16 h 17 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Salt, tar, hard weather—and the pull of love and ambition along the New England coast.
In Blow the Man Down, Holman Day brings sea adventure and romance into the world of Maine’s coastal people. Hard work and rivalry run alongside a love story. Honor and ambition give this old-fashioned tale its tensions, while the northern coast provides a setting rooted in the lives of people who work by the sea.
The title comes from a sailors’ shanty, a song that helps a crew pull together as they haul lines and raise sails. That shared rhythm offers a way into Day’s coastal world. His writing draws its life from working people’s voices: blunt speech, dry humor, and the local color of his home state.
What you’ll discover
- Adventure with a human face Find sea adventure grounded in hard work, rivalry, and affection for coastal people.
- Love amid hard work Follow a romance woven through the demands and rivalries of life along the coast.
- Voices of the coast Enjoy dialogue shaped by the humor, bluntness, and distinctive speech of working people.
- The shanty behind the title Discover the connection between the book’s name and sailors pulling together at their ropes.
- Honor meets ambition Explore a sea romance where the wish to get ahead sits beside questions of honor.
Who will love it
Readers who like sea stories, Yankee characters and old shanties, and anyone drawn to tales of honest working people facing Wall Street schemers, with romance, storms and salvage along the way.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A kiss on the bridge of the Olenia
- A stubborn skipper shanghais his daughter
- Upside down in the dark
- The colony of Hue and Cry
- Mr. Fogg and the flagship Montana
- A fugitive in disguise
- A wreck, a gamble and a hostile city
- What the story is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Boyd MayoA twenty-six-year-old Yankee sailor from Mayoport who captains a yacht, loses everything through a scheme, and is determined to clear his name by honest work.
- Alma MarstonThe impulsive, charming daughter of Julius Marston, who believes in living for the moment and is pulled toward Mayo against her father's wishes.
- Julius MarstonA cold Wall Street financier, called the fox of Wall Street, who is building a coastal shipping monopoly and never signs his own name to a dirty deed.
- Polly CandageA spirited country girl and milliner's apprentice, shanghaied to sea by her father, who keeps her courage in the dark and stays to teach the islanders.
- Captain Epps CandageHer gruff, soft-hearted father, an old coastal skipper whose fear for his daughter makes him stubborn, loud and quick to anger.
- Fletcher FoggA fat promoter with a purple handkerchief who does Marston's hidden work and answers every order with the word Exactly.
- Captain Zoradus WassMayo's old teacher, a cautious, tobacco-chewing freighter master who follows every rule and still fights for his young friend.
- Ralph BradishA pale, fashionable clerk who signs checks for Marston and tries to use the heiress to get ahead.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet, computer or Kindle, with the type as large as you like.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 16 h 17 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Blow the Man Down
by Holman Day · 1916
A Yankee yacht captain loses his post, his name and his license, then fights back by salvaging a wrecked steamer.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Blow the Man Down is a sea novel by Holman Day, a Maine newspaperman and storyteller who died in 1935. It was written in the 1910s, when steamship lines along the American coast were being swallowed by Wall Street combinations.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A kiss on the bridge of the Olenia
The novel opens on a summer night aboard the steam yacht Olenia. Boyd Mayo, a twenty-six-year-old Yankee sailor, is her captain, and he works for Julius Marston, a Wall Street financier. Moved by moonlight and a violin playing below, Mayo suddenly kisses Marston's daughter Alma. He is so ashamed that he offers to jump overboard. Alma stops him, teases him, and kisses him back, saying she wanted it all along.
Over the next days Alma shows what kind of lover she is. She holds that the future takes care of itself, and she even keeps a little four-line poem that says so. Money talk, to her, spoils romance. Mayo is more careful. He tells her that his grandfather Gamaliel Mayo built sixteen ships at Mayoport, and that his own father lost the family fortune in railroad stocks. He wants to earn a standing before he dares to approach her father, and she finds this very Yankee and a little tiresome.
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What is Blow the Man Down about?
It follows Boyd Mayo, a young yacht captain who falls in love with his employer's daughter, loses his job, and is later blamed for a steamship wreck. He fights to clear his name while helping a colony of evicted islanders.
Who wrote Blow the Man Down and when?
Holman Day, a Maine writer who died in 1935. He wrote it in the 1910s, when steamship lines along the American coast were being bought up by Wall Street combines.
What does the title Blow the Man Down mean?
It comes from an old sailors' shanty sung on Atlantic packet ships, and the epigraph quotes it. In the book it points to the hard knocks of sea work and to the trouble that knocks Mayo down.
The author
Holman Day
1865–1935 · American writer and editor
Holman Day was an American writer and editor, born in Vassalboro, Maine, in 1865. He worked in journalism and wrote novels and poetry. His novels include King Spruce, published in 1908, and The Landloper, published in 1915. He later lived in California and died in Mill Valley in 1935.
More by Holman Day
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