The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

Today I am going to summarize to you a book called The true Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. This book is about a young girl named Charlotte Doyle who was born in Providence, Rhode Island and moved to Liverpool, England to attend a boarding school there. In the story she is taking a voyage back to Providence on a ship called the Seahawk a ship owned by her father and captained by Andrew Jaggery. She hires two different men to carry her bags to the ship but each run away at the sight of the Seahawk. As she finally boards the ship she is warned to leave now but does not listen and soon finds out that the other passengers will not be coming on the voyage. She soon meets a black man named Zachariah who is the ship’s cook, preacher, surgeon, and carpenter. As they have tea he gives a dirk and says to keep it for she may need it, she insists on giving it back to him but he will not let her. The next day she finds herself with a case of sea sickness and does get up for the next four days. When she awoke she went to return the dirk but Zachariah again would not let her. She proceeded to ask why she can’t return the dirk and he said ‘One year ago a man on this ship named Mr.Cranick didn’t tie a not the way the captain liked it and he was punished so hard by the captain so hard that he had to have his arm amputated’. Then not believing Zachariah she went to see Captain Jaggery and really likes his personality. She tells him about the dirk but lies about who gave it to her; he also says to keep it and tells her about threats on the boat. On that same day she goes with Mr. Barlow to the top steerage to get her bags after a while Barlow leaves her alone and she sees a man who comes out of the hold. He blows out the candle and goes back into the hold or ship’s jail. She looks down the ladder she sees a man but then finds out it’s a statue she decides not to tell the captain about this because he would probably think she’s crazy. Eighteen days into the voyage she goes into the crew’s room to get Ewing a needle when he goes into his drawer she sees a gun and remembers how Captain Jaggery bragged about having the only guns on the ship. As she is leaving the room she sees a round robin on the floor and remembers how told her to tell him if she ever saw one. She went to her room and then to find Captain Jaggery and when she did she told him about the gun, the round robin, and about the encounter in the hold. Then the captain and Mr.Hollybrass grabbed the guns and go outside to find the crewmembers with guns and knives. Mr.Cranick was also there with a weapon and Charlotte then realized that Cranick must have been the man who blew out her candle while she was getting her bags. The captain welcomed Cranick sarcastically and Cranick declared that the crew demanded that the captain have a trial of his peers. The captain shot Cranick and he fell to the ground with blood gushing from his mouth and the captain threatened any man who stepped forward he