Before You Begin

Before you begin.

Harvey Cheyne’s passage across the North Atlantic takes an unexpected turn when he falls overboard. Manuel, a doryman on the Gloucester fishing schooner We’re Here, brings him aboard. Harvey has entered a world measured by the work of a vessel: steering, rowing, hauling lines, keeping watch, reading the fog, and bringing in fish.

Published in 1897, Rudyard Kipling’s sea novel places a privileged American boy among men whose knowledge comes from years on the Grand Banks. The schooner is both home and workplace, and the sea is not a backdrop but the force that shapes each task. The story follows the crew’s shared routines and the practical skills they pass on to a newcomer.

The illustrated gallery introduces the people aboard and around the We’re Here, then opens onto the Grand Banks, the relationships that shape the voyage, and selected scenes. Chapter recaps and Story Medallions follow the reading sequence.

Begin with the cast and the water beneath the schooner, then open Chapter I.