On the line – March 2009

Lucinda: Hi, I'm Lucinda Donnachie and today I'm meeting up with Margarette Lincoln to find out about a newly republished book, 'A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates', by Fanny Loviat, which tells of her real-life adventure in the China Seas. Hi, Margarette. So why did the National Maritime Museum choose to republish this book from its rare book collection?

Margarette: Well, on one level it's simply a great read. Set in the 1850s, it's a bodice-ripping tale of a female in distress, captured by Chinese pirates and in fear of her life. But on another level it reminds us that maritime history is full of these hidden stories, just ordinary people doing amazing things. And these stories deserve to be retold.

Lucinda: The author Fanny Loviat was French, of course.

Margarette: Yeah, that's right. The book was translated into English and Swedish soon after publication. It had immediate popular appeal for maritime nations like Britain. Readers were used to reading in the newspapers these gripping tales of the Royal Navy fighting off Chinese pirates in the China Seas. So it was of topical interest.

Lucinda: And of course pirates are still a threat to shipping today. What about the author herself, Fanny Loviat, what kind of person was she?

Margarette: She was obviously full of spirit and immensely brave, but readers will have to make their own minds up about her. She veils some parts of her history. After all, this was the Victorian age and women were expected to behave with decorum.

Lucinda: What do you mean?

Margarette: Well, Fanny Loviat travelled from France to California in 1852, and that was the time of the Gold Rush in California. She claimed she left France with her sister to set up a business, but in fact the sister was probably invented to give her the kind of decency of a travelling companion. Fanny was one of those whose journey was funded by a notorious lottery set up by the French government to rid the country of undesirables by giving them a one-way ticket to California.

Lucinda: Did they have no choice in the matter?

Margarette: Well, pressure was put on those who were unhappy with the current government in France to seek their fortune in California, particularly ex-soldiers who had borne arms and who were likely to be a real threat if violent rebellion broke out. The lottery-funded exiles were mostly male and few were expected to return, so Fanny was an exception.

Lucinda: How did she come to be captured by Chinese pirates if she was in California?

Margarette: Fanny tried her luck in California and also traveled further north on horseback, dressed in men's clothes. The country was in a state of rapid change; law enforcement was rudimentary and the dangers were many. You could easily be shot at. But Fanny was doing well until a fire destroyed her business. Then another French tradeswoman invited her to sail from America to Java, where business opportunities were increasing. And it was while she was in the China Seas that she was captured.

Lucinda: Do we know how the pirates treated her?

Margarette: Yes. They imprisoned her below decks in one of their junks for days. She was kept in a dark hole full of rats and cockroaches, and suffered terrible cramps because she couldn't move. Her skin erupted in a rash and the mental affects of this treatment brought her close to suicide, or so she says. But at a later stage in her captivity, the pirates treated her with some sympathy and she was able to observe and record their religious practices on board.

Lucinda: So do we learn much about the different countries Fanny Loviat travelled to and the people she met?

Margarette: This isn't a literary book; it's full of action. But she does give us vignettes and personal insight into a fascinating period in American history. The discovery of gold in 1848 caused California's population to increase from 14,000 people to over 300,000 in just six years. She does convey the excitement and colour of this huge migration. In boom town San Francisco, people from Pacific islands jostled alongside people from almost every country in Europe.

Lucinda: And they all made lots of money?

Margarette: Well, the people who made money were not so much the gold diggers but those who sold them food and alcohol, fleecing them of their money. Fanny's description of gambling dens suggested that she was very much at home in them, although she does seem to have been appalled by the hangings and rough justice meted out by vigilante groups.

Lucinda: Did she have anything to say about China or Hong Kong?

Margarette: In Hong Kong she found that the accommodation was worse than in America, mostly because of the climate. She wrote that you could find spiders, beetles, and mosquitoes everywhere: on the furniture, in the presses, hidden in your shoes, and clinging on the curtains. But then in America she'd experienced the opposite horrors of a cold climate. In Oregon she reported that in winter, hardly a day passed without three or four frozen corpses being brought into town. And the stores of bread and meat they had were so frozen, meals had to be hacked out with an axe and hammer.

Lucinda: No wonder she was eager to get back to Paris. How did she return?

Margarette: In a very civilized manner, by P&O's overland route from the East. The P&O Company had operated a Far Eastern service since 1845, and the company had lent the authorities in Hong Kong one of their early paddle steamers when they'd set up a rescue party to free Fanny and the others from the pirates. And you can see why, with such strong British connections, Fanny Loviat's story was rapidly translated into English.

Lucinda: And republished now for today's readers. If you would like to know more about Fanny Loviat, 'A Lady's Captivity Among Chinese Pirates' is available from the National Maritime Museum Shop.