This episode list shows details of the 91 episodes of the BBC television series The Onedin Line.
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6
Broadcast 16 July – 17 September 1978, (10 episodes).
(E63)
Written by: Mervyn Haisman.
The new series lead-in is an aerial shot of the Onedin Line's flagship Orlando, and cameo brooch vignettes of the lead actors. Sir Daniel asks James to carry £100,000 of gold bullion from South Africa – off the books: he is liquidating his South African holdings for fear the country is becoming strife-ridden.
James charges 2% of the value of the cargo, jokingly throwing in a 'free passage' for Daniel who smiles. Baines jokes that James might as well run up the 'skull and cross bones', such is the size of the fee. Josiah Beaumont (a new character) and the new head of Mr Harris's bank (he has sold his bank) calls. Twenty-year-old William suggests they dine at his club to discuss business. Letty is trying to become pregnant and tells Elizabeth that she is concerned that she might be barren. Letty has also made a tapestry to put in place of Anne's picture.
Dunwoody tells Elizabeth that Mr Simmons (a client who has built 4 vessels with Frazers previously) has cancelled his order for a ship. To get the order William quoted low initially and then tried to push the price up with extras. Beaumont suggests that he can coerce Simmons to deal with Frazers. Elizabeth insults Beaumont for forcing Harris out and argues with William who says that Beaumont can be of tremendous help to them.
Meanwhile, James voyages home and the Panama Canal – which will mean ships will no longer need sail around Cape Horn– is an active idea although Baines regrets the loss of bravery in sailing that will ensue once difficult passages are avoided. A hazing ceremony on board sees a young boy shaven and tarred and feathered by a pirate Neptune.
Samuel has come home: also grown up. At a Bank party – quite unthinkable under Mr Harris - William confides to Samuel that his goal in 5 years is to be richer than any one in the room. Beaumont has convinced Simmons to have his new ship built with Frazers who tells Elizabeth that it is the last ship Frazers will be building for him. He tells Elizabeth that Beaumont threatened to take away his support if he had the ship built in another yard. On hearing this, she declares to Beaumont that she is dining with Mr Harris tomorrow night, 'such an upright man'! She leaves taking William with her. Later Samuel tells Letty about this and that within 5 minutes all the other guests had left as well.
A fire starts on board the Christian Radich – wool is burning. The fire is put out, but once again we learn that James is sailing under-insured. Daniel discovers that three bars of gold have been stolen and James threatens a rope across the back of the man who has stolen the gold. However, one of the sailor points out that it is now against the law (recall that in series one merchant vessels sailed under Napoleonic Naval laws where mutiny or striking an officer was punishable by death). The young boy who was hazed previously has stolen the gold and confesses saying, "why should you have all that gold". The sailor who spoke out against flogging also speaks up for the boy and James lets him off saying that they can both crew a ship round the Horn and that the boy is now his responsibility.
The mate who found the gold beats Daniel to the deck, blaming him for stopping him marrying a rich Chinese girl some years earlier although apparently Daniel had saved him from sharks years before; he says they are now even.
As the episode closes, James bids for business with Fogarty against the Frazer line. James goes to put up a shield he has brought back from Africa only to see that Letty has replaced Anne's picture with her tapestry.
(E64)
Written by: Cyril Abraham
On board the Neptune Baines asks how James got the contract for transporting steel plates instead of Frazers – "blood is thicker than water". "So is zinc", James replies, "and that is what contracts are made of". William's relations with Beaumont grow tighter, as he confides his dismay that Elizabeth and Daniel would not give the contract to "his" line. Petulant and demanding, he orders an old Captain to sea, and demands a fast passage, threatening him if he's slow, despite dense fog. Samuel grows increasingly unhappy at the future Robert has planned for him. Parents pass on what they have learned to their children, the children struggle to take on the role of their parents, un-aware of how little they know, but youthful and winning. The Frazer ship that William has urged out to sea with Captain Oliphant in command passes a "red and white" buoy, but then they see a black and white buoy – they're on the wrong side of the channel and in the fog ram and sink James' ship the Neptune. All hands abandon ship but no lives are lost.
Lessons continue to be learned about honesty and decency. William applies more pressure on Oliphant and sends key witnesses from his own ship offshore. Sensing that Oliphant is weak he takes Beaumont's advice and has him sign a statement that he was on the correct side of the channel and that James was crossing in front of him thus binding him to this falsehood. Again, the series is a lesson in the evolution of UK law as Robert tells Beaumont he has placed his house in his wife's name, protecting it from creditors.
Samuel is courting Charlotte, but she has only William on her mind. Robert and Sarah discuss a match between Charlotte and Samuel and both agree that it would ensure continuity of future 'family' business.
