Quickly Bay was a delight to write, and fun to read.  I enjoy it myself.  Built from a study on 18th century ships, Quickly Bay, a fictitious locale for retired sailors, scarlet women, and other runaways, becomes the center of a "home" converted to a "hotel (cathouse)" by Mrs. Pudding who loses her husband to the sea.  Some time before, a man named Allard Prenter, who lived in a British shipyard, was tasked to build a ship out of spare parts to be used in clandestine British Admiralty operations.  The Secret?  She will not exist on any manifest.  

 

The ship, a frigate named the Feenicks, spelled that way because of a well-meaning woodcutter who couldn't spell, develops a personality of her own as a result of her spare parts.  The ship eventually ends up in Quickly Bay and whisks the woman of the house, her "staff" of women, patrons and others to sea in the face of an attack by a fanatic Captain from the Admiralty.  The ship, and its commander, Mr. Sweet, who has never been to sea before, and the crew pulled from the docks and flophouses, taverns and nearby roads, sails off to go west toward America.  There comes a chance meeting at sea with John Paul Jones and crew.  Across the ocean she goes to the Islands.  On to Philadelphia the ship goes, with the captain learning how to sail.  He has plans to put the odd frigate, one that will not fight any ship, into the service of the Colonists as part of the mercenary navy, but this does not happen.  Tune in and see what does happen to this unusual cast of characters woven through actual history and places. 

 

DUO control number:  402005

62,726 words

For further information, please contact my representative, Liz Taylor at duopubs@aol.com

All cover art designed and produced by Gregory St. John Taylor

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©2008, Gregory St. John Taylor, All Rights Reserved