 | |
| Author | Theodore Taylor |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
Publication date | 1993 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | 978-0-152-06320-7 |
| OCLC | 28422724 |
| Preceded by | The Cay |
Timothy of the Cay is a book written by Theodore Taylor. It is a prequel for Timothy and a sequel for Phillip to the 1969 novel The Cay. [1]
The book discusses Timothy's life before the events of The Cay, when he was living in "Back O' All," the poorest section of what was then the squatter's village of Charlotte Amalie, on the then Danish-held United States Virgin Island of St. Thomas (of which Virgin Island it is now the capital), and Phillip Enright's life after the same events. The theme to this story is making dreams a reality.
According to Timothy of the Cay, Timothy had been abandoned as a baby at the residence in Back O' All where Hannah Gumbs, a former coal carrier turned washer-woman who reared him, was a squatter. As a boy, he formed a dream of one day being captain of his own schooner, which he meant to name after the woman he called "Tante Hannah." Even though she was not Timothy's biological aunt, Timothy still referred to her as this. When he tried to become a cabin boy on one ship, its captain took on a "bukra" boy instead because he was a negro (black person). A "bukra" was a white boy in the richer part of St. Thomas. When he finally got a job on another ship, the Gertrude Theismann, he believed he was only fourteen, but he claimed an age of sixteen. He later claimed to be sixty, younger than the more than seventy years of age he guesstimated he actually was, so he could become part of the crew on the Hato.
Hannah Gumbs died during the second of Timothy's first four years at sea. Timothy came back home with clothes for her only to find that she was dead. Timothy worked long enough and hard enough, both at sea and on land, to be able to afford a schooner originally named the Tessie Crabb by what he guesstimated were his forties. Holding a master's license in the name of "Timothy Gumbs" (he would think of himself simply as Timothy, without a family name, for his entire life) by this time, he renamed this schooner the Hannah Gumbs, as he had always intended. Making his living as its "captain," Timothy gleaned an extensive enough knowledge of the sea to be able, in his last months, to help Phillip Enright survive on a cay in La Boca del Diablo, "the Devil's Mouth."
The story describes how, after the captain of the Hettie Redd died, Timothy was asked to bring his body back for burial as temporary captain of the Hettie Redd. He did so reluctantly, suspecting that a violent storm, or "tempis'," might strike. And one did, sinking the Hettie Redd with all hands let alone him and drowning all its passengers in spite of all he did to ensure their survivals. Though he was absolved in the inquiry, Timothy carried the guilt for the rest of his days and often wished that he too had drowned in the storm.
At over seventy years of age, and two years after he had sold the Hannah Gumbs and retired from the sea, Timothy signed aboard the S.S. Hato, the Dutch-registered freighter that, according to The Cay, was sunk on April 9, 1942, as an able-bodied seaman, in response to a call for volunteers that had been placed early in 1942. The cause was that of a German U-boat that had torpedoed the S.S. Hato. When it picked up Phillip Enright and his mother in Curaçao, of what were then the Netherlands Antilles, they were fleeing to their native Virginia. Instead the Hato was torpedoed; as it sank, Phillip was struck on the back of the head by a piece of loose timber just as he was being thrown aboard a raft, which blinded him two days later. Most of the events in The Cay follow the sinking of the Hato. Timothy later taught Phillip Enright to survive on his own. Approximately three months after the Hato's shipwreck, give or take a few days, another "tempis'" struck in July. Timothy let Phillip live by shielding him from the storm with his back. The wind and the flying debris from the storm eventually beat and killed Timothy. Before his death, he had provided Phillip with enough preparation to survive alone, which Phillip did for almost two months after Timothy's death due to him shielding Phillip from the "tempis".
After his rescue from the Cay in La Boca del Diablo, Phillip was reunited with his parents. (His mother had likewise survived the sinking of the Hato.) His mother, Grace Enright, continued to think of him as a child of age 10 for a long while, even after he was told that an operation could be performed that might restore his vision, but her husband, Phillip Enright Sr, endorsed their son's decision to have that surgery. Phillip had come, since Timothy's life, to consider Timothy a guardian angel with whom he could sometimes speak, but his mother thought this idea was foolish.
They flew to New York, where the surgeon from New York Presbyterian who could perform the operation was based. The operation was a success, restoring most of Phillip's vision, though he would always need eyeglasses from that day forward. He and his father made plans to visit the cay where he and Timothy had survived for just over three months.
Phillip eventually sails to make this journey, ultimately being able to find it thanks to closing his eyes and remembering the island when he was blind.
This book was named "one of the greatest books for children" by Students Across America (SAA) in 2011. They said of it: "This novel is about the life of Timothy and Philip before their ordeal on the cay. In order to make sense of this story you must first read The Cay."
Captains Courageous: A Story of the Grand Banks is an 1897 novel by Rudyard Kipling that follows the adventures of fifteen-year-old Harvey Cheyne Jr., the spoiled son of a railroad tycoon, after he is saved from drowning by a Portuguese fisherman in the North Atlantic. The novel originally appeared as a serialisation in McClure's, beginning with the November 1896 edition with the last instalment appearing in May 1897. In that year, it was published in its entirety as a novel, first in the United States by Doubleday, and a month later in the United Kingdom by Macmillan. It is Kipling's only novel set entirely in North America. In 1900, Teddy Roosevelt extolled the book in his essay "What We Can Expect of the American Boy", praising Kipling for describing "in the liveliest way just what a boy should be and do".
The Cay is a teen novel written by Theodore Taylor. It was published in 1969.
Dead Calm is a 1989 Australian psychological thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. The screenplay by Terry Hayes was based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams. Filmed around the Great Barrier Reef, the plot focuses on a married couple, who, after tragically losing their son, are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.
