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The title says that the story is about the sinking of a ship, the Mary Deare.
The story is about an attented insurance fraud.
The story is about the sinking of the Mary Deare, a ship, which had loaded , zement-blocks instead of exepensive aeroplane engines. The owner of the ship tried to wreck it, but he wasn´t able to. Later the insurance found out that the aeroplane-engines had been sold to the Chinese.
Characters:
Mr. Sands: He is the main character,he is about thirty years old an unmarried. He own´s a salvage- ship, the Sea Witch. He risks his life for his job. He didn´t like Patch when he met him first, but later they got good friends. He wants to find out the truth about the wreck of the Mary Deare. p.14,
Patch Gideon: He was the first officer on the Mary Deare and after the captain had died, he became captain. He was the only one who stayed at the ship until it ran on sand. 5000 pounds were offerd to him by the owner of the ship, Mr.Dellimare, to wreck the ship, but he efused and killed Mr. Dellimare, as he tried to lay a pipe-bombe in the holds . He hit the ship on a sandbank as an evidence of his inocence. Later he returned to the ship where he found out, that there were zementblocks in the cargo bay, instead of aero-engines. In the end he got a check ofer 2500 pounds from the insurance officer.
" I´d warned him to keep out of the holds. I shone my torch to him. He was pushing a pipe-shaped thing between a case and the wall. He was trying to wreck the ship. I was in a furry. I hit him in the face, full force. I wanted to kill him. His head hit the wall, crashed against an iron angle. I dindn´t realise first that I´d killed him" p. 76
Mr. Dellimare: He was the owner of the Mary Deare and , the Torre Annunziata, which had been sold to the Chinese before. He corruped a few members of the crew, to wreck the ship, but he coundn´t corrupt Mr. Gildeon. After his death he was thrown into the cole - intake, Mr. Dellimare was never found again.
Mr. Higgins: He was one of the men , which were corrupted by Mr. Dellimare. He tried to prevent Mr. Sand and Mr. Gildeon from finding out the truth. In the end
he died, when he tried to reach the Mary Deare in a dinghy. He was never found again.
p. 83
Captain Taggart: captain of the Mary Deare, who died because of alcohol, during the journey, later his first officer Gideon Patch became captain of the Mary Deare Taggart had been corrupted by Mr. Dellimare.
Miss Janet Taggart:C. Taggart`s daughter, later she fell in love with Mr. Sands. p. 91
Rice: second officer of the Mary Deare
Jack Burrow: member of the crew of the Mary Deare who saved Mike`s live, when Mike crashed into the motorboat of Mr. Higgins.
Hans Gundersen: director of Dellimar Company p.63
Mr. Snetterton: he is working for the insurance p. 43 , 92
Mike: member of the Sea Witch`s crew
Yule: member of the crew of the Mary Deare
Holland: officer at the courthouse
Sir Lionel Falcett: representer of the insurance
Plot:
One evening a big transport ship nearly crashed with the sailingboat of Mr. Sand.
Because Mr. Sand coundn`t see anybody on the bridge of the ship he entered it. On board he met captain Patch, who sent him back to his ship, but Mr. Sand coundn´t because a storm was comming up. After he reactivated the engines, the captain set the ship on sand, as an evident of his inocence and the two emerged with a dinghy.
In the inquiry captain Patch said that somebody had tried to wreck his ship, but he had no evidences. Later Mr. Sand and the captain went back to the ship to proof that fact. In the end they found out that the expensive aero-engines had been brought to an other ship, before they left the habour . This ship, the Torre Annunziata had been sold to an chinese company.
The book took place about twenty years ago, in England.
The story is told out of the sight of Mr. Sands.
dicussion:
I liked the book, because it was short and easy to read. It wasn´t very exiting, because, when you´ve raeched the middle of the book, you know how it will end.The worst thing in the book is the ending, because it´s like a fairytale. In the end the bad ones die, the good ones get a check from the insurace. Mr. Sand marries Mss Taggart and they live happyly until their last day.
With only about 10 pages more the book could be much better, because then it could be written, where the plane-engines had gone. The book only tells you that they have been sold to some Chinese. I couldn´t identify with Mr. Sands at all.
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