Peter Tonkin - Wolf Rock

Review by Brian Lowen on show 22nd July 2010
Richard Mariner’s large new catamaran ferry, Lionheart, is on sea trials but is now running for safe haven in the teeth of a vicious English Channel storm when a desperate Mayday signal summons him back into danger.

The Goodman Richard, a square-rigged adventure training ship with sixty youngsters on board is dismasted and drifting helplessly on to the deadly reefs around Wolf Rock. The risks of attempting a rescue are terrifyingly high, but no one else can help. Richard hurls himself into action immediately, regardless of the odds.

The book starts off with this tremendous action sequence which left me completely unimpressed as it was so unrealistic – typical comic book stuff. How over 100 people – children and crew – are rescued from this floundering wreck in a force 10 storm was quite unbelievable. I can remember how it took over 2 hours to get about 40 people off a Royal Navy frigate in St Mary’s roads in just a moderate swell and here we have over 100 rescued in just half an hour, before the square-rigger is wrecked on the Wolf Rock.

I love sea-going action tales, especially if they are set around Cornwall and our islands as this one is - but I do want them to be realistic.
But still, I persevered with the book and when we get back to dry land the quality of the story improved. At the subsequent hearing over the loss of the ship, Richard Mariner is arrested on a charge of corporate killing. Apparently the Captain and the two senior officers left the ship in the height of the storm in the only remaining lifeboat to seek help but have not been seen since so are presumed drowned. Richard was one of the directors of the company that owned the vessel and was allegedly responsible for health and safety. All the other directors have mysteriously disappeared! Yes, I know, the story is hardly feasible but the ensuing court scenes are good reading and things get more interesting as other twist and turns occur in the story.

So, on the whole, I enjoyed the book but it was spoilt by its unfeasibility and several inaccuracies, ie you can’t buy a shirt in the Marks and Spencer shop in Penzance and the train from Penzance to London does not terminate at Charing Cross. Also I didn’t know that there were any reefs around Wolf Rock – I thought it was just an isolated rock.

The story for me was rather hollow. You were not properly introduced to the characters so you never got to feel involved in the tale. But I would try another of Peter Tonkin’s books as I see he has written thirteen other sea going adventures.
Review by Brian