Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea

Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea (2006) is a novel for children by British author Michael Morpurgo. Inspired by true events, the novel follows World War II orphan Arthur Hobhouse as he is transported for adoption in Australia. The title refers to a line in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Arthur narrates his earliest memory, in which he is already an orphan, living in an orphanage in Bermondsey, London, with his beloved sister, Kitty. German bombs rain down on the city. Two years after the end of the war, when Arthur is five, he is told that he is being sent to Australia to begin a new life. Kitty can’t come with him. At their emotional parting, Kitty gives Arthur a small key, telling him never to lose it.

Arthur is herded aboard a ship with hundreds of other orphans. He suffers terrible seasickness, and his Northern bunkmates tease him about his London accent and his habit of humming “London Bridge is Falling Down” when he can’t sleep.



One day, as he vomits over the ship’s railing, he meets another Londoner, Marty, and they become friends. Marty protects Arthur from his bullying bunkmates by punching their ringleader, Wes Snarkey.

The ship docks in Sydney. An official tries to separate Arthur and Marty, but Marty refuses to cooperate, and the two boys are billeted together on a bus headed to the outback. Wes is on the bus, too, but the other Northerners are nowhere to be seen. Marty is excited about their new life. Arthur begins to believe that the key Kitty gave him is a lucky charm.

The bus delivers the boys to a farm called Cooper’s Station, where they meet their new foster parents. Mr. and Mrs. Bacon (the boys soon nickname them “Piggy” and “Mrs. Piggy”) are devout Christians, but while Mrs. Bacon is kind and compassionate, Mr. Bacon is a cruel hypocrite who tyrannizes his wife and the boys alike.



The boys find themselves enslaved. They are kept in a camp and forced to work on the farm without wages. Mrs. Piggy—whom the boys learn to call Ida—brings them extra food and other kindnesses when she can, but she and the boys are terrified of Piggy. Wes is the only boy with the courage to openly defy Piggy, and he becomes a hero to the others.

Ida tries to burn down the farmhouse so that the children can escape their camp, but the attempt fails. Wes steals a horse called Black Jack and attempts to ride to freedom, only to be brought back dead by a group of bushmen.

Arthur and Marty decide to follow Wes’s lead. They steal Black Jack, escaping together. The bushmen find them and take them to Aunty Megs, who rescues injured and orphaned animals from the bush. Again, Arthur and Marty attribute their good luck to Arthur’s key.



Aunty Megs is kind to the boys, but one day she injures herself badly while riding. The boys nurse her back to health, and she secures them apprenticeships with a Sydney boatbuilder. Arthur and Marty learn their trade until the boatbuilder burns down his business to collect the insurance money, ending up in prison. Unable to find another job, the boys turn to drink. One night, Marty falls into the harbor and drowns.

Grieving, Arthur returns to Aunty Megs. When she dies, her estranged son sells her house, and Arthur is on his own again. He works as a fisherman until one night it occurs to him that fish suffer, and he quits to join the Navy. For 15 years he drifts, drinking and gambling, until one day he wakes up in a Tasmanian hospital, having accidentally overdosed. He and his nurse, Zita, fall in love and marry. Arthur thanks his lucky key.

Arthur and Zita have a daughter named Alexis. Arthur calls her Allie. As Allie grows up, Arthur tells her about his sister Kitty and the key she gave him. His memories of childhood are so vague by now that he doubts Kitty’s existence.



When Allie is ten, she extracts from Arthur a promise that the two of them will sail to England to find Kitty. Arthur and Zita tell her she must wait until she is 18, but in the meantime, Arthur makes her a toy boat, named the Kitty. As Allie grows and begins to sail recreationally, Arthur makes her larger and larger boats, named Kitty II and III. As Allie approaches her 18th birthday, Arthur builds the Kitty IV, a seagoing vessel. But as they launch the boat, Arthur collapses. He is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and as he dies, he finishes telling his story to Allie, who writes it all down.

Part II of the book is narrated by Allie, as she sails the Kitty IV alone from Australia to England. Early in the journey, an albatross begins following the boat. Allie decides that the bird is her father, who loved Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner (in which an albatross features prominently). She draws strength from its presence.

As she rounds Cape Horn, the albatross becomes entangled in one of her fishing lines and dies. Allie becomes depressed until her father’s spirit seems to reappear to her in the form of a loggerhead turtle.



Allie begins a correspondence with an American astronaut named Marc Topolski. He is aboard the International Space Station, which frequently passes over Allie’s head. With Marc’s help, she tracks down Kitty, who was adopted by a Canadian family.

When Allie finally meets Kitty, she gives Kitty Arthur’s key. Kitty produces a music box and inserts the key. The box plays “London Bridge is Falling Down.” Allie reads Kitty Arthur’s story.