Appendix 2
John Deane in Fiction 2
Kenneth Roberts’ 1956 novel is an entirely more factually accurate account of the shipwreck than W.H.G. Kingston’s panoramic fantasy. It draws scrupulously on the Jasper Deane, Christopher Langman and John Deane accounts for its details but is unashamedly partisan in favouring the Deanes’ cause over Langman’s. The majority of the story takes place during the ordeal on Boon Island. But Roberts allows himself a lengthy prologue in England, as bizarre in its own way as anything W.H.G. Kingston had written.
Boon Island’s narrator is Miles Whitworth, an Oxford undergraduate with artistic aspirations. Whitworth hates being a student. He feels stifled by Oxford’s moribund and ossified teaching practices. He would rather be a professional playwright. Whitworth’s home is his beloved Greenwich by the River Thames.
Kenneth Roberts writes particularly well about London crowds, be it the bustle, business, colour and exoticism of the river traffic or the sounds and colours of a nocturnal theatre crowd. Roberts’ descriptions of Deptford and Billingsgate are sensually rendered as he conveys the smells of the river and river industries.
Whitworth returns home. He tries to buy some whitebait from a young man by the waterfront. The boy’s name is Neal Butler. He refuses to sell the whitebait to Whitworth because he has a pre-existing arrangement to trade his haul to a sailor named Christopher Langman. Butler and Whitworth talk. Whitworth learns that the majority of Butler’s earnings come from the theatre. Butler works for a theatrical company for which he plays the female parts. Whitworth discovers that Butler’s father is a semi-invalid sailor. After their conversation Whitworth observes Butler’s transaction with Langman. Whitworth takes an instant dislike to Langman and immediately marks him as a troublemaker.
Miles Whitworth befriends Neal Butler. He meets Butler’s father Moses who goes by the nickname ‘Swede’ on account of his striking blond facial hair. Swede is a crippled sailor currently employed as an actor manager. Swede wishes to see Miles Whitworth’s father on a matter of business. Whitworth senior is a lawyer. At the Whitworth’s home Neal and Swede Butler encounter Captain John Deane, who has gone to the Whitworths to insure cargo prior to a merchant voyage to America. As the men talk, Christopher Langman becomes the topic of conversation. Langman is John Deane’s first mate. Deane dislikes Langman, whom he sees as a disreputable schemer. Unfortunately Deane is stuck with Langman. Langman owned a galley, which he claimed he had captured when he was a privateer. Langman had no money to pay his crew and was forced to sell the galley to cover their wages. He sold the captured vessel to John Deane on the condition that he be kept on as first mate. Deane is about to set sail. Langman has failed to retain all but two of his original crew. Deane sets about recruiting sailors for his upcoming voyage.
Over the next few days Miles Whitworth and John Deane spend time together. They attend plays. They watch Neal Butler perform on stage. They encounter Butler after an evening performance. He appears traumatised. Butler has been attacked by an amorous fop named Tintoretto. Although Roberts never openly states it, it is heavily implied that the motive for the assault is homosexual rape. Butler has killed Tintoretto in self defence but has left the body in a place where it can be discovered. John Deane removes the body and dumps it in a park. He takes Miles Whitworth with him. Miles is spotted by a theatre company member. Deane remains invisible. Deane fears that once the body is discovered it will not take long for people to connect the two young men to the death of Tintoretto. If they stay in London Miles Whitworth and Neal Butler run the risk of arrest and trial. Charles Whitworth, despite being a lawyer, has no confidence that the English legal system is capable of giving the boys a fair hearing. Convinced of their innocence, Deane recruits them both as members of his crew in order to get them out of the country. Swede Butler signs on to look after his son.
As the Nottingham Galley sets sail Langman and his two lackeys Mellon and White complain about the state of the ship. They begin to spread rumours that John Deane has overinsured the cargo to the tune of £250. There are fears that Langman’s design is to mutiny and seize back his old ship.
From this point on the narrative dutifully ticks off every significant moment from Jasper Deane, Christopher Langman and John Deane’s original accounts of the shipwreck, always favouring Deane, always damning Langman. And if any indication were needed that John Deane had utterly defeated Christopher Langman in the propaganda war for his own reputation, the rest of Kenneth Roberts’ novel is it. Roberts scrupulously favours Deane’s version of events, acknowledging Langman’s accusations but always framing them in the context of a conniving, plotting and unscrupulous mind. Langman spots what he believes to be privateers but is proved wrong. Langman organises a mutiny, which is only averted when John Deane beats him with a wig stand. Ultimately the sinking of the Nottingham Galley is Langman’s fault. The ship strikes rock when Langman abandons his post and disappears below deck to get a drink of water.
The destruction of the Nottingham Galley is described in mainly sonic terms, Roberts once again exercising his impressive ability to invoke maritime sound for dramatic effect.
Once on the island, Roberts cleaves conscientiously to the original narratives for incident. The pace slows down and each chapter takes the form of a single day on Boon Island. Roberts excels at writing of physical attrition and environmental hazard. Roberts understands the cold. He writes brilliantly about the terrible and beautiful conjoined and kinetic properties of winter and the ocean. He knows how to communicate physical suffering. His immaculate research fills in the gaps left by the Deane brothers and Christopher Langman. He tells the reader how a cutlass could be converted into a saw. He speculates on how the survivors might have made a cap out of a seagull’s skin. He communicates the details of building a boat and a raft better than the men that observed it firsthand had managed to do. Roberts had done an enormous amount of research. He visited Boon Island itself in order to verify certain details that seemed far-fetched in the original accounts. Yet the narrative teeters constantly on the brink of Roberts the researcher breaking into his own story in order to tell the reader how much he knows about the period and the conditions he is writing about. Roberts’ research is seldom wielded lightly and constantly wars for the reader’s attention with the rhythms and the static and dynamic tensions of good storytelling. At times Boon Island reads more like a survival manual than an actual novel.
Yet, despite the premium he places on research, Roberts makes some strange changes to the known facts. He invents an extra brother for John Deane as a crew member and gives him epilepsy. He removes Jasper Deane from the shipwreck altogether. He substitutes the younger Whitworth for the elder Whitworth. Roberts seems unaware that John Deane originally hailed from Nottingham, citing his place of origin as Twickenham instead. He gives the Nottingham Galley oars, seemingly mistaking it for a more traditional galleon.
People seem to elude Kenneth Roberts. His characters are ciphers. Christopher Langman is a pathetic, lazy, self-serving ingrate. Once marooned on Boon Island, Langman’s threat is neutered and his narrative function is to contradict Deane as loudly and erroneously as possible. But Kenneth Roberts does something to Langman that even John and Jasper Deane refrained from doing. Roberts removes Langman’s one impressive piece of moral high ground, his initial refusal to eat human flesh. Langman’s abstinence is dismissed as religious primitivism. Langman believes the soul still resides in the flesh. He won’t eat anything with a soul in it. Deane’s religious faith is more enlightened and pragmatic. The man is dead. The soul is gone. The flesh is meat. If the men don’t eat the meat then they will die. Deane is barely conflicted about the decision. The central dramatic act in Langman and Deane’s story was the decision to revert to cannibalism. Kenneth Roberts botches his ace by refusing to allow his protagonists any ambiguity about what, in reality, must have been the most grievous decision either man ever had to make.