Crab Island's and Gibber's real-life prototypes


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Posted by Mike Field on October 26, 2012 at 17:46:32 user mikefield.

These twin topics may well have been discussed here before, but I don't remember it. So, after just completing Knight's book 'The Cruise of the Alerte', here's my take on the prototypes of both Crab Island and Gibber.

Many people will remember that in 'Swallows & Amazons' John takes to the island a copy of Edward F Knight's book 'Sailing'. This is a real book, published in 1890, copies of which can still be found for sale if you have a mind to. The author was a barrister, journalist, war correspondent, sailor, and adventurer, a bit of a latter-day Elizabethan really. He owned and sailed the 30-tonner Falcon, about which he wrote two books, and from which he earned the soubriquet 'Falcon' Knight. He is also widely considered to be the prototype of Erskine Childer's hero Davies in 'The Riddle of the Sands'.

In 1889 Knight bought the cutter Alerte and sailed her to the island of Trinidad (more usually spelt "Trindade" nowadays) off the south-east coast of Brazil, in search of buried treasure. He was equipped with a treasure map provided by an old sailor who had heard the story of the burial of the treasure from a young chap he had befriended, ... etc etc. After some weeks of digging the search was abandoned when sea conditions made it unsafe to stay any longer.

Knight wrote of these experiences in 'The Cruise of the Alerte' published in 1889. His description of Trinidad and its topography (pictured above) sits well with AR's description of Crab Island in 'Peter Duck', as does his description of the sea conditions experienced while they were there. Knight also makes several references to the land-crabs with which the island was infested, and how he and his partners would deter them from attacking the camp at night by killing several hundred on which the others then feasted.

Several web-based references imply that AR based his Crab Island on Knight's Trinidad, and Trinidad is firmly established in my mind as the prototype of Crab Island.


However, nowhere in any of the critiques have I found any reference to the pet monkey Jacko that Alerte carried on her cruise. Here's Knight's description of Jacko --

"[The men] also brought off a land-crab, which did not seem at all at home on our deck. He was introduced to Master Jacko, our monkey, whose horror at the uncouth apparition was intense. The wise monkey would not get in reach of the crab's nippers, but, having cleverly driven him into a corner, tried to push his ugly visitor through a scupper into the sea with a bit of firewood.

"I must now aplogise to Jacko for not having before this introduced him to my readers. He was a delightful little creature that we had purchased on the Praya at Bahia. He was very affectionate, and was free from malice, though, of course, full of mischief. He had a red blanket of his own, which he would carry about with him wherever he went, and, should a few drops of rain fall or spray come on board, he would deftly roll it about him in the fashion of a cloak, with his funny little head just peeping out of the hood. He was very fond of tea, and while we were at sea he took his 4 a.m. cup with the others. As soon as the cook began to lift the boiler of tea from the stove Jacko would give a whistle of delight, clamber up the pantry wall, unhook a pannikin, and walk up with it to be filled, 'all de same as a little ole man,' as the cook used to say. It was amusing to see him test the temperature of the tea with his fingers before drinking it. He was a marvellously intelligent and jolly little creature, and is now dwelling happily in a little house on a cocoanut tree in a plantation near Port-of-Spain. He prefers a West Indian life of warmth and unlimited bananas to an existence in a damp ship on salt junk and biscuit."

Here are two other snippets too, which help round out this delightful description --

"Some [seabirds] would coolly perch on our davits and stare at us very rudely, to the great indignation of Jacko, who swore at them in his own language."

"We took Jacko on shore with us. He did not admire the island, and particularly objected to the land-crabs. His favourite amusement was to turn on the tap of our tank, when no one was looking, and let all our hard-got supply of water run out. He behaved very well on the whole, however, except on Christmas Day, when he drank some rum which he found at the bottom of a pannikin, and, I am grieved to say, became disgracefully intoxicated. He had a dreadful headache the next day."

Can anyone doubt that AR's monkey Gibber was based on any other than Knight's delightful Jacko?


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