Classic TV Drama: The Onedin Line – #72 – S06 E10 – "The Fortune Hunters"

adamsmith1922

February 29

A great Brit TV Classic - this episode

The episode opens 10 days after the funeral of James and Letty's baby son. They are both grieving but unable to comfort each other. Elizabeth and Sarah try to help Letty but she's not interested until she hears that her business is having problems. Letty persuades James to go to sea: 'it would be best for both of us'. One of Letty's employees brings a map to Letty of the harbour front. Beaumont is implicated in buying up land to sell to the harbour board at a huge profit. Samuel visits Letty and tells her and Sarah that he has asked Charlotte to marry him. He says that if they don't give permission they will elope. They marry in a quiet ceremony. Daniel tells Elizabeth that Sir Joshua Thackery has died meaning there will be a bye election for the Manchester ward which he should win. To please Elizabeth he shows her his letter of resignation from the ship canal project to which Elizabeth replies 'I do love you'. They go to see William when Beaumont is there and tell William what is going on. Elizabeth tells William that the amount offered by Beaumont, £300,000, for the yard is nowhere near enough and that she and Daniel will match the offer. William decides not to sell the yard to either of them. Beaumont leaves swearing that 'for as long as he lives he will make it his business to ruin Daniel'. Elizabeth tells William that he is to go abroad for a year and they will run the Fraser Line until he returns. Meanwhile, James is sailing to Africa. A passenger, Mr Peterson, tells him a tale about untold riches in a very dangerous area marked by a white mast. They land and the ship stands off at a safe distance away from the reef. Peterson shows them that the mast sticking out of the sand is in fact that of a sunken galleon. It has gold and diamonds in its hold. He was there the previous year with two partners who died in the earlier attempt. He takes them to where he began digging but suddenly a storm blows up so James and Baines take shelter. When the storm abates, they find Peterson dead, the mast of the galleon having fallen on him. James realises that their ship won't find them as they were using the mast to take bearings. However, discovering parts of the Osprey on the beach they realise that it must have been wrecked on the reef during the storm. They find an old rowing boat and set off into the shipping lanes, drifting for days, reminiscing about the past and fearing the worst. James now calls Baines by his Christian name, Will. At home, the Osprey has finally been posted as missing and Letty is distraught. Charlotte goes into labour and gives birth to a son. Suddenly there is a scream from a servant and James walks in saying 'you look like you've seen a ghost'. He and Letty embrace. James says that he and Baines were finally picked up by a steamer which has taken 6 weeks to return. The episode finishes with the christening of the new baby, who has been named Robert Baines Onedin. Baines is to be godfather.

The Onedin Line is a BBC television drama series, which ran from 1971 to 1980. The series was created by Cyril Abraham.

The series is set in Liverpool from 1860 to 1886^[1] and covers the rise of a fictional shipping company, the Onedin Line, named after its owner James Onedin. Around this, it depicts the lives of his family, most notably his brother and partner Robert, a ship chandler, and his sister Elizabeth, giving insight into the lifestyle and customs at the time, not only at sea, but also ashore (mostly lower- and upper-middle-class). The series also illustrates some of the changes in business and shipping, such as from wooden to steel ships and from sailing ships to steamships. It shows the role that ships played in such matters as international politics, uprisings and the slave trade.