Jane Slade of Polruan - The Inspiration for Du Maurier's First Novel

Jane Slade of Polruan is an account of a family of shipbuilders in a small Cornish village. Their rise in the early nineteenth century and their subsequent downfall during the depression of 1930 parallels the history of so many other family enterprises in Cornwall. At the centre of this activity is ... Jane Slade who took control of the family business [after] her husband's death. She was the only woman shipbuilder in Cornwall and her legacy lived on through successive generations of shipbuilders, repairers and mariners and in the ship named after her.