The Voyage of the Arctic Tern facts for kids

The Voyage of the Arctic Tern is an exciting children's verse novel (a story told in poems!) written by Hugh Montgomery. It has awesome pictures by Nick Poullis. The book tells the tale of an old ship and its captain, Bruno, who is trying to make up for a big mistake he made long ago. He's been cursed to live forever until he fixes things!

This book was Hugh Montgomery's very first one. He first published it himself, and it won "Book of the Year" and "Poetry Book of the Year" awards in 2000. Later, bigger publishers like Candlewick Press and Walker Books Ltd released it in 2002 and 2003.

What's the Story About?

Long, long ago, in a village in Northern Europe near the Arctic, a fisherman named Bruno did something terrible. He betrayed his friends and family to a group of attackers led by a mean man called "Mad Dog." Everyone in the village died because of Bruno's actions.

Bruno felt incredibly guilty and tried to drown himself. But the ghosts of the villagers he betrayed appeared! They stopped him and put a curse on him: he would live forever and sail his ship, the Arctic Tern, endlessly. To break the curse, Bruno had to complete three difficult tasks:

• Save a friend's life.
• Rescue someone from being betrayed.
• Give away a huge treasure to people who really needed it.

Bruno's First Adventures

Centuries later, in the 1600s, Bruno was sailing when he found an injured Englishman named Admiral Hunter. Hunter was the only survivor of a ship attacked by pirates. These pirates were led by a cruel Spanish nobleman, Lord "Mad Dog" Morgan. This Morgan was also a trusted advisor to the King of Spain, but he secretly planned to take over the kingdom!

The Queen of England asked Admiral Hunter to deliver a peace treaty to Spain. Bruno decided to join Hunter's group going to the King of Spain. Other members of the group were Bruno's good friends: Dr. Chris Edge from Oxford and a young barman named Adrian from Plymouth.

They sailed to Spain and arrived just in time! Lord Morgan had been secretly poisoning the King of Spain with wine that had arsenic in it. Dr. Edge quickly cured the King. Lord Morgan was caught and sent away from the kingdom. The King was very grateful and gave the English group the signed peace treaty and a big chest full of silver coins.

But then, Morgan and his men stole the treasure chest and escaped on their pirate ship! Bruno and his friends chased Morgan's ship with the Arctic Tern. They chased him all the way to Heybrook Bay in England. Defeated, Morgan destroyed his own ship, sinking himself and the treasure. Bruno thought he saw Morgan turn into a giant octopus before he vanished!

For the next few hundred years, Bruno worried that the amazing treasure was lost forever at the bottom of the sea.

A New Beginning in Plymouth

By the 1960s, in the modern city of Plymouth, a young doctor named Chris Edge arrived for a holiday. He felt a strange pull to go into an old pub. By chance, a young naval officer named Steve Hunter also walked into the same pub. Both Chris and Steve saw a barman working. For some reason, they knew his name was Adrian. At one table sat an old sailor – it was Bruno!

Bruno greeted them and invited them to sail on his ship, the Arctic Tern, and go scuba diving with him around Plymouth for their holiday. Steve, Chris, and Adrian felt like they could trust him, so they agreed.

After a week of diving, Steve, Chris, and Adrian found a sunken 17th-century pirate ship! It was standing upright on the seabed, with a large treasure chest on its deck. When they came back up and told Bruno, he told his three friends to stay on the Arctic Tern. Then, Bruno put on his scuba gear, jumped into the water, and swam towards the ship. A huge octopus with fiery eyes was guarding the treasure chest! Bruno fought the octopus, defeated it, and touched the silver coins in the chest.

Right away, Morgan's pirate ship crumbled into dust. Then, Bruno, the treasure chest, and the Arctic Tern all vanished!

