Voyager © Diana Gabaldon 1994


Voyager; Bat Guano, Chapter 53

Chapter 53 opens with Jamie and Claire standing on the deck of the Artemis as 10 ton of bat guano is loaded into the hold. The smell is terrible and the air is full of dried guano. Janie considers keelhauling Fergus, as it was his efforts that led to the commission of the Artemis. They are to transport and trade the fertilizer to a plantation owner by a man named Gray. Fergus is proud of himself. He has found a solution to increase their capital and recoup some of their losses. Claire is surprised at his initiative. Jamie tells Claire that he has made a partner of Fergus. Half of the profit from the cargo of bat guano will be Fergus’s; going toward the dowry Jamie has promised Marsali. Claire muses that Laoghaire will not be pleased that her daughter’s dowry is to be paid in bat dung.

What has changed in the relationship between Jamie and Fergus?

Jamie meets with a man who Claire assumes is an acquaintance of Jamie’s through the Masons. They have hope that someone will have seen Ian or heard about his where he might be. While Jamie meets with the gentleman, Claire, Lawrence, Fergus, Marsali and Ines visit the slave market in hopes of finding Ian. The market is hot and smelly. The slaves are held in pens awaiting auction. Claire is appalled when she witnesses a young girl being branded on her breast. A crowd of people gathered around a one armed black man who is being auctioned. The slave trader draws attention to the slave as a good breeder by handling the man’s genitals. Claire flips out and attracts the slave trader with the pointed end of her umbrella. The crowd turns of Claire and she is knocked down. Fergus and party show up and begin beating the auctioneered. Claire, still on the ground realizes that once again, she has acted without thinking of the danger she has placed upon her family. Jamie comes to the rescue and purchases the slave. Claire, to her dismay, finds herself the owner of a slave.
Claire has again allowed her emotions to endanger the lives of her family. Jamie again has found a quick solution.

There is a difference in the way he confronts Claire for her behavior this time. He seems more concerned at the damage done to her than the effect of her not listening to him. What’s changed?

As the Artemis prepares to sail and Jamie tells Claire that no one has seen Ian. Upon viewing the receipts from other slaves, Jamie finds a possible link to Rose Hall in Jamaica. The planter’s name is Abernathy. Jamie states that once rid of the guano, they will follow the lead to Jamaica. The Artemis passes the burning ground on the way out of the harbor. This is the place where slaves who die at the auction are burned. Claire watches in horror while Jamie jumps into the fire. He has to be sure that Ian is not among the dead. Ian is not to be found and the voyage continues.

This chapter shows some changes in the relationships between characters. Anyone else have some thoughts?

I love Diana, she is not afraid to describe life. We see the good and the bad with the same personal detail. For me this was another of the scenes where I just did not want to look. What do you think?
For me this chapter was another that might have been abridged or left out. Besides showing the abhorrence that Claire has to the concept of slavery and the length of what Jaime is willing to do in order to find Ian, for me the story stalls in these chapters. Comments?

I agree that I found some of these chapters a bit heavy going... and I guess they are my least favourite of the book in total....

I found the slave issue quite uncomfortable and understood Claire's vehemence against a system she had no control over - Jamie's solution of course worked, and was the only way out of a tricky situation.

I think we now see Fergus as a grown up - gone is the impish boy, and the makings of the man start to emerge...I did laugh out loud imagining Laoghaire's reaction to her daughter's hand in marriage being gained through the entrepreneurial skills of Fergus and a whole heap of dung !!!

Great summary.

Great summary Janet!

As I think I've mentioned in a few of the recent chapter threads, some of this section is why Voyager is not among my favorites of the books in this series. At least this chapter didn't have any major coincidences that I recall. That was my complaint in the past couple. And, this chapter finally gets us back on track with the search for Ian, which hasn't been discussed much and I almost forgot in all the other drama despite its being the reason they are on this voyage. And, of course, they had to check the slave market and the burning grounds just in case, but those scenes were horrid.

The fact that the planter who wants the guano is named Grey jumped out at me, knowing other Greys, and specifically one who has links to Jamaica. Do we know whether this Grey is related in any way to John, Hal and the gang? Or is that just a coincidence (a smaller one that wouldn't bother me nearly as much)?

The bat dung as dowry cracked me up. I'm sure Laoghaire will be furious. But, it was a good business deal from Fergus' point of view and I like that he is taking on the responsibility to support himself and Marsali. I think Jamie felt that he had to give some opportunity to Fergus now that he is married, so he made him a partner. He intended to make Fergus a partner in the printing business eventually (until that burned), so now he's doing a similar thing. Fergus has always been a good assistant for him in the smuggling and earlier pickpocketing and such, but now he needs to let him have bigger responsibilities.

