Author Susan McGuirk has debuted her first historical fiction novel, “Dear Missing Friends.” Inspired by a 1864 advertisement placed in the Missing Friends newspaper column for Irish people, Susan began her journey into the story of a Sag Harbor whaler searching for his wife, Catherine, the author’s second-great-aunt.
The story unfolds in Sag Harbor in the mid-1800s, after Catherine McGuirk departs Ireland, eager to start anew in America. During the booming whaling era, she marries a dashing sailor who vows to give up life at sea. But when he vanishes westward in pursuit of gold, she must forge her own path as a governess in Manhattan society. Torn between her ambition, the vanished whaleman she married, and the now-wealthy suitor she refused, she faces the challenges of love, loss, and the tides of a changing world.
Susan’s 10 years of research and writing led her deep into her family history and local lore. She examined whaling logs, ship manifests, passenger lists, census data, employment, marriage, and death records, as well as newspapers, to confirm details about these characters and their lives. She also traveled to Ireland to visit Catherine’s hometown and interview local historians and other ancestors.
We asked Susan a few questions to learn more.
Your career has included HBO, film preservation, higher education, and mentoring. How have those experiences shaped you as a novelist?
The common denominator of all of the above is media. I worked at a network writing film reviews, at a film museum programming films saved from neglect, and mentoring students studying media in college. Dialogue and images are how I thought about stories. I am a visual person, so being able to see the characters’ faces in my mind’s eye was important to me. I found images on antique photo sites to use as mental illustrations of each character. I did the same with the settings to better imagine the characters’ dwelling places.
This novel began with a single newspaper advertisement from 1864. Can you take us back to the moment you found it? What made you think, there’s a novel here?
The first newspaper advertisement in the Missing Friends column, syndicated to Irish papers all over America, was puzzling. A husband from Ohio was trying to find his wife, my second-great-aunt, last seen 20 years ago in Sag Harbor. Still, it did not become a story until I found the second ad Michael placed four years later, still looking for his wife. I knew that most Irish people read the column, as even if they were not seeking a lost loved one, they knew others who were. Why did Catherine not answer Michael? Was there a reason she did not want to be found? Was she dead? Did something happen between them? Why did he use her maiden name in both ads? How did he end up in Ohio? From these questions, a story was born.
What surprised you most as you immersed yourself in the world of Sag Harbor’s whaling industry?
What surprised me most was what a unique place Sag Harbor was at that time. It was actually the best possible place my ancestors could have landed. Not only did it not cause a stir that they spoke with Irish accents, but walking along the wharf, they could encounter people from all over the world. Pacific Islanders and Portuguese people were represented on many whaling vessels. Native Americans and Free Blacks were also present on a majority of voyages. These crews lived and got along together for up to three-year voyages. There was opportunity for recent immigrants that they would not have found in New York City.
You examined ship logs, census records, marriage records, passenger lists, and newspapers. Was there one discovery that completely changed the direction of the novel?
Perhaps it was finding the whaling log that Catherine’s husband kept on his last sea voyage. Seeing his name on it confirmed that he did indeed go back on his promise and return to the sea. There was a finality about it that pointed to the inevitability of their separation.
You traveled to Ireland to trace Catherine’s roots. Was there a particular place or conversation that changed how you wrote her?
A local historian showed me our family’s former farm and the school Cath most likely attended. We visited a nearby castle where he said the family members might have worked during the seasonal harvest for extra money. Walking through the meadows, I could picture Cath and her best friend Susie as children running down the hill toward the village where her school and the castle were. It felt almost like the childhood of Catherine’s character was revealed to me, leading to a deeper understanding of her nature.
