Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These

Last year I attended an interesting panel session at the Romance Writers of Australia which featured some wonderful best-selling historical romance authors.

In the Q&A panel the question of historical accuracy came up and every one admitted that they fudged historical accuracy for the sake of the story.

One admitted putting buttons on her heroes’ shirts for the pleasure of ripping said garment open in a moment of passion – who could argue with that?

In the world of historical fiction, there a fine line authors tread – woe betide if you waltz too early (although I’ll stand by mine), drink whisky or fudge the date of birth of a real historical character! – and the line is balanced by painstaking academic historical accuracy and creating a rollicking good story that readers thoroughly enjoy.

Which brings me to this post.

Much of Captive of the Corsairs takes place on a schooner called the Calliope. It’s a decent sized ship, crewed by 12-15 men but nowhere near as large as a clipper.

In every seafaring and piratical historical romance I’ve read, the captain has had an enormous bed on which to seduce the heroine – swoon!

The reality is, space onboard ship is at a premium and every bit of furniture and storage has to be carefully considered and designed to maximise a confined space.

Nothing has changed – boats, caravans and ‘tiny houses‘ are designed on the some principles.

So a large lump of real estate devoted to merely the comfort and pleasure of the captain stretches historical accuracy.

In fact period captain’s beds look more like these:

 

More comfy than a hammock, and a useful daybed for meeting with the crew officers but not exactly a four poster.

Can there be a compromise? I think so. Captain Kit Hardacre’s bed will be something in between – luxurious enough for nocturnal activity and practical enough for a working ship.

What do you think? Are the any lines of historical accuracy you think an author should not cross?