A Ship for the King

By: Richard Woodman

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Bristol, 1618. Kit Faulkner is a young vagrant orphan, taking life as he finds it in the rough world of the docks. But after an encounter with two gentlemen, his fortunes are changed forever. Kit is taken aboard the Swallow, a large merchant ship partly owned by the two men, Captain Henry Mainwaring and Captain Gideon Strange, and they decide to train the boy for a life on the sea. And so begins the adventures of Kit Faulkner, which see him rise through the ranks and risk all in encounters with pirates and a French man-of-war. Meanwhile, England edges ever closer to civil war, and very soon Kit must choose which side he will fight for…

©2011 Richard Woodman (P)2012 Soundings

Historical Sea Story

This story takes place in the 17th Century. The story leads up to the British Civil War. Our protagonist, Kit Faulkner, is a street urchin when he is caught stealing an apple core. The man that caught him set him up on a merchant ship to learn how to be a sailor. This book is the first in a series so we are primarily learning about the key characters. There is a lot of information about England’s societal problems of the time as well as sailing information. The only sea action takes place near the end of the book. I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

The book is eight hours and forty-nine minutes. Jonathan Keeble does a good job narrating the book. Keeble is an actor and voice-over artist. He has won four Earphone Awards and also won the 2016 Voice Arts Award.

Nautical

The shipboard time great. The story mediocre. l enjoyed the sailing terminology and ship maneuvering descriptions.

Not what I was expecting

The book starts off interestingly with mr. Rat, but then jumps forward in time. It seems like there are many interesting events that are covered as a summary instead of in the moment.