The Night Ship

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The history of Mayken’s ‘Batavia’ voyage and the violent, blood-thirsty brutality of the crew are well known, making the islands a popular place for visitors to search for artefacts. This gives an opportunity for Mayken’s and Gil’s stories to parallel each other as he finds items that we know she used. While this may not be the best possible choice for reading on a ship-based vacation, it is a moving and fascinating read for landlubbers. Kidd writes with the touch of the poet, adorning her compelling, moving story with sparkling descriptive finery, while offering us a child’s-eye view of the most remarkable ship of its time, and telling a tale of doom. Both Gil’s and Mayken’s stories are strong enough masts to have sailed alone, but together they make a weatherly craft and catch a strong wind, easily speeding past potential story-telling shoals. “How do you describe dread, Gil? That’s what the bunyip is: an attempt to give fear a shape.” Gil’s story was difficult for me to listen to. I ached for the poor boy, who’s troubles follow him. Being eccentric is not easy. Mayken’s story was fun to listen to until the ship met its demise. The fun turns to a suspenseful read.

From her debut, Himself, Jess Kidd has been carving out a genre all her own, an intricate collage of folklore, modern gothic, ghost story, historical caper and magical realism. The Night Ship, her fourth novel, brings together many of these elements in the stories of two lonely, motherless children separated by three-and-a-half centuries. Another time, Imke took Mayken to the Church of Saint Bavo, the jewel of Haarlem. The old nursemaid told her to open her eyes and take notice. Mayken opened her eyes and took notice. Even so she missed the grin of a stone gargoyle and the wink of a wooden toad on the choir stall. The scientists are there to dig trenches under our camp to find the Batavia that location was hard to locate from ancient records. Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. He makes a glugging sound and a motion with his hand: a ship sinking. The cherub pouts and his sister rolls her eyes.

Watch yourself,” warns Pelgrom. “Aft-the-mast you’re protected. The rest of the ship has different rules. Don’t expect people to treat you nicely. You’re not fine anymore.” She is beautiful. Her upper works are painted green and yellow and at her prow—oh, best of all—crouches a carved red lion! His golden mane curls, his claws sink into the beam. He snarls down at the water. Yes, the two protagonists in the story, Mayken and Gil, are connected despite being three centuries apart. Sometimes Gil imagines he hears the voice of the dead Dutch girl in the wind. He knows such things as ghosts don't exist. Not if their bones are treated with respect!

Loss is central to both Mayken and Gil’s experience; for starters, each child has lost their mother. Discuss some of their major (and minor) losses throughout the novel and how these may have shaped them as characters. To drink wine in the Great Cabin with the upper-merchant.” “He has a notion for Lady Lucretia.” Imke frowns. “Zwaantie is For a novel inspired by a historical atrocity, The Night Ship is curiously insipid. The search for the Bullebak seems like unnecessary magic-realist interpolation into already fascinating fact. It never really goes anywhere, nor does it generate much dread through its soggy presence – one is left to conclude that the Bullebak is a metaphor, although for what is unclear. The evil of man? The corrosive power of greed? Perhaps I’m reading too much into a device solely meant to illustrate Mayken’s cosseted naivety. Her limited perspective also renders the colonial context of the Batavia’s voyage curiously absent, beyond vague allusions to the origins of Mayken’s father’s wealth. When the Batavia briefly anchors off the coast of Sierra Leone, an encounter with the Sierra Leonese is described with strange flatness, in a novel otherwise quite resplendent in its language: “The Batavia’s sailors greet the locals, unfurling rope ladders and climbing down to retrieve samples of goods and produce. The passengers marvel at the crafts and carvings, at the wonderful and strange new foods.” Then – on we sail.I listened to the audio of Jess Kidd’s “The Night Ship”. Fleur de Wit and Adam Fitzgerald narrate this story told in two different time periods: 1629 and 1989. The Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human brutality, fate and friendship – and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose destinies are inextricably bound together. year-old Mayken, a dutch girl from an affluent family, boards the Batavia for a months-long journey to her new home in the Dutch East Indies. What she finds aboard is a world of wonder, not only begging for exploration but also a world that puts her life in danger.

I was always relieved when the story moved to the 1989 setting, and I gritted my teeth at attempted to get through the 1629 parts. Jess Kidd evokes both being aboard the Batavia and life among the seasonal fishing community on Beacon Island through all five senses. What descriptions made these settings come alive for you? Were there any parts of Kidd’s sea voyage that felt familiar, or some that felt new? Pelgrom straightens up, on the alert. Mayken watches. She must wait for his signal to make the final dangerous dash to gain the

Table of Contents

Kidd has based her latest novel on the historical sinking of the BATAVIA off the west coast of Australia in 1629. THE AUTHOR: Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Lying brings bad karma. Even a small lie can make something really bad happen and the karma will grow to match it.” Gil is also dealing with the supernatural – in his case the legend of the bunyip, an ‘attempt to give fear a shape’, and the islanders’ belief in the ghosts of the Batavia, epitomised by a Raggedy Tree, where toys are left for the ghost of a little girl they call May. In an echo of Mayken’s enjoyment of playing as a cabin-boy, Gil enjoys dressing in his grandmother’s old clothes:

T he Night Ship is an enthralling tale of human brutality, fate and friendship – and of two children, hundreds of years apart, whose destinies are inextricably bound together. Kidd introduces magical realism with all the many links between these two children who are both facing their own monsters, named according to their own country's folklore, Mayken's Bullebak and Gil's Bunyip. Both Mayken and Gil find that cruelty, nightmares, horror and monsters can surface anywhere, anytime. There is unrest on the ship Mayken travels on and unrest on the island where Gil now lives...The best thing about Imke is her missing finger tops. Mayken gets a thrill just looking at them. Second and third fingers, right hand, nubbed joints smoothed over where nails ought to be. Imke will not tell how she lost her finger tops. Mayken never tires of guessing. The cast of characters include many "real life" identities, and it is obvious that Kidd has done her research uncovering them.