all hands lost save one. What follows is the author's obsession with this wreck, and his search to find out as much as he can about it. He quizzes locals in and around Morwenstow and the ship's own home of Arbroath, pores over dusty records up and down the country and ponders on the chain of extraordinary circumstances that led to the tragedy.

     This is a romance of research, a detective's dream and a fascinating book that veers from fact to fiction, as Jeremy Seal in the present day by turns researches and then reconstructs a version of the ship's last voyage. It is like dropping a stone in the water as the ripples spread out from one tiny corner of Cornwall to far-off countries and from the present day back to 1942 and beyond. But is it all a romance, or an antidote to such? Was the coast notorious for wrecking, or truly for far more mundane things? This is a beautifully written book that takes one event and tries to decide whether it was a dark and dastardly thing following a voyage of high drama, or nothing of the kind. Even if you are not moved by descriptions of dusty ledgers in records offices, conversations with farmers and genealogical research, you might well end up being so, as Jeremy Seal makes it all sound so compelling. It starts off in an ordinary enough manner, but progresses to become psychologically fascinating, as the figure of Rev Hawker appears and the factual forays become interlaced with an account of one possible reconstruction of the final voyage. This is a tale of the romance of the past, and our longings for what ought to have been above what probably was. Highly recommended.