I think Jamie was more concerned for Claire's welfare because he had so recently thought he lost her (again) from the Porpoise. And, after having been without her for 20 years, his feelings about losing her are very strong. And, I think he's well and truly given up on expecting her to behave like other women of the time. Also, he hadn't given her specific instructions about the slave market (that we know of), so it's not equivalent to some times in the past when he warned her and she still did things. I think he just wanted to get all of them out of there without injury.

Interesting that the slave's name was Temeraire, which I hadn't remembered. I've really enjoyed the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik (Napoleonic Wars with an air force consisting of dragons - really good stuff) and there is a new one coming out in the spring. Reading this chapter reminded me to check on it and I am now the first person on the list to get it from my library. I had also forgotten the fleur de lis and letter A brand he had, but now I see the relevance of that too. I guess the slave papers don't show the brand because otherwise they would have seen the link to the others from Abernathy's Rose Hall.

Nice job with the summary, Janet123. I didn't mind this chapter as it set up a link to finding Ian later on. I thought Diana wanted to call attention to the cruelty of the slave market, which is a topic many of us probably never studied in school (at least I didn't). Leave it to Claire to take matters into her own hands. Good thing she had back up otherwise she could have ended up in jail again.

Fergus is no longer a bachelor and faces new responsibilities as a marrit man. Lucky for him he has Jamie as a role model.

I believe that this is Fergus' first real opportunity to earn income since the end of their smuggling days. So, the opportunity to share in the profit as well as to provide income to a new wife should be quite welcome to Fergus. Besides, I do believe that Fergus enjoys the role of trader, a different way to "pick pockets"!

Being a stickler for details, did anyone else notice that on the first page of this chapter they are handling a "shipment of ten cubic tons of bat guano." Is anyone familiar with a "cubic ton"? Or, is this an editorial slip?

Too bad they don't have plastic bags to seal up the blocks of dried guano! Notice that no one is offering comfort to the crewmen having to carry the stuff.

Yep! Cubic ton? A mistake! You have good eyes.

A cubic ton is a unit of volume (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_ton), although apparently a not completely clear one. Is the problem that it is an anachronism (although since it is Claire's thoughts maybe the issue would be whether it was used in the mid-20th century as well as the 18th)? Or that it is an unclear unit that wouldn't be used for guano, which - not surprisingly - is not among the materials listed in that link?

ABL - Thank you for that reference. I suppose that we could accept that it is a very specialized measurement in the guano market. The relation of weight to volume for specific commodities actually makes a lot of sense. You wouldn't want to sink a ship with too much weight or contract to ship a weight of material with more volume than your vessel could handle. So, both are important. I was aware of the metric liter's relation to the volume of water, but was not aware that that is now obsolete. As I recall the metric system was not yet in use at the time of our story. How did we stray so far from a love story?

I assumed it had to do with the volume and weight of items going into a ship, but I have to say that I didn't really think much about it until it came up here. Never a dull moment at the OBC.

And, to get back to the story itself, while it is true that Fergus has grown up a lot, I thought he had some almost-childlike excitement in this chapter with his first big business deal. Overseeing everything and then climbing up the ropes to put the signal up for the crew to return to the ship to prepare to sail. Reminded me a bit of the younger Fergus.

I think the slave market and the burning of the bodies is one of the strongest examples of how DG tells it how it is without any consideration for us poor readers

But on a serious note it's not often that you read scenes like this without some "softening" and elimination of the bare harsh facts. It's one of the reasons these books are so good but it also makes me a bit apprehensive because I never know what's waiting for me "around the corner" and what other horrid descriptions I might encounter.

I agree, Riki, and think that the reason that Jamie didn't reprimand Claire for her actions in the slave market is that they all felt like doing the same thing but didn't have the nerve to act. Sometimes, it's easier to have the 'weaker sex' act something like this out. After being imprisoned, Jamie and his crew had to be miserable watching what was taking place in the square and not being able to do anything about it. Who knows, maybe they could have stopped her before it got out of hand but chose to let her have a head start and intervene later?

Great summary. This chapter was a bit drawn out for me too but I think it shows the maturing of the relationship between Jamie and Fergus, moving from master and servant/son to equals.

As for Claire and her reaction, as a modern woman, I can't imagine having a different reaction. I love that DG isn't afraid to explore that!

This chapter really marks a turning point in the story, and was very jarring to read right after the joyous wedding on the beach. It seems that the end of the previous chapter, which was also the end of a section, finished the part of the story relating to unions and reunions, and now we're getting back to the harsh reasons for the journey. After all, Claire and Jamie only crossed the Atlantic in the first place to find Ian, but the chapters dealing with their ocean crossing read like an exciting adventure story, for the most part, with lots of love and marital drama thrown in as well.

Bat guano was a fitting image to start this chapter, which dealt with all sorts of things that are horrible to be around. The pollution of the bat guano is just the first example of filth encountered in this chapter: the physical filth of the slave market, the moral filth of slavery itself, and the absolute stench and horror of the burning grounds. No wonder Jamie was retching by the end.