Chris, Steve, and Adrian couldn't remember how they got home safely after that. They also couldn't remember anything about Bruno, the Arctic Tern, or the treasure. However, Adrian remained the barman of the old pub in Plymouth. On the darkest night of each winter, Adrian sets a table for thirteen meals for a reason he doesn't know. The next morning, those thirteen meals are always eaten, and a Spanish silver coin is left on the thirteenth plate. Adrian keeps these coins in a stoneware jar. People who are weak, sick, or poor can leave a note on the pub's door asking for help. When they do, a silver coin from the jar magically comes to them!

About the Author

Hugh Montgomery grew up in Plymouth, England, a city by the sea. He loved the ocean from a young age, inspired by his grandfather, who used to be a ship's captain.

As a boy, Montgomery learned to snorkel and scuba dive. When he was a teenager, he joined a team of volunteer divers. This team, led by archaeologist Margaret Rule, helped bring up the underwater wreck of King Henry VIII's warship, the Mary Rose. This famous ship sank in the Solent strait, north of the Isle of Wight. Montgomery said that he would "disappear off for the diving seasons on the Rose, and they were some of the best [seasons] of my life." Years later, after he became a medical doctor and professor, his childhood experiences with the Mary Rose project helped him create the story of The Voyage of the Arctic Tern.

Montgomery first planned to write The Voyage of the Arctic Tern as a Christmas gift for his godchildren in 1993. However, he was very busy working as a doctor in a hospital and leading a group of researchers. It took him three years to finish the story, writing parts of it between seeing patients and doing his research.

The Amazing Illustrations

Almost every page of The Voyage of the Arctic Tern has beautiful pictures. These are pen and ink drawings by a talented artist named Nicholas Poullis, who is credited as Nick Poullis in the book.

Nicholas Poullis is from England but now lives in southern France. He has won awards for his watercolor paintings and has even been an official painter for a tourism office in France!

The cover picture for the book's 2002 and 2003 editions was created by an artist named Gary Blythe.

Real-Life Inspirations for the Story

The Voyage of the Arctic Tern is a historical fantasy story. This means it mixes real places, events, and people with made-up characters and magical elements.

Places in the Story

While Bruno's ancient village isn't named, the description of its freezing winters, the Northern Lights in the sky, and bright spring flowers sounds just like the coastal areas of Scandinavia near the Arctic Circle. Also, Bruno's ship, the Arctic Tern, is named after a bird often seen in that area. The story even mentions the ship's name is carved on "a plaque of Scandinavian pine."

Dr. Montgomery's childhood home of Plymouth and the waters around it were used as the main setting for Bruno's adventures. Just like in the story, the real Plymouth has a pub-hotel called the Admiral MacBride, which is said to be the city's oldest pub. The "Cap'n Jaspers" seaside food stall mentioned in the story also exists in real life, though it started in the 1970s.

The capital city where the King of Spain and Lord Morgan lived is Seville. The city's Alcázar palace complex is the very same palace used for the King in the story. Details from its architecture are even shown in Poullis's drawings. However, the King of Spain and Queen of England in the story are made-up characters and not based on real rulers from that time.

Ships and History

Besides showing different scenes from the story, Poullis's drawings also feature various ships that were common in Europe from early medieval times to the 1600s. These include the ancient Norse knarr and the carrack.

The sunken wreck of Lord Morgan's ship in Heybrook Bay was inspired by Dr. Montgomery's own experience. He worked on the 1970s underwater dig to bring up the Mary Rose, which was a carrack warship.

The story even mentions a bit of the Mary Rose's recent history, describing an early attempt to salvage it in the 1800s by brothers John and Charles Deane. Other real historical figures are also briefly mentioned, like the 19th-century French scientist Louis Pasteur, and the 20th-century French inventors of the Aqua-Lung, Émile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau.

Characters Inspired by Real People

The main character, Bruno, was inspired by a real diver named Bruno whom Montgomery met while working on the Mary Rose project. This real Bruno also had a ship called the Arctic Tern! Other characters like Lord Morgan, Steve Hunter, Chris Edge, and Adrian were loosely based on real people in Dr. Montgomery's life. He even mentions them in the "acknowledgements" section at the end of the book.