Captains Courageous

By Rudyard Kipling

Captains Courageous is Rudyard Kipling's story of little Harvey Cheyne, the spoiled child of a millionaire who gets washed overboard at sea, and is picked up by a fisherman. Harvey asks to be returned to shore, but the captain refuses, as his crew needs to work to make a living. So he's put to work catching and cleaning fish alongside another boy, Dan, who becomes a friend. Over time, little bratty disrespectful Harvey undergoes some kind of change, learning lessons in honor, trust, and hard work. 

Kipling did win the Nobel Prize, and was the first Englishmen to do so at that, but Captains Courageous isn't exactly a literary masterpiece. It's a charming, lighter story, suitable for the "Hardy Boys" set. It is a tale well told, and the language is vivid and the characters fun and memorable. Also this book might give some readers a challenge, as it's written in colloquial English (from turn-of-the-century New England), but the dialogue is a good example of some old timey talk.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: May 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781304100597

Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born in India in 1865. After intermittently moving between India and England during his early life, he settled in the latter in 1889, published his novel The Light That Failed in 1891 and married Caroline (Carrie) Balestier the following year. They returned to her home in Brattleboro, Vermont, where Kipling wrote both The Jungle Book and its sequel, as well as Captains Courageous. He continued to write prolifically and was the first Englishman to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907 but his later years were darkened by the death of his son John at the Battle of Loos in 1915. He died in 1936.

Reviews for Captains Courageous

[judithproctor · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A book showing the Newfoundland cod fishery in its heyday. The dangerous lives of the fishermen and the sheer abundance of the cod in those times. I also found fascinating the rail journey made by the boy's parents when they come to meet him - it's a wonderful sense of speed and organisation, of messages sent ahead, trains rerouted, all in a time before modern computers and emails.

[bensdad00 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read aloud to my family in the car.

[nielspeterqm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Kipling is hard to figure. On the one hand is his notoriety as almost an apostle of imperialism. On the other stands the Kipling who spoke fluent Hindi, wrote virulent criticisms of British rule, & was even, for that very reason, politely shown the door from British India.In that line it would be easy to claim that Captains Courageous - ostensibly a wholly *American* novel about the maturing of a spoiled Californian boy on a Massachusetts fishing ship - has nothing to do with anything British or imperial.Nevertheless his familiar ideals, of self-reliance earned by strenuous, often manual endeavour, supervised by stern but benevolent mentors, animate Captains Courageous. But in this case, whether or not the reader endorses Kipling's message, he or she may easily abstract from it & enjoy a simply excellent story, beautifully written.The novel opens as young Harvey falls overboard from his pampering mother & a luxury liner, almost into the arms of a Portuguese fisherman, part of a Captain Troop's crew. Harvey is soon forced to abandon his old brat antics. As Troop's son has quickly taken to this unexpected companion, he is gradually taught the wearisome, but organic team work required on a cod schooner. The practice of the time - individualistic only on appearance - was that each of a ship's fishermen would row out, from the anchored mother ship, in his personal little boat or "dory", & get his large catch with hooks & baits.Later we learn how unimaginably dangerous this livelihood is, but what Harvey doesn't know doesn't hurt him, & he soon proves a very acceptable member of the crew.The relation between Harvey & his own tycoon father is also explored, with spectacular richness & complexity. Cheyne Sr will prove fully equal to the frugal Captain Troop - or is he entirely equal? Either way, the story would be intolerable without Kipling's flair for minute details & dialogue, effectively "discovering" the New England cod schooner of the 19th Century. Just as Melville, with Moby Dick, immortalized the whaling ship of that age.

[jbarringer-2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

If you like books where conversations are rendered in barely readable dialect misspellings and slang, and where there really is not much of a plot, just a situation and some vague character development, this book may be great for you. I personally found this to be a dull read, and there are some much better ocean adventure classics I'd recommend ahead of this novel (Two Years Before the Mast was great, as are the Horatio Hornblower novels). I can see how a younger child who is stuck going to school and doing chores someplace boring and ordinary might enjoy this novel as a way to imagine being someplace more exciting, since without a plot this novel does fairly well immersing the reader in everyday life on a fishing vessel, so long as the reader doesn't mind the slang and dialects.

[jawalter · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

eBook

Not nearly as much fun as Kipling's other books (or at least the ones I've read). In fact, the book seems just fundamentally flawed. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the joy of a fish-out-of-water story comes from watching the fish flop around in unfamiliar territory for a while before finally figuring out how to get by. Kipling's hero, however, adapts quite quickly, shedding his spoiled exterior within a few chapters.

Maybe I'm misreading this, however, and it's not actually a fish-out-of-water story. Maybe Captains Courageous is actually intended as a proscriptive book, urging parents to embrace the value of hard work for children, but coming from an era that primarily makes me think of child labor laws, I'm not sure I'm willing to buy that.

As a lifelong landlubber, and someone who's never really gone in for the romanticism of the sea, this probably isn't the book for me. Like Moby Dick, it spends a lo of time (far too much in my opinion) examining in excruciating detail the life of sailors aboard a ship. I guess I just wanted more attention to character development and less to ropes and fish.

Although now that I've said that, I remember being fairly moved by the scene where the sailor who developed amnesia after the death of his wife and child regained his memory. The truth of the matter is that I finished this a while ago, and I don't really remember it that well.

