The Gloriana is the ship on which Roger MacKenzie travels to North Carolina in pursuit of Brianna. She is captained by Stephen Bonnet.
Description[]
Outlander series[]
Drums of Autumn[]
Seeking passage to the Americas as soon as possible in order to catch up with Brianna, Roger signs on with Captain Stephen Bonnet in Inverness to work as a seaman aboard the Gloriana. Roger is unnerved by Bonnet's penetrating stare, but the urgency of his quest compels him to commit himself to the voyage, despite his reservations about Bonnet.
On the voyage, the other crew members steer clear of Roger, which suits him. He quickly realizes how unused to hard labor he is, and just how harsh life at sea can be for one who has spent years training in a relatively sheltered occupation. Though it isn't just harsh for a twentieth-century scholar; the passengers endure malnutrition and disease, the latter of which reaches a boiling point when cases of smallpox are detected in several children, and Captain Bonnet orders the afflicted to be thrown overboard.
Horrified, Roger becomes embroiled in the violent resistance of the male passengers, taking note of one in particular: the fair-haired, green-eyed husband of Morag MacKenzie, a woman to whom Roger had served an extra ration of water on account of her breastfeeding infant. The man's plea to Roger – "For the love of God, let her go!" – recalls to him the brief sight of silhouetted figures hiding in the cargo hold. He goes into the hold the next day and discovers Morag hiding there with her infant son, who at first appears to have the smallpox, but on closer inspection lacks the symptoms of the dying child the night before. Morag insists it is only milk fever, though, and persuades Roger to keep her secret.
He observes the child's progress over the next few days, and concedes that the child's rash has not developed into the pox. On retreating from the hold, however, Roger is startled by Bonnet's sudden appearance at his side. Bonnet confronts Roger about the woman and child in the hold, and asks if Roger is a betting man. He offers to toss a coin – "heads it lives, and tails it dies". It lands heads, and Bonnet compels Roger to walk the deck with him while he tells the story of the time he was almost made a human sacrifice under the foundation of a new house, and was offered the same heads-or-tails gamble for his own life. He offers another coin toss, this time for Roger's life. Roger claims tails, closes his eyes, and reveals his fate. Bonnet takes the coin and leaves Roger standing alone.
Name[]
- Gloriana is an elaborated form of Latin gloria meaning "glory". [1]
Trivia[]
References[]
- ↑ Behind the Name: Gloriana. Accessed 17 August 2018.