The Onedin Line by Cyril Abraham

This is both a TV serial and a set of books by Cyril Abraham. He wanted to write a tv series about a shipping line but decided to set his story in Victorian Liverpool. It was a bedroom and boardroom series, which was extremely popular on tv in the 1970s. THe anti hero was James Onedin, son of a shopkeeper, who went off to sea but had an ambition to own his own shipping line. James is a hard unfeeling man... who becomes depressed that he cannot afford to buy even one ship. Then he gets a chance. There is a rundown ship for sale, from an old man with a drink problem. The old man has a plain daughter who wants the security of marriage. James agrees to marry her to get the ship. James has a brother and a sister, Elizabeth, who is very beautiful and who attracts the attention of Albert Frazer whose father owns a ship yard. The story covers James' marriage to Anne, and their falling in love. Elizabeth becomes pregnant by her fiance, and ends up marrying ALbert Frazer. The later part of the saga covers the love affairs of Charlotte, James' daughter, and her 2 cousins, William Frazer and Samuel Onedin. James remarries several years after Annes death but his second wife, Letty also dies. He marries a Spanish American woman and they have a baby son.