Theodore Langhans Taylor was an American author of more than 50 fiction and non-fiction books for young adult readers, including The Cay, The Weirdo, Timothy of the Cay, and The Bomb.
The Perfect Storm is a 2000 American disaster drama film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and based on the 1997 creative non-fiction book of the same name by Sebastian Junger. The film was adapted by William D. Wittliff, with an uncredited rewrite by Bo Goldman, and tells the story of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing vessel that was lost at sea with all hands after being caught in the Perfect Storm of 1991. The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, Diane Lane, William Fichtner, Karen Allen, Bob Gunton, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and John C. Reilly.
Captains Courageous is a 1937 American adventure drama film starring Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the 1897 novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling, the film had its world premiere at the Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles. Directed by Victor Fleming, it was produced by Louis D. Lighton and made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Filmed in black and white, Captains Courageous was advertised by MGM as a coming-of-age classic with exciting action sequences.
Shipwrecked is a 1990 family action-adventure film directed by Nils Gaup and starring Stian Smestad and Gabriel Byrne. The film is a dramatization of Norwegian author Oluf Falck-Ytter's book Haakon Haakonsen: En Norsk Robinson.
Commander Harold Godfrey Lowe, RD was a Welsh naval officer. He was also the fifth officer of the RMS Titanic, and was amongst the four of the ship's officers to survive the disaster.
Sir Charles Hardy Islands is in the reef of the same name adjacent to Pollard Channel & Blackwood Channel about 40 km east of Cape Grenville off Cape York Peninsula.
Joshua James was an American sea captain and a U.S. Life–Saving Station keeper. He was a famous and celebrated commander of civilian life-saving crews in the 19th century, credited with saving over 500 lives from the age of about 15 when he first associated himself with the Massachusetts Humane Society until his death at the age of 75 while on duty with the United States Life–Saving Service. During his lifetime he was honored with the highest medals of the Humane Society and the United States. His father, mother, brothers, wife, and son were also lifesavers in their own right.
Seven Waves Away is a 1957 British adventure film directed by Richard Sale and starring Tyrone Power, Mai Zetterling, Lloyd Nolan, and Stephen Boyd. After his cruise ship hits a mine and with the captain dead, an officer has to make an agonizing decision on an overcrowded lifeboat.
The schooner Clotilda was the last known U.S. slave ship to bring captives from Africa to the United States, arriving at Mobile Bay, in autumn 1859 or on July 9, 1860, with 110 African men, women, and children. The ship was a two-masted schooner, 86 feet (26 m) long with a beam of 23 ft (7.0 m).
John Phillips was an English pirate captain. He started his piratical career in 1721 under Thomas Anstis, and stole his own pirate vessel in 1723. He died in a surprise attack by his own prisoners. He is noted for the articles of his ship, the Revenge, one of only a few complete sets of pirate articles to survive from the so-called Golden Age of Piracy.
SS Myron was a wooden steamship built in 1888. She spent her 31-year career as lumber hooker, towing schooner barges on the Great Lakes. She sank in 1919, in a Lake Superior November gale. All of her 17 crew members were killed but her captain survived. He was found drifting on wreckage near Ile Parisienne. Her tow, the Miztec, survived. Myron defied the adage that Lake Superior "seldom gives up her dead" when all 17 crewmembers were found frozen to death wearing their life jackets. Local residents chopped eight of Myron's sailors from the ice on the shore of Whitefish Bay and buried them at the Mission Hill Cemetery in Bay Mills Township, Michigan.
Upperworld is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by Roy Del Ruth and starring Warren William as a wealthy married railroad tycoon whose friendship with a showgirl, played by Ginger Rogers, leads to blackmail and murder. Upperworld is one of the last films released before the strict enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code by Joseph I. Breen, which began on July 1, 1934.
The Miztec was built as a 3-masted schooner in 1890. She was later converted to a schooner barge and served as a consort for lumber hookers on the Great Lakes. She escaped destruction in a severe 1919 storm that sank her longtime companion, the SS Myron, only to sink on the traditional day of bad luck, Friday the 13th, 1921, with the loss of all hands. She came to rest on Lake Superior's bottom off Whitefish Point near the Myron.
The Battle of Tripoli took place between the navies of the Kingdom of Sardinia and Vilayet of Tripoli on 26 September 1825 during the Sardinian-Tripolitanian war of the same year. In order to resist Tripolitanian demands for increased tribute, the Sardinian king sent a squadron to force Tripoli to a favorable peace treaty. The Tripolitanians refused to change their demands and as a result the Sardinian squadron assaulted the city of Tripoli, sinking several vessels and landing a force to attack the city. Suffering heavy naval losses the Tripolitanian government quickly agreed to a favorable peace treaty with Sardinia, thus ending the war on favorable terms for the Sardinians.
The Cay is an American television film based on the 1969 book of the same name. It was released on October 21, 1974.
The O.J. Walker was a cargo schooner that plied the waters of Lake Champlain between New York and Vermont. Built in 1862 in Burlington, Vermont, she hauled freight until sinking off the Burlington coast in a storm in 1895, while carrying a load of brick and tile. The shipwreck, located west of the Burlington Breakwater, is a Vermont State Historic Site, and is accessible to registered divers. It is one of the best-preserved examples of the 1862 class of sailing canal schooners, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
The Mary E. Fish was a 19th-century Sandy Hook pilot boat, built at the Edward F. Williams shipyard of Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1861 for Richard Brown and the New York Pilots. She was built to replace the Mary Taylor. The Fish was hit and sank by the schooner Frank Harrington in 1885 and replaced by the David Carll.
