Ice Escape: Beatrice Hale

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Ice Escape is a novel about planes and boats, about boys and families, about life in the 1930s, on the high seas and in the air,  about adventure and hardship.

It is inspired in part by the true story of the 1932 adventures of the American Flying Family, the Hutchinsons, whose dream of circumnavigating the world by plane ended when they were forced to crash land in the icefloe off the coast of Greenland. They and their crew were rescued by the crew of the Scottish fishing vessel, the Lord Talbot.

In the novel, it’s 1932 and the Age of Flight, and twelve year old American, John, is flying round the world in a plane piloted by his father. If they make it, and of course they are sure they will be successful, they will then be the first family to fly around the world. But problems trouble them, when their plane, a Sikorsky amphibian, is forced to crash land on an icefloe off the shores of Greenland. How will they survive? Will help come in time?

They didn’t know it, but their signals have reached a Scottish deepsea fishing boat, just off the shores of Greenland. On the boat is Colin, also twelve, a boy who has had to join the crew to help support his family after his own father died at sea. As the skipper steers the boat to the fishing grounds near Greenland, Colin learns how to be a deckhand, running to the engine room, running back to the wireless operator for more messages, running to the skipper for instructions, helping wherever he was needed. It was a busy and scary time, but he liked best when he could help the wireless operator. Listening to voices from Scotland and the voices from the plane survivors was exciting stuff.

Excerpt

Icebergs: Colin tells the story.

The boat gave an extra plunge and seemed to stand on her bow before settling back again on her keel. I didn’t know I’d yelled until I saw the Skipper look at me.

‘Look!’ The Skipper shouted as he pointed to starboard. ‘See there?’

A faint glimmer of light showed in the darkening cloudy sky.

I nodded, teeth gritted. ‘Aye, aye, Skipper!’ Hoped the skipper could hear me. He pointed again.

‘That’s the Pole Star. We keep that ahead of us. And there, that’s the ice maps.’ He pointed to some papers on the chart table. ‘They tell you where the ice is likely to be.’

‘Only likely to be?’

As the wind’s noise howled around, the Skipper’s voice rose. ‘Ice moves, ice breaks up and pieces move fast. The chart can only tell you the general movements of icebergs.’

He pointed out the window again. ‘See? White glimmers?’ I nodded. Glinting white, something was moving slowly in the water. The boat sailed alongside. ‘Icebergs. Big ones. They’re on the move. Keep a close eye on them.’ He was staring at the nearest one through his binoculars.

“Icebergs?’ I forgot to feel seasick. ‘Real icebergs!’ I’d read about them in school. How icebergs had 90 per cent of their ice under water. How they could crack, how they could splinter, ‘Calve’ said my school book ‘ into huge chunks of ice which sail away from the main berg.’ How they could be dangerous to ships. They looked like huge white mountains. Moving Mountains? And they were noisy! Even inside the cabin I could hear the ice cracking and creaking.