Story summary
Samenvatting van Blow the Man Down
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
Yacht captain Boyd Mayo loves Julius Marston's daughter, then loses everything and fights to float a wrecked steamer.
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Blow the Man Down in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 9 h 15 min7 h 20 min fast, 11 h slow
- Lengte
- 131.600 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1916by Holman Day
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Blow the Man Down in short
Blow the Man Down follows one honest sailor through a tide of money and greed. Boyd Mayo begins as a yacht captain in love with his owner's daughter. A quarrel with Julius Marston, a capsized schooner and a ruined name push him from a yacht's bridge to a fishing boat, a liner's pilothouse and the road as a fugitive.
What Blow the Man Down is about
What happens when a ship's captain kisses the richest man's daughter on a moonlit bridge, and then the whole world starts to lean on him? Blow the Man Down opens with that kiss. Boyd Mayo, young master of the steam yacht Olenia, loses his head, and Alma Marston, daughter of the Wall Street financier Julius Marston, kisses him back.
Holman Day, a Maine writer who died in 1935, wrote this sea story in the age of steamboat combines, when big money was swallowing the small coastal lines. You get a love story, a fog, a capsized schooner, a colony of outcast islanders and a great steamer stuck on a reef. Each time, Mayo must decide what a man owes his honor.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who love sea yarns full of fog, storms and shanties will enjoy this book, as will those drawn to plain-spoken heroes who stand up to greedy financiers.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A moonlit kiss ties a captain to an heiress
The story opens on a summer night aboard the steam yacht Olenia. A violin plays in the saloon, and the moon lays silver on the sea. Captain Boyd Mayo has fought his feelings for days. Then he sweeps Alma Marston into his arms and kisses her.
He is horrified. He is a hired man, and she is the daughter of a Wall Street financier. But Alma laughs at him, calls him a prim Yankee, and kisses him back. Her creed is simple. Love now, let tomorrow look after itself, and keep love apart from money.
When Mayo asks her to wait while he makes something of himself, she brushes the question aside. Arthur Beveridge, the suitor her father has picked, soon interrupts them in the chart room. Alma points at a chart, and Mayo names Honeymoon Channel, then Love Harbor. Beveridge never guesses that two people are laughing at him.
A love begun in moonlight has no plan for the morning.
- 2Begin gratis met lezen
Marston's quarrel with the sea turns on Mayo
Julius Marston treats his yacht as a business office that floats.
- 3Begin gratis met lezen
A schooner and a shanghaied girl reach Saturday Cove
Into the same crowded cove comes the ancient schooner Polly, a hundred years old and carrying shingles and laths.
- 4Begin gratis met lezen
A capsized schooner becomes a trap and a test
Mayo wakes gagged and tied in the Polly's cabin.
- 5Begin gratis met lezen
A rescue becomes a humiliation and a new cause
The Olenia finds the wreck, thanks to the loyal mate McGaw.
- 6Begin gratis met lezen
Fishing partners lose a friend as a swindle takes shape
Mayo and Candage charter Rowley's schooner, the Ethel and May.
- 7Begin gratis met lezen
A disgraced captain hides in plain sight
On his first trip as master of the Montana, Mayo feels the weight of eight hundred passengers.
- 8Begin gratis met lezen
A storm, a boat and a bold bargain in New York
Aboard the Alden, a smart young passenger named Bradish asks Captain Downs to marry him to a young woman at sea.
- 9Begin gratis met lezen
A wrecked steamer becomes a gamble for everything
Back at Maquoit, Mayo works again on the Ethel and May.
- 10Begin gratis met lezen
What the story is about and how it is told
At its heart, the book sets two ways of living against each other.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Boyd Mayo A proud young Maine sea captain who loses his license and name, then fights to prove himself and save a wrecked steamer.
- Alma Marston The impulsive daughter of a Wall Street financier, who loves the moment and learns, through danger, what she owes others.
- Julius Marston A cold financier who builds a coastal shipping merger and wants to crush every line that stands in his way.
- Polly Candage A spirited milliner's apprentice, shanghaied to sea by her father, who teaches the outcast islanders and quietly stands by Mayo.
- Captain Epps Candage Polly's father, a blustering coasting skipper who fears for his daughter and wants to do right, if he can work out how.
- Fletcher Fogg A smooth, scheming manager who does Marston's dirty work, taking over the Vose line and ruining the men who stand in the way.
- Captain Zoradus Wass A gruff old steamboat master who follows every rule, mentors Mayo and fights the combine in his own stubborn way.
- Oakum Otie Candage's whiskered mate, also called Mr. Speed, a loyal sailor who helps in every crisis and falls for pretty telegraph girls.
How it ends (spoiler)
The book closes with Mayo at the widow's cottage and at Rowley's store, trying to pay back the loan and meaning to leave. Deacon Rowley cannot keep his promise of silence, and Mayo learns that Polly herself gave the money. He also learns from Rowley's bitter explanation that Polly has acted out of love for him. Mayo learns that Polly supplied the money herself, and Rowley's revelation sends him running from the store to find her.
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Vragen over Blow the Man Down
What is Blow the Man Down about?
It follows Boyd Mayo, a young Maine sea captain who falls for a financier's daughter, loses his job and name through other men's schemes, and fights back by salvaging a wrecked steamer with a crew of outcast fishermen.
Who wrote Blow the Man Down and when was it set?
Holman Day wrote it. He was a Maine author who died in 1935. The story is set in a time of coastal steamers, sailing schooners and Wall Street combinations, when small shipping lines fought to survive against a growing trust.
Why is the book called Blow the Man Down?
The title comes from an old sailors' shanty of the Atlantic packet ships, printed at the start of the book. The song is about being knocked flat in Liverpool town, and the story shows a man knocked down again and again.
Who are Polly and Captain Candage?
Captain Epps Candage is a gruff coasting skipper, and his daughter Polly is a milliner's apprentice he takes to sea to guard her. They become Mayo's closest friends, and Polly teaches the women and children of Hue and Cry.
Is Blow the Man Down easy to follow?
Yes, in a good way. It has short chapters, lively dialogue, clear storm scenes and a shanty at the head of each chapter. The mix of romance, humor and sea adventure keeps the story moving.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Day, Holman. Blow the Man Down. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/blow-the-man-down.
Day, H. (2026). Blow the man down. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/blow-the-man-down (Original work published 1916)
Day, Holman. Blow the Man Down. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/blow-the-man-down.
@book{day2026blow,
author = {Day, Holman},
title = {Blow the Man Down},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/blow-the-man-down},
note = {First published 1916}
}
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