Zeelandia

Zeelandia - Logline, Summary and Description

Logline:

Disguised as the ship's cabin boy, Camille discovers her natural urges, and her feelings for the captain must be expressed as a lad looking at a father figure, not as a smitten young lady of eighteen.

Summary:

With her mother's recent death and her father's return from his latest voyage now more than two years overdue, eighteen-year-old Camille realises there's nothing left for her in England. Over the years, she had idolised her father, and now inspired by his seafaring tales, she sets out to seek her own adventures. She binds her bosom and disguises herself as a young lad to gain a position as the captain's cabin boy aboard the ship, Zeelandia, bound for the Caribbean in 1676.

Zeelandia's new captain was an orphan in the streets of London, who from the age of twelve, spent half a year sailing a Thames barge then ten years at sea, gaining experience and prospering through pirate hunting. Camille, now called Boy, is attracted to him, but she doesn't know why. As her feelings and physical reactions increase, she has a series of small catharses, realising her mother had grown increasingly insane, and she had suppressed and distorted all details about coming of age.

The interaction between Captain and Camille slowly evolves, first intellectually, then socially, emotionally and spiritually as he assumes guardianship of the orphaned Boy, regarding 'him' as his ward, or as a son he wished he had.

With no other women aboard, and needing to maintain her ruse, Camille subtly seeks information from a young midshipman who appears to be partway through puberty. She uses this and her self-discoveries to steer Captain into offering guidance about coming of age.

Over the weeks, the bonding grows as Camille learns that Captain craves a wife and family, and when they arrive in Barbados, she decides it's time to reveal her true identity to him. He's shocked, and he sends her to her quarters to be dealt with later. Distraught, she packs her belongings and leaves the ship.

After wandering aimlessly, both afoot and emotionally, she takes a room in an inn. Captain organises a search and finds her. They reconcile the misunderstanding, and in the process, he introduces himself as Charles. She entices him to lay with her. While they do, he tells her about a tract of land he owns in the colonies, and he asks her to settle there with him.

As they continue westward from Barbados, they sail into a pirate trap, but being better armed and quick to respond, Zeelandia counters the attack and sinks them. Charles is an honourable mariner, and he rescues the survivors. Some of them had been sailors captured and enslaved by the pirates, and they tell of many more like themselves ashore in the pirates' haven.

They free the slaves, and among them is Camille's father. As they reunite and reacquaint, she's shocked by his attitudes, and she realises her former image of him had been that of an immature and impressionable daughter, not that of a far wiser young woman.

Camille resolves to wed Charles and to settle with him in the colonies.

Description:

With her mother's recent death and her father's return from sea more than two years overdue, Camille accepts that there is nothing left for her in England. Inspired by her father's tales of seafaring adventures, she sets out to seek her own.

She binds her bosom and dresses as a young lad to gain a position as the captain's cabin boy aboard a ship bound for the Caribbean in 1676. As her feelings for the captain grow, she discovers her natural urges, and her feelings must be expressed as a boy looking at a father figure, rather than as a smitten young lady of eighteen.

Presented in Camille's first-person voice, this story is both lighthearted and deeply serious as she gradually realises that all information about coming of age had been either suppressed or distorted by her mother. Hiding in a completely male environment, she must discover the reality of being a woman.