Other editions of book The Coral Island

Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges' historically accurate, exciting, and edifying audio recordings. R. M. Ballantyne, a devout Christian and outspoken advocate for Christian boyhood, changed the lives of hundreds of thousands with his globe-trekking adventure stories that emphasized Christian character in the face of adversity. In The Coral Island, three Christian boys, shipwrecked in the South Pacific, rely on godly wisdom, biblical insight, and plucky courage to outwit and overcome pirates and cannibals.

Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man’s estate I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world. It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I was born on the foaming bosom of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was a sea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather had been a marine. Nobody could tell positively what occupation his father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother’s side, had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that as far back as our family could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; for my mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so spent the greater part of her life upon the water

Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man’s estate I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world. It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I was born on the foaming bosom of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was a sea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather had been a marine. Nobody could tell positively what occupation his father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother’s side, had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that as far back as our family could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; for my mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so spent the greater part of her life upon the water

Ralph's desire to go out to sea just grows stronger and more intense as he becomes older. When he is finally allowed to go out to sea, and meets two new friends in Jack and Peterkin, he has no idea that they would all be shipwrecked in the Pacific without the hope for a quick rescue. Fortunately for them, the island they've stumbled upon seems to not only hide the provisions that they will need in order to make it their new home, but also some of the most intriguing mysteries and dangers they could have assumed to find.R.M. Ballantyne has penned this gripping tale of exciting adventure in the mid-1800s, when virtually everyone was interested in perilous explorations and new adventures. The author has written the novel mainly for the younger audience of the times, inspired by similar seafaring tales like Daniel Dafoe's Robinson Crusoe.The Coral Island, however, stands as a unique and enchanting story in the genre, due to the main protagonists being young teenagers and children. Not only did it catch on as a popular read for the next half a century or more, but it was also used as inspiration for later successful novels such as William Golding's Lord of the Flies.Aside from being a thrilling adventure that virtually anyone who likes seafaring novels will be able to enjoy, the story explores the psychological aspects of children being in a position to fend for themselves, and explores the implications of the effect that the Christian world has had on South Pacific cultures. While it has great historical value, The Coral Island is mainly a story about children, and their ability to cope with the most trying of circumstances. Inspiring, entertaining and quite insightful, it is able to offer quite a fulfilling reading experience even for the younger audiences of the 21st century.

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Three boys, fifteen-year-old Ralph Rover (the narrator), eighteen-year-old Jack Martin and fourteen-year-old Peterkin Gay, are the sole survivors of a shipwreck on the coral reef of a large but uninhabited Polynesian island. At first their life on the island is idyllic; food, in the shape of fruits, fish and wild pigs, is plentiful, and using their only possessions; a broken telescope, an iron-bound oar and a small axe, they fashion a shelter and even construct a small boat. Their first contact with other people comes after several months when they observe two large outrigger canoes land on the beach. The two groups are engaged in battle and the three boys intervene to successfully defeat the attacking party, earning the gratitude of the chief Tararo. The Polynesians leave and the three boys are alone once more. Then more unwelcome visitors arrive in the shape of pirates, who make a living trading, or stealing, sandalwood. The three boys conceal themselves in a hidden cave, but Ralph is captured when he sets out to see if the pirates have left, and is taken aboard the pirate schooner. Ralph strikes up an unexpected friendship with one of the pirates, "Bloody Bill", and when they call at an island to trade for more wood he meets Tararo again. On the island he sees all facets of island life, including the popular sport of surfing, as well as the practice of infanticide and cannibalism. Rising tension leads to an attack by the inhabitants on the pirates, leaving only Ralph alive and Bloody Bill mortally wounded. However they manage to make their escape in the schooner. After Bill dies, making a death-bed repentance for his evil life, Ralph manages to sail back to the Coral Island to be re-united with his friends

"'For the authorship of that book,' wrote Mr. J. M. Barrie, 'I would joyously swap all mine.'" -The Education Outlook "Very good....narrates the adventures of three youths shipwrecked, and cast ashore upon one of those innumerable islets which stud the Pacific." -Baptist Magazine and Literary Review "I was a boy when I went through the wonderful adventures herein set down. With the memory of my boyish feelings strong upon me, I present my book specially to boys, in the earnest hope that they may derive valuable information, much pleasure, great profit, and unbounded amusement from its pages....One word more. If there is any boy or man who loves to be melancholy and morose, and who cannot enter with kindly sympathy into the regions of fun, let me seriously advise him to shut my book and put it away. It is not meant for him." -Ralph Rover "The author writes with power, and is sure to arrest the attention of boys, for which these works are well designed." -The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle "One of Ballantyne's greatest favorites....No healthier, purer literature can be put into the hands of our boys." -The Boys' Brigade Gazette "A thousand times sweeter than Stevenson's...Treasure Island." -The Academy

Fifteen-year-old Ralph, mischievous young Peterkin and clever, brave Jack are shipwrecked on a coral reef with only a telescope and a broken pocketknife between them. At first the island seems a paradise, with its plentiful foods and wealth of natural wonders. But then a party of cannibals arrives, and after that a pirate ship...what is to become of them?

Roving has always been, and still is, my ruling passion, the joy of my heart, the very sunshine of my existence. In childhood, in boyhood, and in man’s estate I have been a rover; not a mere rambler among the woody glens and upon the hill-tops of my own native land, but an enthusiastic rover throughout the length and breadth of the wide, wide world. It was a wild, black night of howling storm, the night on which I was born on the foaming bosom of the broad Atlantic Ocean. My father was a sea-captain; my grandfather was a sea-captain; my great-grandfather had been a marine. Nobody could tell positively what occupation his father had followed; but my dear mother used to assert that he had been a midshipman, whose grandfather, on the mother’s side, had been an admiral in the Royal Navy. At any rate, we knew that as far back as our family could be traced, it had been intimately connected with the great watery waste. Indeed, this was the case on both sides of the house; for my mother always went to sea with my father on his long voyages, and so spent the greater part of her life upon the water