A Ship in the Dark

Thirteen-year-old Anna lives with her stepfather, Caleb, on the remote Windrose Island, monitoring and caring for its birds. When she discovers smugglers stowing barrels of whale oil in a hidden cove, she reports the details, signalling in Morse Code, hopefully to her older friend Mina who has a job with the Society across the water in Mosshaven. Instead, men arrive and arrest Caleb for smuggling, and Bartholomew Rime, Customs Officer for the Society, seems to be behind it. To prove Caleb’s innocence, Anna teams up with Mina and sails away on her little boat to find the wreck of The Albatross.  That turns out to be a rollicking adventure, where she is helped by an eccentric female professor with a magnificent library and an array of useful instruments for studying the stars, and a ship run by the dashing Captain Cassandra Larke and her crew of women. Anna’s knowledge of the sea, the birds and sea creatures, and the stars, all stand her in good stead, and, with Mina’s practical sense and her knowledge of science, they make a good team.  Whale-hunting is shown to be terrible, and eventually Bartholomew Rime is forced to confront this fact.

This is an exciting story, the second novel, after The Map of Leaves by the wonderfully named Yarrow Townsend, daughter of plant-loving parents, who has spent much of her life outdoors, and lived for a while on a narrowboat, with plants growing on the roof.  The Map of Leaves was well received and shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award, and this book also shows a love of nature and an appreciation of female empowerment.