Master William and The Finman By Robert P. Arthur
A Supernatural Sea Story set in the Days of the Golden Age of Piracy
During The Golden Age of Piracy, twelve-year-old Master William, leaves his dead mother, thought to be a Selkie, to sail the sea lanes of the world and evade conscription in the British Navy, He is shipped out of his home on the rocky islands of the Orkneys to become a pirate.
He is followed, unseen, by a Finman, a mythical sorcerer of the sea, who directs him by blowing him through time and space, if need be, for a secret end. The Finman follows William’s ship in a kayak, able to cross vast seas with three “thwarts” (strokes) of a paddle, now and then opening the bag of winds around his neck to blow William through time and space to learn a mastery of the sea and men.
Young William must travel to the age of the most notorious female pirate of history, the older Anne Bonny, with whom he falls in love, and is directed to achieve his destiny among such rogues as Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, and Calico Jack Rackham.
When Master William’s search for Anne Bonny nears its end and he learns she is waiting for him to come:
“Thy wedding party,” whispered the old man, nudging me in the ribs with an elbow.
“Thy bride, Anne Bonny, awaits ye in the village.”
At these words, I assured myself I was dreaming. I had imagined a number of possible first meetings with Anne that ranged from romantic and tearful reconciliations to me abducting her in a wheat sack. But marching into an Indian village at the head of a wedding party of savages to claim her willing and regal hand had never crossed my mind.
( Arthur 437)
It’s a huge “Sot Weed Factor” of a novel, filled with charm and comedy, as well as violence and lore of the sea. The book was five years in the making and won first place in fiction at the Virginia Writer’s Conference.
Like the author's internationally acclaimed Hymn to the Chesapeake, Master William displays the author's encyclopedic knowledge of the sea combined with his stunning gift for lyrical language that instantly transports readers to experience a different time and place and makes them reluctant to leave.
Robert Peebles "Bob" Arthur (born 1943) is a poet, a novelist, a short story writer, a playwright, a critic, a director, and a professor. He has written and published over twenty books and plays and 1,500 articles on the arts. A finalist for Poet Laureate of Virginia in 2008 and 2010, he remains best known for his book of poems, Hymn to the Chesapeake, the best-selling book in the history of Road Publishers, on which one reviewer commented:
“It makes me nostalgic for places I've never been.”
Mac MacKinney, Virginia Pilot
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