As the accusations fly, Oliphant finds himself in an impossible situation, caught between a rock and a hard place, and hangs himself. William has pangs of conscience and asks himself 'why'? – malevolent Beaumont tries to convince William it is a good thing and now renders Oliphant's testimony uncontestable. Robert points out that the dead cannot testify. James has realised that the location of the sunken steel plates and his anchor would be proof positive of the position of the two ships. The insurers agree and pay up.
Elizabeth is happy for William to learn that there is more to a company than money. Growing up means more than acquiring a moustache. They agree to pay Oliphant's dependents a 'modest' pension for life.
Shock ending...during a celebration dinner Robert gets a bone stuck in his throat and chokes to death in front of them.
(E65)
Written by Nick McCarty
Following Robert's death, the will is read by Mr Andrews. Under the 1883 married women's property act, the house is Sarah's. However, there is a codicil stating that the department store is left to Samuel for as long as it is under his personal management; if not, it reverts to Sarah. A representative of the salvage company, Buxton, approaches James regarding the salvage of a ship, the Indian Queen, and its cargo of copper sheets. It is yet another ship under Captain Barry has foundered and claimed insurance and he suspects the owner, Mr Lynn, of double-dealing. Daniel and Samuel argue over a deal to buy a mill in Manchester, which he and Robert had agreed prior to his untimely death. Samuel says that he does not intend to honour it, as he was not part of the original arrangement. However, Samuel says that he plans to go ahead with Robert's parcel post service and Daniel agrees to supply the linen material for Letty to make the goods, which Samuel will sell via the catalogue.
James calls on Elizabeth and discusses insurance matters. Dunwoody also calls with some papers and confirms that William bought into part of the cargo that went down using Fraser company money. William tells Beaumont that he cannot afford to cover the claim if it is not settled. James and Baines look for the Indian Queen, having learnt from the drunken captain that it went down a mile off Cromer Point and suspect it was deliberately sunk.
Elizabeth accuses William of using company money to buy the cargo and learns that if the transaction was illegal the insurance company will not pay. Mr Lilly tells Beaumont that there was in fact no cargo on the ship, William joins them. The Indian Queen was an old ship and was scuttled with no cargo as the manifest was false. The copper sheets will be sold in due course as well as claiming the insurance money. William is warned not to breathe a word, as is Beaumont.
Letty voices her concerns about not being a mother; James says 'give it time'. The first mate of the Indian Queen arrives and tells James the truth about the Indian Queen and exactly where it went down. The diver is persuaded by Buxton to examine the hold, offering him 50 guineas and 100 guineas for his family if he is killed. The diver opens the hold discovering a dead man who was trapped. The escaped air dislodges the ship and it goes over a ledge into deep water; now they will not be able to prove whether there was a cargo on board.
James confronts William about the missing cargo and hands a shocked William the rosary of the man found dead in the ship saying 'keep it as a memento'.
(E66) (compasses, theft, canals, mediumship)
Written by: John Lucarotti
The episode (confusingly set in 1883, and the death of “that fellow Karl Marx who has just died”) opens with James explaining to Letty, who is gaining her sea legs, that their magnetic compass has deviated – paradoxically, because James' new two-masted ketch the Falcon is not carrying her normal cargo of steel plates – for which her compass has been calibrated with deviating magnets.
Daniel meets with Sir Norman – they discuss a £50,000 robbery in Manchester. Their main question is to break the Liverpool to Manchester transport monopoly of the Mersey docks, the harbor board and rail company. "The government will do nothing", suspects Daniel. Sir Norman retorts, "You wouldn't 'want' the government telling you how to run your business would you? We don't do things that way in this country, thank God!". They briefly discuss the death of Karl Marx and anarchy.
Elizabeth suggests the canal as an alternative to the rail monopoly – Daniel pooh-poohs the idea as too slow (the canal was shut as rail replaces the horse), then realises that freight could be trafficked by steam in the canal... Elizabeth suggests they discuss it in bed. Cross cut, and Letty suggests James put his arms around her...
Talking to Sir Norman, Daniel expounds on his idea now: to tow the ocean going steamers up widened canal lanes all the way from the port of Liverpool to Manchester.
Samuel continues to develop his idea of parcel post (mail order) trading. An idea pioneered in the United States by Sears.
William continues to reveal himself to be a naïve and a more callous and less humane person than he had appeared.
James takes on a cargo with a Mr Jack Wadham, with no bills of lading required or desired. The Fennian strike and blowing up of a town hall motivate the cargo – transfer of a rich man's possessions. Sarah begins seeing a medium – she becomes convinced through his simple predictions that he can see the future and is in contact with the dead Robert.
James suspects that Wadham and his cargo are not what they appear and opens the crates. Wadham discovers him and confesses that they are stolen and holds James and Baines at gunpoint. James pretends that they are on the wrong course by deviating the compass and having put up warning flags land at a cove in Wales. They are met by customs officers and Wadham is arrested while James sets sail again with £5000 in reward money. 'Not bad for one trip' says James!
(E67)
Written by Douglas Watkinson