Captains Courageous

By: Rudyard Kipling Peter

Narrated by: Peter Newcombe Joyce

Harvey Cheyne, the pampered son of an American millionaire, is swept overboard from the deck of a liner and picked up by a small fishing boat, one of several trawling the Grand Banks. He is rapidly confronted by the harsh realities of life and comes to terms with himself amid the hard labour and morality of the redoubtable New England fishermen.

Kipling, although an Englishman born and bred, had the remarkable ability to get under the skin of many different cultures, and this tale is a fine example of his talent and versatility. A classic adventure yarn.

Public Domain (P)2006 Assembled Stories

It’s the narration that decided my choice of this version

I sampled all the available Audible versions of this book before deciding on this one. This narrator did the best job of modulating pace and tone in the sample. The American narrators somehow lacked the vocal dexterity to bring life to a very diverse set of characters. Here the accents were conveyed as much by rhythm of speech as by accent. I think Kipling would have approved

Rudyard Kipling was married to a woman from New England and lived for some time in Vermont. There is therefore not such a stretch in finding a tale about the East Coast fishing fleet from such an archetypically “British Empire” writer.

It’s a coming of age novel. I loved it in written form because of the marvelous descriptions of what life was like at the time (racial stereotyping unfortunately included though the Gaelic speaking Afro Canadian is a pivotal and most dignified character). One feels as if one is there in the cramped, fish smelling vessel going into danger to catch codfish for a living as part of close knit community both within the clipper and the diverse fishing fleet. The disconnection that Harvey feels when back on shore is well drawn. The final chapter is probably the weakest part but does pull the story together.

Epic storytelling

Brilliant narration of a stunning and timeless New England tale by the great Rudyard Kipling.