The romance of Captain Duffy by H. De Vere Stacpoole
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The romance of Captain Duffy by H. De Vere Stacpoole is a South Seas adventure short story written in the early 20th century. Framed as a sailor’s reminiscence, it turns on shipwreck, castaway survival, and a chivalrous, ultimately unfulfilled romance. An unnamed narrator in Malacca listens as Captain Duffy tells how a mutiny on a Canton pig boat left him adrift and marooned on the tiny island of Fovea. Living on fruit
and crabs, he builds a hut and shell garden, then wakes to find that a distant nighttime “thunder” was a mail steamer’s explosion, whose lone survivor—a young woman in a ball dress—has washed ashore. Duffy steadies her through shock and amnesia, keeps a scrupulous distance, and covers her with his coat when a shabby trading schooner arrives to rescue them. In Canton, while her delayed family sends word and tailors refit her wardrobe, newspapers turn Duffy into a sensation; he resolves to speak his heart, but when her parents appear with a polished young suitor who greets her with a kiss, he quietly withdraws, ships out, and reflects ruefully that waiting for the “right moment” cost him the only one he had. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Stacpoole, H. De Vere (Henry De Vere), 1863-1951 |
|---|---|
| Title | The romance of Captain Duffy |
| Original Publication | New York: Street & Smith Corporation, 1929. |
| Series Title | Produced from the May 7, 1929 issue of The Popular Magazine |
| Credits | Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Short stories |
| Subject | Islands -- Fiction |
| Subject | South Pacific Ocean -- Fiction |
| Subject | Castaways -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 77920 |
| Release Date | Feb 12, 2026 |
| Last Update | Feb 13, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 219 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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