SOURCE: Binyon, T. J. “All Hands on Deck.” Times Literary Supplement (2 September 1994): 12.

In the following review, Binyon offers a positive assessment of Signals of Distress.

During a storm in November 1836 an American barque, the Belle of Wilmington, is driven on to a sandbank near Wherrytown, in the west of England. The Canadian cattle which are its cargo—to be replaced, on the return voyage, by emigrants to Canada—swim to the shore. Later, the crew are rescued by fishermen; they take up residence in Wherrytown's one inn, while their vessel is salvaged and repaired. Another resident of the inn is Aymer Smith, who has just arrived on a steam-packet, the Ha'porth of Tar. A man of high moral principles (which he demonstrates by setting free the Belle's black slave, Otto), he is “a Sceptic, a Radical and an active Amender,” and is particularly zealous in educating his inferiors...