⚒ STOP 3 OF 11 ⚒
Last Stop Before the Horn · Chapter 4 — The Pig Hunt
📍 Rio de Janeiro, BrazilAfter weeks of nothing but ocean, the Lady Wilma sails into the harbor at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — and for Jack, just seeing land again is thrilling. Fleischman paints the morning beautifully: the ship passes under the fortress guns at dawn, church bells ring out across the water, and the windows of the city catch the sunrise. Jack has “almost forgotten what land looked like.” Even a distant hill or tree excites him.
Captain Swain only stops for one night — he’s racing the Sea Raven and doesn’t want to lose an hour. Gold Rush ships pulled into ports like Rio to take on three things: coal to burn, fresh water to drink, and fresh food to eat. Jack and Praiseworthy come back from the city with their arms full of fruits they’d never seen in Boston — bananas, pineapples, and guavas. Jack also posts a letter home to Aunt Arabella, just as real Forty-Niners mailed letters from every port they could.
Standing at the rail in Rio, Praiseworthy gives Jack a choice. Cape Horn lies ahead — the most dangerous water in the world. Praiseworthy tells him: “The wind comes howling in like banshees and the waves can batter a ship to splinters.” He offers to send Jack safely home to Boston. No one would blame him.
Jack says no. He’s going on to California. It’s a huge moment for his character — and Praiseworthy’s reply is one of the warmest lines in the book:
You’ll do, Master Jack. You’ll do.
— By the Great Horn Spoon!, Chapter 4
Rio de Janeiro was one of the largest and busiest ports in the Western Hemisphere in 1849, and it sat right on the Cape Horn route. Ships from all over the world dropped anchor in its harbor to resupply before the long, dangerous push south.
Crossing the equator on the way there was a big event — sailors held a “crossing the line” ceremony, an old tradition where first-timers got dunked or splashed with seawater. And below the equator, everything flips: it was winter when they left Boston, but summer turning to fall in the Southern Hemisphere. The seasons run backwards down there.
Jack mails a letter from Rio in this very chapter — so now it’s your turn. Tap the true “facts so far” you want to include (tap again to remove one), then write a sentence or two in Jack’s voice to tie it all together. Then seal it!
Dear Aunt Arabella,
Your loving nephew,Jack
As the Lady Wilma sails away from Rio the next morning, two things go missing: Dr. Buckbee’s gold map and the small boat that was hiding Good Luck the pig. Cut-Eye Higgins, the thief, has slipped away in the night — and without knowing it, he’s taken the pig with him! Good Luck is safe from the cook forever. Jack can’t help but smile.
Jack is standing on the deck watching Rio de Janeiro come into view after weeks of nothing but ocean. Write 3–5 sentences describing what he sees, hears, and smells as the ship enters the harbor. Use specific details: the mountains, the tropical birds, the smell of the city, the sounds of the dock. Make it feel real.
“After so many weeks of gray water and gray sky, the green mountains of Rio hit us like a dream. None of us had words for it. Some men simply stopped talking and stared.”