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 Story outline
James Onedin (played by
Peter Gilmore), the younger son of old Samuel
Onedin, a miserly ship chandler, was a penniless sea captain with
aspirations to greater things. He married
Anne Webster (Anne
Stallybrass), who was some years his senior (Stallybrass, however,
actually was 7 years younger than Gilmore) and the spinster daughter of
Captain Joshua Webster, owner of the topsail schooner
Charlotte Rhodes.
James's only motivation was to get his hands on the ship. A shrewd and
often ruthless operator, James soon built up a fleet, assisted by the
loyal Mr. (later Captain) Baines. His other sailing ships included the Pampero, the Medusa and the Soren Larsen. He also initiated the building
of a steamship, the Anne Onedin.
James's volatile sister, Elizabeth, became pregnant by seafarer Daniel
Fogarty but married wealthy Albert Frazer, developer of steamship
technology and heir to the Frazer shipyards, a connection James soon
turned to his own advantage. Elizabeth gave birth to a son, William, who
later died as a young man in a street accident.
Robert, James's older brother, took after their father and counted
coppers in the family shop, though he later expanded it into a
profitable department store, urged on by his thrifty and socially
ambitious wife, Sarah. They had one son, Samuel, who cared more for the
sea and ships than shop keeping. Robert was elected as a Member of
Parliament and he and Sarah moved to a smart new residence, but Robert's
life abruptly came to an end when he choked on a bone at a family
dinner. His widow Sarah made attempts to contact him through a medium,
then, despite her son Samuel's objections, almost married the
fortune-hunting Captain Dampier. She was last heard of as having
undertaken a tour of the world but at a certain point abandoned its
itinerary. Since she did not reappear in Liverpool she may even have
settled abroad.
 At the end of the second series, Anne, whom James had come to love, died
giving birth to a daughter, Charlotte. James considered two possible
replacement brides for a while, wealthy widow Caroline Maudslay and the
young heiress Leonora Biddulph, before settling for his daughter's
governess, Letty Gaunt. In due course Letty also died, of diphtheria,
and by the last series James
Onedin was married to a third wife, the exotic
Margarita Juarez, and was by then a grandfather.
The eighth and final series ended with news of the death at sea of
Daniel Fogarty, whom Elizabeth had finally married after the death of
her first husband Albert, and also with the birth, at last, of a son and
heir for James. Born aboard ship, the child was named Will after Captain
Baines.
View the complete cast
of The Onedin Line
Where did the name Onedin Line come from?
An article in Woman magazine published in July 1973 featured
an interview with Cyril Abraham where he recalled how he
came up with the very unusual family name Onedin.
He wanted something unique. He had decided to call the
leading male character James but still had not found a
surname when the BBC agreed to film the story. Then some
inspiration - he said: "One day I stumbled across the word
Ondine, a mythological sea creature. By transposing the "e",
I had James Onedin, a sea devil."
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