A Marriage at Sea
In 1973 Maurice and Maralyn Bailey sold their house, built a boat, and set off to sail from England to New Zealand, trading ordinary life for the open ocean. Months in, a whale struck and sank their boat in the Pacific, leaving them on a tiny inflatable raft and dinghy with dwindling food and no rescue in sight. Sophie Elmhirst tells the story of the 118 days that followed, a test of endurance that was also, underneath, a study of a marriage: two very different people forced to rely on each other with nothing else left. Published in the United Kingdom as Maurice and Maralyn.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about A Marriage at Sea
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
The true story of a British couple who sold everything to sail around the world, then spent 118 days adrift in a life raft after a whale sank their boat in the Pacific.
Yes. It tells the real story of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey, an English couple who survived 118 days adrift in the Pacific in 1973 after a whale sank their boat.
Yes. The book was published in the United Kingdom as Maurice and Maralyn and in the United States as A Marriage at Sea.
A Marriage at Sea was written by Sophie Elmhirst, published in 2025 by Riverhead Books.
A Marriage at Sea is 256 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, A Marriage at Sea takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
A Marriage at Sea is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.