To celebrate the return of good weather, I cycled to Warrenpoint harbour to see Galeon Andalucia, a full-size replica of a 400 year old Spanish galleon. The ship immediately transported me to the world of ‘Treasure Island’. I was back with cabin-boy Jim Hawkins on the Hispaniola in search of pirate gold. It was my favourite book as a child. I still have the copy I was given for my fifth birthday.
What many don’t know is that this pioneering novel owes a great debt to Unst, the most northerly of the Shetland Islands. In 1869 Thomas Stevenson took his teenage son on a voyage to Orkney and Shetland to encourage him to join the family business – which was lighthouse building. To his father’s great dismay, Robert Louis became a writer. But that voyage did make a lasting impression on the young man. ‘Treasure Island’ was his first novel and the map of the island in the book has a strong resemblance to Unst. The high point on Unst is called Saxa Vord. In the book it’s called Foremast Hill, and from it you can see Thomas Stevenson’s lighthouse perched on a jagged finger of rock.
My new book of poetry, ‘True’, contains several poems inspired by Unst and ‘Treasure Island’. Here is one of them.
CONCERNING THE FIRST VOYAGE OF R L STEVENSON WITH HIS FATHER
Huge sea tossing the fore-deck,
ropes and mainsails thrumming,
nor-easterly cutting yer bones,
the island emerging to larboard.
We hailed the precious sight.
One shipmate never returned,
left under stones in a cove,
wreck-wood across the grave,
reefs groaning, gulls screaming,
black crags cleaving the surf.
None can tell why he picked it,
the Cap'n always a careful man,
atop the cliff with his spyglass,
no fields, not a tree,
nary a lubber on the land,
and us hauling the sea-chests after
cursing the wind and sleet.
Buried 'em?
- I reckon us did.
The map?
- I won't peach.
Another?
- Thank'ee kindly.
Rum… it's been meat and drink
man and wife to me.
