Since 2010, Arlene Spencer has researched a number of everyday people in history who faced extraordinary circumstances.
She publishes a research article in her monthly newsletter, sharing some of her findings from research for her books.
In January 2026, Arlene began publishing a serial that she continues to write; an investigation of historical seamen’s rights, focusing on the ‘shanghaiing’ of sailors. The notorious 19th century crimping enterprise that James Turk operated at Oregon’s two, commercial, deep-water sea ports, Astoria and Portland, is featured in her serial.
To get the next article, sign up for Arlene’s free monthly newsletter. In the next issue you will be able to catch up on earlier articles in the series. Or, to read the serial now, visit her Newsletter Archive.
To inform three different historical non-fiction books she is writing, Arlene has researched her subjects’ lives, each of whom lived in different places, at different times.
Her findings come from primary and secondary sources, and published scholarship.
Based on the rigor of Arlene’s work and their interest in her research subjects, in 2018 and 2019, Arlene was invited to write articles for two different publications, Global Maritime History and Them Dam Writers.
After her first article was published on Global Maritime History, Arlene was invited to become a Staff Writer for them. She accepted and continues to be a Staff Writer there, today.
Arlene is writing books about:
Richard Williams alias Cornish, Master of a merchant ship, beloved mariner of the London maritime community, was hanged in Jamestown for the then crime of sodomy. In the years following his death, against colonial law, at great risk to themselves, independently, individual sailors expressed outrage at his execution. It is believed that Cornish’s was the first execution for the crime of sodomy on the North American continent;
Blacksmith, trapper, and sheep-raiser, James Dillman, fought to keep his family intact during vigilant and brutal Range Wars; but though they survived, violence settled within one of them;
Catherine Northrup, grew up in the chaos of the Civil War. After moving to the West she survived the Nez Perce Wars, and was among few settlers who did. After finally making a new life, years, later; homesteading, she was horrifically murdered.
Arlene does not use Artificial Intelligence to research or write any of her products: all of her work is human authored.