In terms of vitality and relative human complexity, Boon Island’s main exception is Swede Butler. Swede is the most vibrant character in the novel. He is a force of nature. He is funny. He is likeably opinionated. He rebukes the crew for naivety. He argues with Langman. He even argues with Deane and in doing so succeeds in making Deane seem a bit more human.
John Deane is virtuous, pious and more than capable in a crisis. He is seldom wrong about anything. As a dramatist, Kenneth Roberts seems to miss the point of John Deane entirely. Deane’s paradoxes and contradictions make him interesting. In Boon Island there is never any question that there might even be the trace elements of something true in Christopher Langman’s complaints against Deane. In Boon Island, John Deane’s unquestioned virtuousness and virtuosity becomes boring after a while. Only towards the end of the novel, when Deane is wilting under the effects of the cold, exhaustion and starvation, does he exhibit any real form of vulnerability. Only in New England, while convalescing in Jethro Furber’s house, does John Deane finally become interesting. While observing Furber’s children during dinner time Deane catches himself wondering what it would be like to eat them. It proves to be the only real interior conflict Deane experiences in the entire novel and comes far too late in the narrative to be of any real dramatic use.
The epilogue is largely botched. Any drama that might have been gleaned from Langman’s visit to the magistrate is neutered by the fact that the whole of Portsmouth believes John Deane. Langman is virtually drummed out of New England. Miles Whitworth and Neal Butler are offered jobs by the locals. Deane is also offered employment but knows that Langman intends to make trouble for him back in London. Deane prepares to return to England and fight for his reputation.
The postscript informs the reader that John Deane defended his reputation so well that he was offered the position of consul for the port of Flanders and Ostend. There is no mention of his time in Russia or his work as a spy.
1 John Deane’s birthplace: Wilford village, on the banks of the River Trent. (Mark Nightingale)
2 The ill-fated crew of the Nottingham Galley began their journey to New England at Gravesend. (Mark Nightingale)
3 The Nottingham Galley accompanied a convoy to Whitby where they sheltered from bad weather. The Nottingham Galley broke away from the convoy and carried on to Ireland, alone and unprotected.
4 The Irish port of Killybegs, where John Deane picked up his cargo of butter and cheese. On the Irish coast the Nottingham Galley encountered French privateers. (Carol King)
5 The crew of the Nottingham Galley were marooned on Boon Island for twenty-four days. Four men died. One of them was eaten by the survivors. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
6 The shipwreck survivors were fed, clothed and nursed to a semblance of health by the residents of Portsmouth, New England. In Portsmouth, Christopher Langman would formally accuse John Deane of fraud and attempted murder. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress)
7 Peter the Great.
8 Cleve Severin’s statue of Peter the Great overlooks the River Thames at Greenwich, commemorating the Russian tsar’s time in London, gleaning maritime knowledge he would use to build the formidable but fractious navy in which John Deane would serve. (Adam Nightingale)
9 The Battle of Hango Head. The key naval victory in Peter the Great’s war against Sweden. The battle could not have been won without the help and expertise of foreign mercenaries.
10 Sir Robert Walpole. The British prime minister would rescue John Deane from further disgrace when he employed him as a spy following Deane’s court martial in Russia.
11 Pelham Street, Nottingham, where according to local myth John Deane killed his brother in an argument over money. (Mark Nightingale)
12 Hanoverian propaganda. An illustration showing George II victorious over the dragon of Jacobitism. The exiled supporters of the deposed James II would become John Deane’s enemies of choice as he worked as both consul and spy for the Walpole administration. (Image Courtesy of the Library of Congress)
13 Charles Stuart in Derby. In 1745, John Deane’s fears of a Jacobite invasion of England took substance when the heir to the Stuart throne arrived in the Midlands with an army of Highlanders. (Mark Nightingale)
14 The Battle of Culloden. The Jacobite threat was obliterated at Culloden in April 1746. John Deane’s money helped raise the troops of the Duke of Kingston’s 10th Light Horse. Kingston’s soldiers would commit terrible atrocities on the Scottish battlefield.
15 The Rock Cemetery in Nottingham (once the sight of Gallows Hill) where a Mr Miller, who perpetrated a violent robbery against the elderly John Deane, was publically hanged. (Mark Nightingale)
16 John Deane’s grave in St Wilfrid’s cemetery. (Mark Nightingale)
17 A series of illustrations from John Deane: Historic Adventures by Land and Sea by W.H.G. Kingston. The Victorian author perpetuated many myths about John Deane that are still believed today.
A. The young John Deane is shot at by gamekeepers while out poaching.
B. John Deane fights cattle thieves while working as a drover’s apprentice.
C. John Deane unwittingly visits the home of a mercenary embroiled in a Jacobite conspiracy to assassinate William of Orange.
D. John Deane is held prisoner by pirates.
Cover: Shipwreck, Alexey Bogolyubov, 1850
Internal illustrations by Stephen Dennis and Jean Nightingale
Photographs by Mark Nightingale, Carol King and Adam Nightingale
First published in 2013
The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk
