Dead Reckoning

Alison Mews is co-ordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services at
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

“Dead reckoning” is a term that sailors use when they have to
navigate blindly, combining their knowledge of winds and charts with
pure instinct. While sometimes successful, the strategy in this
adventure tale resulted in a harrowing shipwreck in which many
passengers were lost. James was only 13 when the Valencia went down off
the B.C. coast in 1906. His dramatic first-person narrative is framed by
a prologue and an end chapter to create a story-within-a-story.

Despite his premonitions of danger, James is sent ahead by ship to
Canada, where he will be later joined by his parents. When a storm
arises and the Captain relies on dead reckoning, James’s premonitions
become reality. The final third of the book describes, from James’s
perspective, the valiant and largely unsuccessful attempts to get all
hands to safety in the middle of the raging storm. Because we know James
survives, his fate is not at issue, which lessens the emotional impact
for the reader somewhat. However, his horror as the others are swept
into the icy sea is starkly recounted in spare prose.

Relying on historical and eyewitness accounts, Burtinshaw has
faithfully re-created many of the actual events of the ill-fated voyage
in which 126 people drowned. She has successfully woven the threads of
her fictional characters into the real incidents and created a gripping
tale that will fascinate young readers, but especially those bitten by
the Titanic bug. Recommended.