Book
The Water-Witch
First published 1830
In colonial New York in 1713, the wealthy merchant Myndert Van Beverout tries to control the future of his niece Alida de Barbérie while the mysterious smuggling vessel Water-Witch moves through the harbour beyond the reach of British customs. Captain Ludlow, charged with enforcing imperial law, is drawn into the pursuit as Alida’s fate becomes entangled with the elusive Skimmer of the Seas.
The novel treats smuggling as both romance and economic conflict, setting mercantile New York against the regulations of an expanding British empire. Coastal navigation, disguised identities and competing claims to Alida turn the harbour into a space where law, trade and freedom are constantly negotiated rather than simply obeyed.
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