Archibald Hughson, The Young Shetlander

Archibald Hughson, The Young Shetlander

Author: William Henry Giles Kingston (1814-1880)

Year: 1873

Archibald is a teenager living in Shetland, that group of islands to the north of Scotland. His father is dead, and his mother not very well. He longs to go to sea, and a seaman he knows aids him to stow away in a whaling ship, the "Kate", just parting for Greenland, where there is an abundance of whales. The Captain is very kind, and accepts the situation. But one day when the boats are sent out in search of whales Archy stows away again, to see the fun. This does not work out too well, as the boat they are in is stove in, and its occupants have to jump helpless onto the ice. They are rescued by another whaling ship, the "Laplander", but this in turn is beset by the ice and broken to splinters. Some of the people, including Archy, after walking a long way over the ice, make it back to the "Kate", now herself beset by ice. However, in spite of illness among the crew, they eventually get free, and manage to get the vessel, in a not very seaworthy condition, back to Shetland. Kingston, William Henry Giles (1814-1880), English novelist, son of Lucy Henry Kingston, was born in London on the 28th of February 1814. Much of his youth was spent at Oporto, where his father was a merchant, b