A High Wind in Jamaica · Chapter
V explained
The children experience a squall at sea, during which the pig, fowl coops, shirts, and grindstone are lost.
What happens
The children experience a squall at sea, during which the pig, fowl coops, shirts, and grindstone are lost. Captain Jonsen rebukes them for tobogganing on the wet deck, shattering their idyllic perception of life aboard. The mate tells a story about a pirate-clergyman, Parson Audain, and later recounts a tale about a Bishop who inadvertently caused a pirate ship to run aground. Tensions between the captain and mate simmer beneath the surface.
Themes in this chapter
Childhood Innocence and Morality
The children's joy in tobogganing on deck represents their innocent play, shattered by Jonsen's first reproof, which marks the loss of their Edenic trust in the adults.
Piracy and Lawlessness
The mate's tale of Parson Audain, a clergyman who also captained a privateer, illustrates the moral ambiguity and lawlessness of the pirate world.
Alienation and Detachment
The children feel deeply uncomfortable witnessing the mate's emotional display, sensing their own status as unwanted guests on the ship.
Characters to notice
- Emily Thornton
Listens to the mate's story about Parson Audain and questions how a clergyman could also be a pirate.
- Edward Thornton
Receives his first order at sea from Captain Jonsen, fetching his boots during the squall; eager to learn the three Sovereign Rules of Life.
- Captain Jonsen
Takes the wheel from the mate during the squall, later rebukes the children for tobogganing, and expresses frustration at having to care for them.
- Otto
The mate; tells the story of Parson Audain and the Bishop anecdote; shaves and puts on shore clothes as a gesture of defiance after being relieved at the wheel.
- Margaret Fernandez
Participates in the tobogganing and asks questions about the mate's stories, trying to maintain a cheerful atmosphere.
- Rachel Thornton
Admonishes Edward for his rude comment about the Bishop.
Key passages
“There is a period in the relations of children with any new grownup in charge of them, the period between first acquaintance and the first reproof, which can only be compared to the primordial innocence of Eden.”
The time between meeting a new adult authority and receiving the first scolding is like the perfect innocence of the Garden of Eden.
Highlights the theme of childhood innocence and its inevitable loss through adult discipline.
“Steam and the Church! What have they got in common, eh? Nothing, you'd say: you'd think they'd fight each other cat-and-dog: but no: they're thick as two thieves—thick as thieves.”
Steam power and the Church seem unrelated and even opposed, but they collaborate closely, like partners in crime.
Reflects the mate's cynical view of modernity and institutional power encroaching on the pirate way of life.