The Stargazer of Nantucket, the swashbuckling second novel by Julie Gerstenblatt (Daughters of Nantucket), imagines the adventures of husband-and-wife team Peter and Nell Starbuck, sailing a top-of-the-line clipper ship (the titular Stargazer) out of Nantucket, Mass., in 1851 to break the world speed record to San Francisco, then onward to China. Their headstrong 18-year-old daughter, Winnie, forbidden to sail with them, stows away on the ship; her actions will have far-reaching consequences for her family, the ship's crew, and the Stargazer herself.
Gerstenblatt's meticulously researched story hums with the rhythm of life aboard ship, where Winnie struggles to be taken seriously as a member of the crew while also socializing with the other passengers. She finds an unlikely friend in cabin boy Chin, whose cheeky wit and quick intelligence help him and Winnie navigate their new world. Meanwhile, Nell and Peter's marriage and business partnership, always complicated, is close to foundering on obstacles Winnie knows nothing about. The Stargazer encounters storms and doldrums on her way south and west, but her greatest challenges--and Winnie's--may come from within.
Based on the real-life exploits of the Flying Cloud and other merchant ships that sailed the high seas in search of wealth and glory, Gerstenblatt's narrative also touches on social issues such as slavery, the California gold rush, women's rights, and the dangers of opium. The Stargazer of Nantucket is a breathless adventure tale, a fascinating slice of maritime history, and an account of one young woman determined to chart her own course. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams