Peter and the Starcatchers

Peter steals a jar of rum from the kitchen and pours it into the boys’ daily pot of slop. Alf carries the spiked slop to Leatherface, the sailor guarding the trunk, who drinks the entire thing. Tubby Ted questions Peter’s secret plans, but Peter asks the boys to trust him. Alf and Peter sneak to the room where the trunk is kept. Leatherface is passed out drunk, but the room is padlocked shut. Though Alf breaks the lock noisily, Leatherface stays asleep. Molly arrives and threatens to scream if Peter and Alf do not leave immediately. Alf gives up and goes, but Peter stays and begs Molly to explain what the trunk is so that he can help her. Molly, “tears brimming in her luminescent green eyes” (144), agrees. 

Black Stache watches the Wasp crew prepare the Sea Devil for the coming storm from the relative safety of the Jolly Roger. Black Stache wants to ride the pre-storm winds to the Never Land before the treacherous storm itself arrives. The pirates change into Wasp crew uniforms, and Black Stache promises a gold coin to his helmsman if the Jolly Roger beats the full storm to the Never Land. The rain begins to pour.

While Mrs. Bumbrake is off with Slank, Molly tells Peter everything out of desperation, despite her reservations. Molly and her family are from a long line of Starcatchers, a secret order dedicated to ensuring world peace. While most shooting stars are “rocks that fell from the heavens” (152), some shooting stars are made of starstuff, a substance with magical properties, including the ability to make things fly and increase intelligence. A group known as the Others wants the starstuff to serve their own evil purposes. When Peter asks Molly to prove her story, Molly takes out a gold locket, touches a glowing sphere inside, and hovers a few inches above the floor. Peter believes she is telling the truth.

Molly explains that Starcatchers only carry a small amount of starstuff for emergencies. Their mission is to find and hide newly fallen starstuff before the Others get to it. The Greek and Roman gods were actually ancient people who found starstuff, as were many historical figures. Michelangelo and Da Vinci represent the benevolent potential of starstuff, but Attila the Hun represents what happens when a person uses starstuff to gain power and wealth. The first Starcatchers realized “how easily [starstuff] could be turned to evil purposes” and created a society to keep the starstuff from the Others (161). Molly is an apprentice Starcatcher, still in training.

Two months ago, the Others found a new fall of starstuff before the Starcatchers, and someone close to the Queen of England arranged for it to be shipped to King Zarboff III, who is also one of the Others. The wooden trunk on the Neverland contains this shipment of starstuff. Molly’s father was to retrieve the starstuff, but his plan was foiled when the trunks were switched at the wharf. Molly and Peter must now prevent the wooden trunk from falling into Black Stache’s hands. 

Black Stache is surprised to see a porpoise swimming through the storm. The pirates sight the Never Land through the rain and clouds. 

After a sleepless night pondering Molly’s story, Peter finds the crew of the Never Land preparing for the coming storm. Peter and Molly discuss how to hide the trunk after the storm. Peter suggests throwing the trunk overboard, but Molly fears that the starstuff will create a sea monster. Peter asks when Molly’s father will arrive, sensing her worry. A furious Mrs. Bumbrake scolds Molly for running off, but she is interrupted by the lookout who announces a ship approaching. Slank looks through his spyglass and sees the Wasp, unaware that it is now the Jolly Roger.

Smee raises the Union Jack as the pirates hide their weapons and prepare to take the Never Land. Black Stache relishes his certain victory. 

Molly warns Slank that Black Stache now commands the Wasp, but Slank dismisses her. Molly begs Slank to flee until Mrs. Bumbrake pulls Molly away, but Molly manages to signal to Peter to meet her below deck. Waiting for Molly, Peter wonders “which he was more nervous about: Black Stache, or the storm” (184).

Molly leads Peter to the trunk. Peter accidentally touches the trunk as they pull off the canvas cover and the starstuff residue makes him feel wonderful. Molly tells Peter to resist the urge to touch it, as too much exposure to starstuff is dangerous. They carry the surprisingly light trunk to the main deck, planning to throw it overboard as they have no other options. Just as they reach the rail, the Jolly Roger slams into the Never Land. Slank catches them in the commotion, and grabs Molly by her hair. Peter bites Slank and nearly gets the trunk overboard before Little Richard stops him. Little Richard restrains Molly as Slank throws Peter overboard. 

The Never Land crew ties the two ships together, still not knowing that the Wasp is now under pirate control. Smee gives their true identify away, but it is too late for Slank to cut the lines, and the pirates board the Never Land. Black Stache is “impressed by how little fear” Slank shows (195). Black Stache asks where the treasure is, but Slank insists that there is none. Black Stache decides that Slank is “more useful alive than dead” (196) and orders the pirates to search for a trunk. 

Peter feels as though he is falling into the sea in slow motion. He worries that he will drown because he does not know how to swim, and wonders if holding his breath will painfully prolong his life. Peter realizes that he is thinking faster than usual since he touched the trunk. Ammm pushes Peter out of the water, and Peter finds he is flying. Ammm leads Peter back toward the Never Land as Peter works out how to control his flight. Just as the starstuff is wearing off, Peter hears screams from the Never Land. 

On the Never Land, Black Stache threatens Slank with a pistol when Smee announces that the pirates have found the trunk. Black Stache wonders why Little Richard is holding Molly back. As Black Stache is about to open the trunk, Molly darts forward and shoves him to the ground, scratching his face. The pirates attack Little Richard when he moves to follow Molly, and a fight ensues. In the chaos, Slank sees Peter flying next to the ship. 

The fighting stops, everyone astonished by the “sight of the flying boy” (206). Molly points out the trunk to Peter, and both Slank and Stache yell for their respective crews to stop him. Peter is too quick to catch. He pushes the trunk overboard, where it gently floats down into the waves. Peter’s starstuff wears off, and he sinks toward the sea. Molly, recognizing Peter’s trouble, climbs to the bow of the ship and jumps into the water. 

On the Never Land, Black Stache is furious at losing the treasure and being outsmarted by a boy. Black Stache orders the pirates back onto the Jolly Roger, taking Slank, Little Richard, and Mrs. Bumbrake as prisoners and leaving the rest of the Never Land crew to their fate: A nearby reef or the storm will most likely destroy the decrepit ship. Knowing that the reef indicates an island nearby, Black Stache tells the look out to watch for land and promises “ten gold pieces and a bottle of grog” to the man who finds the trunk (212). 

Molly uses the starstuff in her locket to fly to Peter and pull him from the waves before he drowns. Peter clings to Molly as she flies them through the storm toward an island with a large mountain. Peter, exhausted, loses his grip and falls to the beach below. He coughs up an “impossible amount of sea water” (217) and falls asleep in the sand. 

Further down the beach, the wooden trunk washes into a lagoon. The storm-tossed trunk is cracked and battered by the waves and the water leaking from the trunk has “a soft, greenish-gold glow, the color of fireflies” (219). As the storm subsides, several fish swim toward the glowing trunk and begin to transform. 

On deck on the Never Land, James and the other boys huddle in fear as the storm breaks the ship apart. Alf helps the boys over the stern into a dory just as the Never Land hits the reef and splinters “into hundreds, thousands, of pieces” (223). The dory capsizes, but the boys hang on to the upside-down boat. Alf clings to a floating barrel nearby. As the storm ends, Alf tows the boys to the beach. Prentiss asks if they are safe, but Alf wonders who else is on the island.