FernFolio

For the boys who move at the end of the June from houses in the city to their cottages on the Toronto Islands’ Ward Island, that summer of 1949 promises to be magical.  Freed from the demands of school, the everyday world of city life, and the cautious fretting of their parents, Jack, Donnie, Dougie and Beans roam the islands on their bicycles, have overnight camping trips accompanied by the requisite ghost stories, play baseball, serenade one another, and the occasional admiring girl, on their ukes, and sail the harbour in their small sailboats.
Fourteen-year old Jack is the undisputed leader of the group.  A tall, striking boy with a fiercely competitive streak, he is an expert sailor, more at home on the water, even, than on land.  He has a fondness for playing pranks, and is always up for a game, always eager to try some new foolishness.  Though Jack is frequently admonished to think before he acts, his impulsiveness often leads him into trouble with the adults of Ward’s Island.
However, Jack has a dream; he wants to become captain of a laker, one of the great boats that ply the Great Lakes.  He hopes that he can impress Captain Clapp, a retired laker captain living on Ward’s Island, with his knowledge of sailing and the lakes, as well as with his good judgement and sense of responsibility, so that Captain Clapp will help him get a position on a training ship.  But, while the captain readily acknowledges that Jack has an almost instinctive understanding of the wind and the waves, he finds the boy to be rather less than responsible.  When Jack leads the rest of the boys in an afternoon of fun that damages an Island landmark, his father confiscates his sailboat, and the boy figures he has kissed good-bye to his chance to impress Captain Clapp.
When disaster strikes right in Toronto Harbour, Jack rushes to help in the rescue effort.  Through that harrowing experience, the boy proves that, underneath the bluster and bravado, he does have what it takes to command a laker.
Told against the backdrop on one of Toronto’s greatest marine disasters, Peril at Pier Nine does a splendid job of bringing the experiences of Jack and his friends, that summer of 1949, vividly to life.
FernFolio Editor