David W Christner

Children of the Midnight Sun David W Christner

Children of the Midnight Sun is a tale of a collision between the Inupiat people of Coastal Alaska, their belief in mythological spirit(s)-Inua and Inuta (plural)-in all things, and Yankee whalers. The story is loosely based on a historical event: the fate of 34 New Bedford whaling ships trapped in sea ice above Point Belcher, Alaska in the summer of 1871. Benjamin Chase, Master of the whale ship Concordia, on his final voyage is returning to the Bering Sea not only to harvest oil from bowhead whales but to reintroduce Uvlaaq, an Inupiat orphan he rescued from an ice flow four years earlier, to her native village. Now 16-years-old, Uvlaaq has been thoroughly "civilized" and fully integrated into Chase's Quaker family. Uvlaaq considers Mary Chase her white "mother" and their son, Owen, to be her brother, although her relationship with Owen is evolving in unexpected ways now that both have reached physical maturity. On this voyage, Owen is serving as cabin boy on Concordia, and Mary, as was often the case, is accompanying her husband, this time as much for fear of losing her Uvlaaq to her native people as for maintaining her rightful place beside her husband. In light of her changing relationship with Owen, Uvlaaq is troubled by her late father's promise of her hand in marriage to a young Inupiat hunter. Would Nutchuk still be expecting her to marry him if she resumed her previous life in her ancestral home? And if so, would he be a threat to Owen? Such personal problems however pale in comparison to what ice can do to the wooden hull of a whaling ship and all those embarked during the rare event of a double winter at the top of the world. Neither Chase's ship nor his crew is prepared to winter over in one of the earth's most unforgiving climates. But what's a sea captain to do-abandon ship or stay put and hope for the best?