The “Adventure Galley”

An Interview With The Book Series Authors Marie-Helene Therrien & Steve Garvie

Editor: Sarah Curtis
Design: MODE Studio

MODE: What is the book series The Adventure Galley about?
M&S: The Adventure Galley series is inspired by real life that evokes the lives of Captains Kidd and Captain Morgan. Having each marked in their own way the imagination of their time, these privateers with astonishing existences have something to surprise us.

This four-volume saga evokes four crucial periods in the lives of Captains Kidd and Morgan, taking readers on a fast-paced adventure filled with passion, violence, charm, friendship, desire, action, danger, betrayal and love. Writing of Volume 1, Captain Morgan’s Treasure, began in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and ended in Panama. Passionate about piracy and life at sea, we, drew on history and our imagination and the significant events in the lives of these two historical figures as well as in the social framework of the seventeenth century in which they took place, featuring several important actors of the time, to create a saga full of twists and turns, imbued with sensuality.

MODE: Could you tell us three interesting facts about yourselves?
M&S: We travelled to many countries in order to do research for the series. We went to Jamaica, in Henry Morgan’s seventeenth century house in Port Maria, then to London to Palace of Whitehall, the Tower of London, the Ye old Cheshire Cheese Pub in London, to Hispaniola (today Dominican Republic), to the Old City of Panama, Panama and to France, in Avignon.
Marie-Hélène Therrien wrote a literary column for 25 years.
Steve Garvie is an avid reader and has a marketing background.

MODE: In your own life, what influences and inspires you to write?
MARIE: Since I’ve been particularly fond of books since the beginning of my life, I have always aspired to write. My mother taught me to read and write before I started school. I started writing stories when I was 15. I received a master’s degree in creative writing and published then my first novel. Then I began to work as a translator and translated twenty-two published books.

MODE: Which book or author has had the biggest impact on you, and why?
MARIE: The author that had the biggest impact on me is Simone de Beauvoir. I wrote a Master’s Thesis on the book The Blood of Others.

MODE: Can you tell us more about the series?
M&S: It is a great historical saga. The Adventure Galley is an adventure, an escape, a mystery. It is about the Caribbean, heat, love and more…
The Adventure Galley series features four novels set around the seventeenth-century and is inspired by true events: Captain Morgan’s Treasure, Henry Morgan, The Knight of Jamaica, William Kidd and the Secret of the Precious Books and Plots at Port-Royal. The four volumes evoke the lives of Captains Kidd and Morgan. Each of these privateers left their mark on the imaginary world of their time, and their astonishing lives have much to surprise us.

MODE: Can you give us more details about the characters?
M&S: But who were they? Henry Morgan, born on January 24, 1635, in Wales and died on August 23, 1688, in Jamaica, was first and foremost a privateer. He became a friend of Jamaica’s governor Thomas Modyford in the early 1660s. When diplomatic relations between England and Spain soured in 1667, Thomas Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque to attack and seize Spanish ships. He subsequently carried out successful and lucrative raids against Puerto Principe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (in Panama). In 1668, he sailed to Maracaibo and Gibraltar on Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo. He attacked and pillaged both towns, before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he fled. In 1671, he attacked Panama City in Panama. The governor of Panama destroyed the city to prevent it falling into English hands. Despite the victory of Henry Morgan, who had stormed the city with over 1,000 men, King Charles II decided to have Henry Morgan arrested to appease Spain, with whom England had just signed a peace treaty. Henry Morgan was arrested and summoned to London. But then the war between England and Spain resumed, and Henry Morgan was instead regarded as a hero by the population and the leading figures of the English government, including King Charles II, despite the legend that he was one of the cruelest pirates of his time, due to the torture and other crimes he had committed. For various reasons, Charles II decided to knight him and offered him the lieutenant-governorship of Jamaica.

William Kidd is shrouded in an aura of mystery. Many aspects of his life remain unexplained. Born in Greenock, Scotland, and hanged in London in 1701, historians are divided on his reputation. Some say he was the most vilified and persecuted by the English crown. He left Europe and emigrated to the New World, settling in New York where he married Sarah Bradley Cox Oort and had two daughters: Elisabeth and Sarah. The marriage brought him considerable property, and he became a respectable merchant before becoming a pirate. It was his love for adventure that led him to become captain of the Adventure Galley, after a commercial voyage to England. Kidd was offered a privateering contract to attack French pirates and ships. The Adventure Galley was equipped with 40 cannons and 70 men, which was excellent for a mission of this type. However, Kidd ran into many difficulties and had trouble covering the costs of the mission. Under pressure from his men, he began to attack any ship not flying the English flag. The privateer became a pirate. During a quarrel, Kidd hit his chief gunner, William Moore, who was inciting his crew to mutiny, with an iron bucket and killed him. It was then that he decided to begin his career as a pirate. He unknowingly captured an English ship: the Quedah Merchant. Kidd approached the ship and hoisted the French flag. In return, the Quedah Merchant also hoisted the French flag, hoping to avoid battle, but to no avail. It’s only when he comes aboard that Kidd realizes the deception. He tried to persuade his crew to let the Quedah Merchant set sail again, but they refused. Kidd reached Madagascar. Here, for the first time, Kidd encounters another pirate, Robert Culliford, and his crew aboard the Mocha Frigate. Kidd orders his men to capture him. They mutinied and joined the men of his captain, Culliford. Only thirteen men remain loyal to Kidd. After his return to Boston, Kidd is captured. He had lost the papers that could have exonerated him. He is sent to London, and after a trial for his acts of piracy and the murder of William Moore, he is sentenced to hang.

