David Goes Voyaging

David Goes Voyaging by David Binney Putnam

David Goes Voyaging is the account of twelve-year-old David Binney Putnam's voyage aboard the research vessel Arcturus, written at his father's request and intended for young readers. David and his mother join the ship at Panama, where it is fitted out under the direction of naturalist William Beebe, whom David calls Uncle Will, on behalf of the New York Zoological Society and the American Museum of Natural History. The expedition's purpose is to study ocean life in the Pacific, and the crew of thirty-eight and eighteen scientific staff members carry laboratories, nets, trawls, dredges, and diving equipment for this work. After passing through the Panama Canal and observing its locks, wildlife, and the ruins of Old Panama, the Arcturus heads into the Pacific and begins daily routines of deep-sea trawling, sounding, and specimen collection. The nets bring up remarkable creatures from depths of a mile or more, including tiny luminescent fish, red shrimps, squids that change color in seconds, and rare deep-sea species seen alive for the first time. David fishes from the boom, harnesses flying fish at night under the arc lights, and helps feed the ship's living collection of albatrosses, lizards, and a penguin. The ship's first landings are at the Galápagos Islands, which David describes island by island. At Seymour he encounters sea lions, marine iguanas, and large land lizards called Conolophus that can be carried by the tail. At Tower Island he handles frigate birds on their nests, collects eggs from gulls, boobies, and mocking birds, explores tide pools, and hears from Uncle Will the story of shipwrecked sailor Christianson, who survived for months on a Galápagos island by eating sea lions and turtles and who buried gold whose location he never revealed. David goes down in the brass diving helmet in fifteen feet of water and sees fish swimming past in bright colors. The ship also uses a cage so Uncle Will can observe underwater despite sharks. On Easter Sunday the expedition witnesses a volcanic eruption on Albemarle Island. Uncle Will and John Tee Van land and climb across boiling lava flows to take samples and test the gases, returning exhausted. David goes ashore in the same area and finds the groupers so aggressive they attack a motorboat engine. The ship names the two new volcanic cones Mt. Williams and Mt. Whiton after the expedition's principal supporters. At Hood Island David explores long white-sand beaches, catches a small octopus under a rock, watches the crew wrestle a massive ray to the ship after a prolonged harpooning battle, and joins night fishing sessions under the arc lights where sea lions snap up stunned fish beside the gangway. Isabel Cooper, the scientific artist, produces over two hundred watercolor drawings of fish during the voyage. Dwight Franklin the sculptor makes wax moulds and plaster casts. Bill Merriam repairs equipment, and Serge the taxidermist preserves and mounts specimens, including David's pet penguin after it dies. From Hood the Arcturus sails to Cocos Island, which belongs to Costa Rica and has a history of pirate treasure. David and his mother climb a river gorge of waterfalls and deep pools, and David falls badly on a jagged rock and must be helped back down by his mother despite her own painful sunburn. A violent overnight gale soaks the ship and sends boobies crashing into the cabins and laboratories, while the crew retrieves the rowboats from the boom in darkness and driving rain. For David's twelfth birthday the entire expedition dresses in pirate costumes and marches to dinner, and Don Dickerman presents David with a cutlass he calls Fury. Don writes a comic song in David's honor. During two weeks at sea between islands, the Blake dredge brings up sea cucumbers, vivid starfish, sponges, crabs, and deep-sea fish equipped with luminescent barbels to lure prey. Mother catches four tunny from the boom by jigging a squid. A forty-foot whale surfaces fifteen feet from David. At Tagus Cove on Albemarle's west side, David and Don fish close inshore and a shark bites a specimen off their collection string. Betty climbs alone above the clouds toward the interior volcano and finds fresh tortoise tracks, while Mother and Isabel discover a large previously unreported crater lake with walls five hundred feet high and six cone-shaped islands rising from it. The voyage's final remarkable sight comes as the Arcturus follows the east coast of Albemarle and finds the Easter Sunday lava flow still active, now pouring red-hot rock directly into the sea. The water temperature near shore rises to ninety-nine degrees. Clouds of white steam rise high in the air, sea lions die at the edge of the flow, an octopus floats past nearly dead, and a wave black with fish races for cold water. David watches glowing outlets along the shoreline as the ship circles through the night before turning eastward for Panama.

By David Binney Putnam · Genre: Adventure, Natural History, Coming-of-Age · 19 chapters · 14,695 words

First lines

Mr. Beebe lets me call him Uncle Will, even if he is the head of this big expedition. He was awfully nice to let me go on part of it.

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adventure · travel · exploration · biography · voyaging · maritime · journey · discovery · sea voyage · personal narrative · travelogue · adventure travel

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