A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck

This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction true story follows Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, an eccentric couple who set sail from their native England for New Zealand in 1972, but whose voyage took a near-fatal turn when they were shipwrecked after a year at sea. It turned out a sperm whale had tried to surface beneath their vessel, and the impact cracked their ship clean in two. Their flares turned out to be duds, they were poorly prepared to survive on their life raft, they feared rescue would never come—but four months later they were spotted and saved by a Korean fishing vessel. The maritime episodes read like an adventure yarn, but Elmhirst's story begins prior to their voyage and ends well after, making this truly a story of a challenging marriage and not just one about their ill-fated sailing escapades and aftermath.