The Deepest Waters

Title: The Deepest Waters
Author: Dan Walsh
Major Themes: Gold Rush, Shipwreck, Historical Fiction, Romance, US History 1865-1900, Books for Women
Synopsis: The ship on which they took a honeymoon voyage sank—how could Laura survive without John?

Whenever I see a free Kindle book that sounds interesting, I download it for reading sometime in the future. That means there are a lot of books on my Kindle, waiting for “someday;” occasionally I pick one at random to see if it is worth reading. One of those I read recently was The Deepest Waters. It turned out to be winner, despite a somewhat stilted writing style and a lot of typographical errors.

Laura and John had gotten married in San Francisco, then set off on a honeymoon trip to New York City so she could meet his parents. Most of the voyage was uneventful—until a hurricane struck and their ship was in danger of sinking only a few days out of New York! Though determined to stay together till the end, when a sailing ship came along and was able to rescue some of the passengers, Laura found herself on board it, while John was left behind. Soon, he found himself adrift on a table after the ship sank.

Throughout the story, we see vivid pictures of both the best and the worst of human nature. A thief targeted the newly widowed women on the rescue ship. A brave person stood up to evil at risk of personal comfort. Drowning, thirsty men fought with the last of their meager strength to keep limited resources for themselves at the expense of other men’s lives. Other drowning men at the end of their strength expend the last of their energy to help others. This is quite a story!

A discussion I really appreciated in this book was a lesson I keep finding myself having to learn over and over. Laura met a slave on board the ship that picked her up. This man helped her, and she learned to appreciate him. One day, they discussed why she was sad, and he helped her to realize that she was borrowing trouble from the future. What a valuable thing to learn!

The story keeps switching points of view, between Laura, John, the captain of another ship, and John’s parents in New York City. Very soon, you get the idea of what the outcome of the story will be—but I was spellbound, wanting to know HOW it happened! Even though the writing style could use some improvement and the proofreading needs to be better, this is a great book—and it’s based on a true story! That was something I really loved finding out; any story is better, in my opinion, if it is at least based on truth.

WARNING: There is some fighting and theft. I’ll have to confess I was reading too fast to remember to mark the places.

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