Buy The Onedin Line

Returning from the Mediterranean with Letty aboard, James comes across Egyptologist Professor Dawson and his daughter Emma, who is clearly ill, adrift in a small boat. The professor has a mysterious item which he keeps in a bag and, learning that they have escaped from a ship carrying lepers, James quarantines them. However a sailor called Jimmy also falls ill. The professor throws the casket that he has been hiding, stolen from a Pharaoh's tomb, overboard upon which Emma recovers but Jimmy dies. Elizabeth discovers not only that Daniel has been cheating on her but that Samuel, who now has a daughter with Charlotte, is refusing to let William see his son.
Hide description ▲

Leaving Letty feeling adrift in their new, large country house, James sails to Belfast, persuading cash-strapped Captain Seth Burgess to cut him into his steamship line. William returns from two years abroad and instantly detects the cool atmosphere between his parents. Samuel and Charlotte make it clear to him that they want nothing to do with him but feel remorseful after William dies, saving a group of children from being trampled by a runaway horse and cart. His death also goes some way to reconciling his parents.
Hide description ▲

William's death causes a rift between Charlotte and Samuel, not helped when they learn that William left his son twenty thousand pounds. Seth Burgess is duped by the infamous tavern-keeper Paddy West into paying him for a crew to sail to New York with James. However they are not seamen but largely European immigrants, including a Count and his pregnant wife. James is reluctant to put them ashore on Ellis island but changes his mind after the count saves him from an attack by a fugitive murderer. Captain Baines recovers the money from West by arm-wrestling him.
Hide description ▲

Whilst Charlotte becomes bored with life with Samuel, James learns that Elizabeth is sailing to South Africa with a mysterious and dangerous cargo. She is in fact gun-running. James needs money for the repair of his steamer and sails after his sister, illegally using a bogus distress flag to get her to stop. He persuades her that she is in an awkward position and buys the guns from her as a job lot. However, when he tries to sell them to Major Nesbitt in South Africa, he makes a heavy loss, which amuses Captain Baines.
Hide description ▲

James takes Mr. Da Silva and his cargo of lemons to the Azores, but crew members Harris and McDade bully cabin boy Tom into helping them rob his possessions and kill the bosun when he tries to stop them. Eventually Tom does the decent thing, leading to their arrest. Samuel gives Charlotte three thousand pounds but, charmed by Seth Burgess, she gives it to him supposedly as a business investment. However he intends to buy back his ship 'The Black pearl' with it and leave her behind.
Hide description ▲

Seth Burgess obtains a contract to take China clay to Jamaica but whilst James is transporting it, Burgess elopes with Charlotte and her Onedin line shares. Whilst Samuel shows no interest in pursuing them, James offers a reward for their apprehension. Having found a baby left on her doorstep, which she hands onto the orphanage, Letty plans to open her own home for waifs and strays with the money obtained from Samuel for the sale of her factory. With Daniel now permanently in London, Elizabeth meets Charles Marston, wealthy heir to a colliery and steelworks, with whom she strikes up a business deal.
Hide description ▲

Whilst Charles Marston goes into partnership with Elizabeth to build a South American railway, Sarah accepts a marriage proposal from steamboat captain Dampier. Captain Baines sails to France with a passenger, likeable young Thomas Bullen, who saves the life of cabin boy Tom. When Bullen is recalled to England to answer a theft charge brought about by Marston, James, who dislikes his sister's new partner, and Captain Baines are pleased when Bullen proves his innocence. Unfortunately Bullen also, unwittingly, alerts them to the fact that Dampier is a penniless fortune-hunter so James pays him off to leave Sarah.
Hide description ▲

Letty faces opposition to establishing her orphanage from bigots who feel it will lower the tone of the area. Despite herself Elizabeth finds she is falling for Charles Marston and agrees to ship a cargo of wine over in time for his father's birthday. However her ship needs repairs so she gets James to do it instead. As Marston is now in his debt James gets him to persuade the lease-holder of the proposed orphanage, a family friend of the Marstons, to sell it to Letty despite the local protests. He also finds out where Charlotte and Burgess are.
Hide description ▲

James pursues Charlotte and Burgess to Cyprus where he exposes the young captain's interest in his daughter as being purely mercenary, persuading a despairing Charlotte to return home with him. Samuel is smitten by charming actress Helen Doyle and she too is fond of him whilst accepting that her father Fergus is using Samuel's acquaintance to get Sarah to finance his new play. Samuel is saddened when the Doyles' touring company moves on and makes it clear to the returning Charlotte that their marriage is over. Marston is keen to marry Elizabeth and is angry when his father approaches her asking his help in finding a wife for his son.
Hide description ▲

