The Bird of Dawning

The Bird of Dawning was fictitious, but it would have resembled the 19th century China clippers that raced cargoes of tea across oceans.

Between 1930 and 1967, John Masefield was Britain's Poet Laureate. His well-known poem, "Sea Fever," was in our high school English book, and I remember its opening lines still.

During my prairie childhood, and later by the great Skeena River, these haunting lines exposed vistas of worlds unknown:

"I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by."

The Bird of Dawning is a classic seafaring novel, published by Masefield in 1933. It takes place in the Atlantic in the 1860s, during a tea race. The crew of a ship sunk in a storm survive at sea for a time before they come upon the Bird of Dawning, abandoned in mid-ocean.

What has happened to the crew? The possibilities are chilling, and the survivors of the wreck must face them down. It's a gripping tale that enjoyed great success, both at the time of publication and afterwards.