Onedin Line, The : Series One - Part One

"There is only one sort of partnership that would ensure the sort of security I require. And the ship would cost you not one penny piece." "Oh, What?" "As a dowry, Captain Onedin." It is Liverpool, 1860 and ship's Captain James Onedin wants to be an owner. Tired of standing by while his employer Mr Callon reaps the rewards from his seafaring, he gathers his savings and begs support from his penny-pinching, shop owner brother, Robert. With a ship in his possession he is confident he could steal Callon's most important wine contract from under his nose. Meanwhile James and Robert's sister Elizabeth waits impatiently for her fiance Daniel's impending promotion so they can at last be married. But just how attentive a husband will Daniel make in comprasion to doting shipbuilder's son, Mr Fraser? Suddenly the schooner Charlotte Rhodes is put up for auction - at a price that James has no hope of meeting. Until the ship's owner's daughter Anne Webber offers him a chance of a different kind of partnership and James must calculate its true cost...