The Doyles return to Liverpool and Samuel declares his love for Helen but Charlotte refuses to divorce him - whilst Sarah and Fergus spend time together. Elizabeth learns that Daniel is the new ambassador to Turkey, an appointment engineered by Marston's father so that she will be obliged to leave Liverpool and join her husband. Helped by Tom, for whom he has arranged a master's apprenticeship, James tracks down Burgess, who has stolen back the ship the 'Black Pearl'. However he lets him keep the ship and returns to Liverpool, finding his house full of children following a fire at Letty's orphanage.
Hide description ▲

Letty has died from diphtheria caught from nursing sick orphans and Elizabeth has returned from Turkey to manage urgent Fraser business. Sarah is on a Cook's tour of the world, Samuel has his own ships, bought from selling the shares William left his son Robert, as well as becoming the youngest chairman of the chamber of commerce. He divorces Charlotte and is awarded custody of the children but agrees to repay the shares in the little boy's account. Having suggested to Elizabeth that the Onedin and Frazer lines merge, James takes Prince Alexander, exiled by the Russian Tsar, to reclaim the throne of Bulgaria. There is an assassination attempt aboard ship, and even when the ship reaches Bulgaria, the prince's return is far from triumphant.
Hide description ▲

Still in Bulgaria having dropped off the disguised, fugitive Prince Alexander, Onedin and Captain Baines are captured by Tsarists, a fifty thousand pound ransom being required for their freedom. By selling off some of her shares and four of her brother's ships, Elizabeth raises the money and travels to Bulgaria with Samuel to hand it over. However the captives have already been rescued by the quick-thinking Tom and James is far from grateful to his sister for her gesture, which, he claims, will ruin him.
Hide description ▲

An ancient cannon Captain Baines believes to have belonged to Henry Morgan and spirited Margarita, daughter of South American president Juarez, join James' latest cargo, but on arrival in Margarita's home country James finds that her father is about to be overthrown in a revolution by his brother-in-law. When the rebels attack, James and Tom help the Juarezes to escape but the president is shot by a sniper, and, as the surviving trio row back to the ship under fire, the cannon comes in very handy. Elizabeth counts the financial cost of putting up ransom money for her brother.
Hide description ▲

James marries Margarita and they sail to Sumatra to establish trade in the East Indies, staying with Dutch ship-owning brothers Max and Theodore Van der Rheede. The brothers are not happy to learn that James has undercut them on a tobacco contract and the dominant Max suggests to his younger brother that they sell up and return to Europe. On the voyage home Margarita intercedes on behalf of a sailor she believes to be harshly-treated, influencing Baines to show him leniency. Back in Liverpool they find that Max has moved there ahead of them but his brother has drowned himself.
Hide description ▲

Defying the superstition that it is bad luck to set sail on a Friday, James travels to Africa and outwits a local witch doctor to establish a trading post on the Niger. However he falls out with Captain Baines, who now has his own ship, 'The Sea Spray', in the process. Back in Liverpool Margarita is mugged whilst exploring the city alone and Samuel uses his uncle's debt to pay Van Der Rheede for a warehouse in New York.
Hide description ▲

Captain Baines leaves the Onedin Line and, with Tom aboard, collects his first cargo as owner of the 'Sea Spray'. James suffers as some clients will only trust their freight to his old ship-mate and the vengeful Van Der Rheede - who is out to break him - calls in the debt sold on by Samuel, who returns from New York with a wealthy American bride. To compound matters Charlotte arrives back in Liverpool as a music-hall singer. Ultimately, though, it is Captain Baines who pays the price of pride as his ship blows up, killing Tom.
Hide description ▲

Devastated by Tom's death, Captain Baines blames Onedin for hectoring the boy into running away and joining the 'Sea Spray'. With no ship of his own he allows Van Der Rheede to bail him out but Van Der Rheede, holding Onedin responsible for his brother's death, is determined to break him and plants a stolen necklace, acquired from Betsy, a fence, on James Onedin's ship. He arranges for Betsy to be sent away and James is arrested and sent for trial. The family suspect Van Der Rheede and Elizabeth accuses him to his face but they can do nothing.
Hide description ▲

Charlotte is reunited with her father after visiting him in jail. Margarita and Samuel pursue the man suspected of planting the necklace on James' ship, only to find he is dead. However a letter arrives from Betsy, addressed to Letty, who was good to her, outlining how Van Der Rheede used her to get the necklace. Furthermore Captain Baines, now anxious to help Onedin, establishes that Van Der Rheede planted it in a chart he knew that the captain was returning to James' ship. The family confronts the Dutchman and force him to confess, whilst Elizabeth hears that Daniel is returning home to be reconciled with her.
Hide description ▲

Max Van Der Rheede is imprisoned and James is free. He beats Samuel to the contract of transporting nitrate and sets sail with his first cargo. Against his orders Margarita accompanies him. She is pregnant and eventually gives birth to a son. James is overjoyed. Elizabeth, on the other hand, receives distressing news. Daniel's ship has sunk returning to England and he has drowned, making her a widow for a second time.
Hide description ▲