Joan Druett Books in Order

Joan Druett traces the introduction of plants and animals into New Zealand, from the earliest settlers through European colonization. Her illustrated history follows the people and acclimatization efforts that reshaped the country's natural environment.

Raised aboard ships, Abigail Sherman longs to become a captain's wife rather than learn respectable behavior with relatives in New Bedford. Her father's murder draws her toward South America, a marriage of convenience, and a mysterious inheritance.

Published to mark forty years of the Fulbright programme in New Zealand, this history examines educational exchange with the United States. Joan Druett explores its influence on participants' research, careers, and personal lives.

Orphaned actress Harriet Gray secures passage aboard Captain Jake Dexter's brig, whose uncertain ownership conceals further secrets. During the California gold rush, their voyage becomes a pursuit of conquistador treasure, with Harriet carrying surprises of her own.

A mystery weekend at New Zealand's Brian Boru Hotel takes a sinister turn. Behind the hotel's entertainment lies jealousy and family intrigue, rooted in a feud dating to the Thames gold rush of 1867.

Drawing on the experiences of women aboard whaling vessels, Joan Druett explores why captains' wives chose to sail with their husbands. Their accounts reveal family life, dangerous voyages, and encounters in distant ports between 1820 and 1920.

Joan Druett and Mary Anne Wallace recount the experiences of nineteenth-century New York women who accompanied their captain husbands aboard merchant ships and whalers. Historical photographs illustrate their efforts to preserve family life at sea.

Through letters and journals, Joan Druett reconstructs the lives of nineteenth-century captains' wives aboard merchant ships. Their voyages combine intimate family experiences with seasickness, pirates, disease, storms, and the constant hazards of life under sail.

Drawing on surgeons' diaries, journals, and correspondence, Joan Druett examines medical practice aboard nineteenth-century whaling ships. She describes their limited instruments and treatments, the injuries and illnesses they confronted, and the harsh conditions surrounding their work.

Joan Druett recounts the lives of women who commanded ships, owned vessels, fought, and pirated across maritime history. From ancient warrior queens to explorers' benefactors, these accounts examine women's enterprise and danger on the sea.

The whaleship Sharon leaves Massachusetts in 1841 under Captain Howes Norris, whose brutality drives crewmen away and fuels violence aboard ship. Joan Druett reconstructs the voyage and its murderous crisis through maritime records and personal accounts.

In 1838, linguist Wiki Coffin is accused of murder just before joining the U.S. Exploring Expedition. Cleared and deputized, he must catch his departing ship and identify a killer believed to be among the expedition's personnel.

While investigating possible pirates near Brazil's Shark Island, Wiki Coffin encounters a troubled sealing schooner and a woman from his past. When its captain is murdered, Wiki questions the crew to challenge the accusation against another officer.

During the U.S. Exploring Expedition's voyage to Brazil, Wiki Coffin investigates a suspicious death among the scientific staff. Another killing implicates his estranged father, forcing the linguist to disentangle family tensions from a dangerous murder inquiry.

On the Patagonian coast, Wiki Coffin searches for a trader accused of stealing a whaler's money and schooner. A corpse leads him into a struggling settlement, where political unrest complicates a threat to the exploring expedition.

Two ships wreck on opposite sides of Auckland Island in 1864, leaving their crews isolated in brutal conditions. Using survivors' journals, Joan Druett contrasts their struggles with leadership, cooperation, and the pressure of survival.

Joan Druett reconstructs the life of Tupaia, the Polynesian navigator who joined Captain Cook's Endeavour. His knowledge of Pacific geography, languages, astronomy, and weather helped guide the voyage and mediate encounters with Maori in New Zealand.

Near Cape Horn in 1839, Wiki Coffin hears of a corpse on a drifting iceberg and confronts another death aboard ship. Racism and hostility complicate his investigation as the exploring expedition approaches dangerous Antarctic waters.

Twelve sailors from the schooner Sarah W. Hunt are stranded after their boats blow offshore near a sub-Antarctic island. Joan Druett follows their struggle and the international controversy surrounding their captain's abandonment of the men.

Joan Druett presents and contextualizes Eleanor Reid's account of sailing aboard the East Indiaman Friendship as a young bride in 1799. Her observations illuminate the people, places, and social worlds encountered between Ireland, Australia, and Asia.

Joan Druett recounts women's experiences of shipwreck and abandonment, including Lucretia Jansz, Mary Ann Jewell, and Millie Jenkins. Their stories explore the varied dangers faced by female castaways across different centuries and maritime settings.

Wiki Coffin enjoys sailing through the East Indies and South China Sea with local rogues and pirates. A reunion with his old college friend George Rochester aboard the Potomac disrupts that life, with a troublesome dog involved.

Joan Druett examines William 'Bully' Hayes, the nineteenth-century adventurer known as the Pirate of the Pacific. This biography separates his exploits from newspaper inventions and romantic legends against the background of sailing and maritime trade.

Captain Rochester's tale of a lost pirate treasure ship sends seafaring Jerusha Gardiner toward riches in the South China Sea. Strange clues, treachery, murder, and an arranged marriage complicate her pursuit of fortune and love.

In 1905, an American claimant threatens the inheritance of the Golden Goose Hotel, renowned for staged murder mysteries. A real killing interrupts the family's deliberations, while tourist Cissy Miller carries a costume and an unusual mission.

Joan Druett recounts Captain Wallis's eighteenth-century encounter with Tahiti and its island queen. She explores how sailors' stories of the island shaped European romantic imagination, influencing writers, artists, filmmakers, and the enduring mythology of Pacific voyages.