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The Havannah was a very historic ship. She was one of the ships which escorted Napoleon to St Helena. Afterwards she sailed twice round the world. Finally she was docked in Cardiff Bay. She was now a grounded hulk, moored and anchored to the bank of the River Taff. She was wedged firmly on the mud and would never sail again. Nevertheless she still had an important role to play. She was now an Industrial School. Boys were sent to her by the courts to be punished and educated - in this case as sailors.
In 1870 Nat Thomas is sent to the Havannah for five years for begging in the streets of Newport and for being a vagrant. After the death of his mother Nat was sent to live with an aunt and uncle but they were unkind to him so he ran away. He has lived on the streets ever since.
Once aboard the Havannah Nat begins to settle down. The superintendent, Douglas Young, is kind. He takes the boys for reading, writing and arithmetic and is pleased to find that Nat is a good reader. (Nat's mother had taught him to read and love books but her books were all sold when she died). Mr Young gives Nat extra lessons in the evenings. Nat also enjoys the lessons in seamanship - tying knots, learning how to row and how to steer.
Nat has a vivid imagination and he pictures the Havannah as a mighty ship of war ploughing through mountainous seas and defending Britain's trade routes.
In fact Nat would have been happy aboard the Havannah if it had not been for one person - Bosun Willett. He is a cruel man who kicks and punches the boys on any provocation. Worse, Nat finds out that he is secretly selling the food and clothing meant for the boys. The Bosun knows that Nat has found out his secret and he has to find out some way of preventing Nat from informing the authorities. He arranges for Nat to be found guilty of theft. Nat jumps overboard and is thought to have perished in Cardiff Bay.
But Nat survives and joins a band of tinkers led by the Irish Fergus. Nat is now desolate. He misses the Havannah and her sense of safety and security. The Havannah had been his one chance of climbing out of the trap of poverty and crime but now he could never go back.
Then the Bosun discovers that Nat is still alive. Everyone else thinks that Nat is dead, so the Bosun can safely arrange to have Nat killed and so safeguard his secret.
Does Nat elude the clutches of the Bosun? Does he prove his innocence and get back to the Havannah and the opportunities the ship represents?
This is a fascinating story with a sound historical base. The Havannah actually existed and the publishers - the Gomer Press - have a photograph of it.
A real spellbinder. It may be intended for children but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Nine years to teenage
Twelve year old Rosie Winter lives with her widowed father on a farm on the coast of South Wales, not far from Newport. She is looked after by Blanche, the housekeeper.
The farm, which is called High Water, is not far from the sea wall, which is one of Rosie's favourite places. She likes to go down there, sit on a rock, watch the sea birds on the mud flats and look across the Bristol Channel. Right on the sea wall is a strange building, a tall, narrow tower called the Folly. It belongs to the Pritchards. There is a feud between the Pritchards and Rosie's father - and Rosie wonders why. Joel Pritchard is slightly younger than Rosie and she knows him in school. There is a mystery about him too.
Then Rosie has her troubles. Blanche's brother is killed in a mine accident and Blanche says she will have to leave High Water and find a job as a nurse so that she can find somewhere she can live with her mother. There will be nobody to look after Rosie so she will have to go to her rich uncle and aunt in London. Rosie hates the idea of leaving the countryside which she loves and going to live in the city with her harsh, stern aunt.
Then there is a spell of heavy rain. The spring tide arrives with a strong wind. The sea wall has been neglected for years and the sea breaks through and the countryside is flooded. The Folly bears the brunt of it. A crack appears in the wall and part of the stairway collapses leaving Joel and his mother trapped. Reuben Pritchard rides to High Water to ask for help.
It is actually this disaster which heals the rift between the Pritchards and the Winters, which had been caused by a misunderstanding. The mystery about Joel is cleared up too. And the flood also leads to a solution for Rosie.
This book paints a delightful picture of life in a Welsh farming village in the closing years of the nineteenth century. Blanche wears a dress with a bustle, bakes all her own bread, churns butter, preserves fruit and makes jam and sews pillowcases. Transport is on horseback or by means of a pony and trap. Children can be kept off school to help with the harvest and they can leave at twelve. Rosie's ambition is to become a pupil teacher when she is fourteen and then go to College and become a proper teacher.
But what I really liked about this book was the descriptions of the countryside in the various seasons.
There is a telling little touch at the end. Rosie is thinking of her future.
"By then it would a new century, the twentieth. How strange that sounded."
A delightful book.
10+
The Mold torc is a cape made of thinly beaten gold which was once worn by a warrior. It was buried 3,000 years ago but was dug up in 1833. It touches the lives of William Bellis at the present time and his great, great, great grandfather Billy in the nineteenth century. Both William and Billy know something about the torc but neither know the whole story. But it is given to the reader to fill in the blanks in their knowledge.
Ten year old William Bellis goes, from his home in Mold in north east Wales, to London to the ninetieth birthday party of his great grandfather. He is taken to the British Museum where he sees the Mold torc. Later that evening, back in the flat he looks at some old photographs of his great grandfather as a baby with his grandfather Billy, his grandmother Liesel, and his sister Sophie. Then he tells William more. Billy had been there when the torc was dug up. Great-grandfather then shows William his watch chain. It has an amber bead at the end of it. When the torc was dug up somehow Billy managed to keep a small part of it - which he had made into a ring for Sophie. She wore it all the time until she lost it when gardening.
Then we are taken back to the Mold of 1833. Billy is ten years old. He leaves school and starts to work for a local farmer who means to employ him looking after the stock, but first he is helps to repair the road. This is how he comes to be present when a body - and the torc - is discovered. The beads are found with the body. But the significance of the beads is not understood and it is thought that the torc was a breastplate for a horse. Later in this section we meet Liesel and learn how Billy had a ring made for his sister, Sophie.
Then it is back to the present day. William and his mother move into the house in which Sophie once lived and Sophie's ring is found in the garden. There is also a white stone with the letter R on it - almost like a pet grave. We know what William does not - that it is the grave of Billy's little dog Rats.
At the very end there is a short section about the original burial 3,000 yeras ago. So the reader knows the whole story even if none of the characters do.
The contrast between the lives of the people of Mold now and in the nineteenth century is well illustrated. William has problems at school with his teacher Old Fishy (Mr Salmon) but he also enjoys swimming, rugby and drawing. But in 1833 Billy and Sophie are subjected to harsh discipline. This particularly affects Sophie who is desperate to learn and gain an education but who is terrified of her harsh teacher with his free use of the cane. The general poverty of the time is brought out by the fact that when it rained they just threw old sacks over their shoulders. In the depth of winter one old man had his feet wrapped up in old rags. They became gangrenous and he died.
But despite everything this book is pleasantly written. In the modern section there are several humorous touches, like when prospective buyers look round the Bellis's house. They go into William's bedroom and say, "Well I suppose every house needs a junk room."
This is a charming book with an interesting, well crafted story which still manages to bring out the severe conditions of the nineteenth century.
10+