[themythicalcodfish · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite books by the author, and a good adventure story. More than that, it's an insightful look into the fishing culture of New England in the latter part of the 19th century, the technological conflict between the fishermen and the steam liners, and the importance of education alongside hard work. Highly recommended.

[sandydog1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A 20th century version of The Prince and the Pauper meets Moby Dick. Enjoyable, heart-warmer about coming of age, growing up, and getting callouses.

[muddyboy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The classic Kipling tale about a wealthy young boy who falls off a boat on the high seas to be rescued by a nearby fishing boat where this boy learns to be a man. Some people may be put off by all the nautical language and the slang commonly used by the sailors. However, these sailors are a fascinating bunch filled full of the legends, superstitions and lore of the sea. You will also learn a lot about fishing and sailing during the time period when the book takes place. Since the main two characters are teenage boys I think that this is the target audience that would most enjoy this book.

[dorenemlorenz · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting timeless tale. Really enjoyed as Kipling and I have the same difficulty with perfect grammar.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A nice, short, sea story that carries a valuable message.

[carolfoasia_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Not my favorite. The vernacular made it quite hard to follow. The plot is great, just a bit too many fishing dialogues.

[carlym_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I picked this up because it's a classic I had never read, but I wasn't sure how I would like it. I had tried to read Kim a while back and couldn't get into it. But I really enjoyed this one, probably all the more after reading Linda Greenlaw's The Hungry Ocean about modern fishing in the same part of the Atlantic. Captains Courageous is a bit of a morality tale, but it's mostly an adventure story. I liked the characters, and Kipling has some great descriptive passages. In describing the movement of the anchored schooner, he writes: "Backing with a start of affected surprise at the sight of the strained cable, she pounced on it like a kitten . . . . Shaking her head, she would say: 'Well, I'm sorry I can't stay any longer with you. I'm going North,' and would sidle off, halting suddenly with a dramatic rattle of her rigging. 'As I was just going to observe,' she would begin, as gravely as a drunken man addressing a lamp-post." The various dialects of the characters are a bit hard to understand at times, but I can't imagine the characters being very realistic without that touch.

[kdsarge_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love this book. I can't review it objectively because I love it so. When I think of a book that took me away, swept me off to places I have never seen--this was the first. Possibly the best. Can't recommend it highly enough.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful read too frequently relegated to Young Adult Fiction. It is just a very good read by a master storyteller.

[hemlokgang · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A wonderful coming of age story which takes place on a fishing schooner off the Grand Banks. Harvey matures from a spoiled, indolent rich boy to a hardworking young man. Great story!

[stbalbach_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In Captains Courageous the detail of fishing life are authentic, indeed anthropological. Kipling spent time in Gloucester and even went out on a ship for a while (though he spent most of the time sea-sick). He had an associate and the two collaborated, with Kipling writing the story and the associate writing the finer details and terminology. Unfortunately Harvey switches from being an irritating brat to a changed working man in a single scene at the beginning of the story, what? This was the heart of the book and it would have been better to do what the 1937 film did and play it out. Also at the end Harvey gets everything he wants and he looks like a spoiled rich kid again undermining the lessons of the book. Nevertheless this is a boys fairy-tale and is sort of like 12-year old crack, but still retains appeal to adults.

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A great coming of age book. Wonderful and exciting story of the sea and the men who make their living on it.

[dorritt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Postponed reading this for years because I had this preconceived notion that it was a “children’s classic” – heavy on adventure, light on deeper meaning. Sure enough, the first 2/3rds of the tale are devoted to the adventures of Harvey, a spoiled, wealthy 13yr old boy travelling across the Atlantic on a ritzy ocean liner who falls overboard and is picked up by a cod-fishing trawler. Not believing his “high-falootin’” tales of wealth, the captain of the trawler refuses to interrupt his passage to drop Harvey ashore, instead putting him to work as part of the crew. In true Boy’s Life fashion, Harvey quickly learns the value of hard work and comes to respect the simple, honest, courageous crew of the trawler. So far so good, except that I defy any child alive to decipher this book in its original form which - Kipling proudly assures us in the forward - authentically reproduces the rich, idiosyncratic vocabulary of actual Gloucester fishermen, a dialect so obscure that it required all of my grown-up background knowledge and faculties to decipher. I can only assume that versions of this story actually intended for children are *heavily* edited to translate the almost indecipherable dialect into modern idiom. My second mistake was forgetting that just because a book has a plot that happens to be accessible to children doesn’t necessarily imply that it is short of deeper meaning – as anyone who’s read The Prince and the Pauper, Tom Sawyer, or Gulliver’s Travels can attest. Just so with Captain’s Courageous, which over the course of the final chapters becomes a much bigger, broader exploration of what you might call “The Great American Origin Story” – that quaint yet resolute 19th century conviction that the U.S. is a land where any man not afraid of hard work and humility can rise to greatness. This part of the novel kicks off with a rather thrilling dash across the U.S. via train, evocative of the best chapters of 80 Days Around the World, and ends with Harvey discovering not just humility but also humanity. And because our author is Kipling, characters that we might have mistaken for caricatures early on suddenly deepen into richer, more fully realized humans, haunted by love and hope and tragedy. I only hope that by sharing this, I may encourage other readers less patient than I not to jump to conclusions too soon. By all means enjoys the jolly sea-faring adventure while it lasts, but be sure to hang around for the poignant ending – you’ll be glad you did.