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MODE: Can you give us an overview on each volume?
M&S: This four-volume saga takes readers on a thrilling adventure filled with passion, violence, charm, friendship, desire, action, danger, betrayal and love. Writing began in Playa des Carmen, Mexico, and continued in Panama City, Panama, London, and Avignon.

In the first volume, after having attacked the Adventure Galley, captain Kidd’s ship, Henry Morgan was made a prisoner by Kidd’s crew that set a trap for him. His ship, the Oxford, was seized and crew members of the Adventure Galley went on board to keep watch on the ship. While he was locked in the hold of the Adventure Galley, the following night, Henry Morgan discovers with bewilderment the identity of captain Kidd which visits him in the middle of the night. The captain is in fact a woman: Elisabeth Kidd, the daughter of the privateer and pirate William Kidd, navigating the replica of the famous ship of his father. Elisabeth Kidd feels immediately a paradoxical attraction to captain Morgan when she is in proximity to him. After an impassioned night, Henry Morgan manages to run away aboard his sailing ship, the Oxford, and takes the direction of Île-à-Vache, an island at the south of Hispaniola. A mutineer, being a member of the crew of captain Morgan, wanting to take revenge for humiliations he had suffered under his orders, blows up Morgan’s ship, taking to their death the largest part of the Oxford’s crew and some crew members of the Adventure Galley that were on board. Although they were enemies for a long time, Elisabeth Kidd and Henry Morgan fell in love at first sight. Was Elisabeth bewitched by the dark looks of Henry Morgan? When she learns about the wreck of the Oxford, and despite the warnings of her officer and longtime friend, James Martin, Elisabeth Kidd takes the direction of Île Vache where, after believing that Henry Morgan was killed, she finally finds him. They enter wholeheartedly into a passionate love story, in spite of everyone, which questions their existence. Henry Morgan, called in London by king Charles II of England who wishes to name him a knight, asks Elisabeth Kidd to accompany him and to leave everything for him. After some hesitations, Elisabeth agrees to follow her lover, giving the command of the Adventure Galley to her officer, James Martin. But the mutineer Luke MacKenzie, who managed to escape from the Oxford before the explosion, is hired as a crew member of the Adventure Galley. Having discovered the real identity of the mysterious woman that he saw plunging from the ship and learning that she is the mistress of the one he hates, Luke MacKenzie succeeds in causing a mutiny among the crew of the Adventure Galley. Taking control of the ship, he dashes in pursuit of Henry Morgan’s new ship, the Satisfaction. Ignoring that her crew has rebelled, Elisabeth Kidd asks Henry Morgan to slow down and the mutineers of MacKenzie approach the Satisfaction, having persuaded Elisabeth and the crew that James Martin died by poison. Once on board, MacKenzie and his mutineers manage to kidnap Elisabeth. Henry Morgan tries to dash in their pursuit to find Elisabeth, but the mutineers manage to persuade Henry Morgan that she was killed. In despair, Captain Morgan sinks ever deeper into hopelessness and delirium. His excessive consumption of rum feeds his madness. Elisabeth, for her part, learns that Henry Morgan believe she was dead, and she knows that he will not come back to rescue her. There comes a terrible storm. Henry Morgan’s ship Satisfaction is about to sink. At the last moment, captain Morgan takes the control of the ship and decides to head towards England, shouting Elisabeth’s name. In the second volume, Henry Morgan, The Knight of Jamaica, Captain Henry Morgan finally agreed to go to England where the king, Charles II, decided to knight him. Once in London, Henry Morgan is invited to a reception given in his honor on the occasion of his knighting. In the ballroom of Whitehall Palace there are backstage games, betrayals, violence, and passion in the London of 1675.

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Will Elizabeth Kidd, with the help of her crew members who have remained loyal to her, manage to defeat Luke MacKenzie and put him out of harm’s way? And will she arrive in time in London to find Henry Morgan before he succumbs to the charms of the intriguing Harriet Maitland?

In the third volume, William Kidd and the Secret of the Precious books, Kidd reached Madagascar. In the meantime, Elisabeth Kidd and Captain Morgan try to find him to help. There, Kidd meets a pirate he once had a hard time with, Robert Culliford and his crew aboard the Mocha Frigate. Kidd orders his men to capture him. Instead of obeying him they mutiny and join the men of his captain, Culliford. Only thirteen men remain loyal to Kidd. After his return to Boston, Kidd is captured. He had lost the papers that could have exonerated him. He is sent to London and, after a trial for his acts of piracy and the murder of William Moore, is sentenced to hang.

In the fourth and last volume, Plots in Port-Royal, when she learns that William Kidd has been arrested for piracy and put in prison, Elisabeth is appalled. Wasn’t her father certain he could prove his innocence thanks to the Letters of marque he had found aboard the Quedah Merchant? He was indeed authorized by the British Crown to attack French ships. The duplicity of the Comte de Bellomont was no stranger to his arrest. But there is worse: the King of England seems to fear him and wants him to disappear. Determined to do everything in her power to help him, Elisabeth receives the support of her husband, Henry Morgan, now Lieutenant-Governor of Jamaica. But can he help Elisabeth?

Henry Morgan’s enemies abound in the heart of the government and seek to bring about his downfall. In Port-Royal, plots are being hatched and men are attempting to assassinate Henry Morgan. Are these criminals in any way connected to the William Kidd affair? Secrets revealed to Elisabeth by her father’s friends make the case even murkier as to why William Kidd was arrested. Our heroes will know no respite in this historical thriller, where mysteries pile up and twists and turns abound. From Port-Royal to London to New York, Elisabeth and Henry Morgan will do everything in their power to save William Kidd from a gruesome death. But will they get there in time?

“The Adventure Galley” series by Marie-Helene Therrien & Steve Garvie is available in many good book stores including on Amazon

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The “Adventure Galley”

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