The Accidental Stowaway

Patch is used to being passed around from household to household. She knows nothing about her mother, only that the solicitor Mr. Ringe receives instructions on where Patch is to be placed and a stipend to support her. After an incident that led to Patch’s second-cousin-twice-removed sending her back to Mr. Ringe with the fervent wish that they never saw one another again, Mr. Ringe sends Patch to stay with Miss Alice Grey, headmistress of a girls’ school in Liverpool. But Patch is there for only a few moments before she’s seized by the need to explore. 

While roller skating along the docks, she meets a strange American boy called Turo who works as “the boots” on a transatlantic steamer called The Glory. Turo steals a bowl of fudge and the only way for Patch to escape arrest is to skate onto the Glory after him. To her surprise, the ship disembarks with her still onboard! 

Now an accidental stowaway, Patch makes fast friends with a first-class passenger: Miss Lilian de Haviland, an unaccompanied minor travelling to meet her father in New York. Lilian and Patch cook up a plot to disguise Patch as a first-class traveller so they can enjoy all the best the ship has to offer. 

Venturing out, they come across a strange cast of characters. They make fast friends with Jimmy, a musician, and have dinner with suspicious Mr. Robertson, his soft-spoken wife, and welcoming June Ford. Lilian’s stewardess Esty and her fiancée Matty help them on their way. But lurking in the corners is Mr. Perkins, the chief steward, a drunk whose avowed goal is to ferret out any stowaways aboard the Glory and win the bottle of grog the captain has promised as a reward. They also make the acquaintance of Babette, the world’s greatest stowaway, whose itchy feet have sent her to ports all around the world—all without buying a single ticket! 

But not all is as it seems. As Patch works to help Babette and evade Perkins, she grows suspicious of the Robertsons, who seem to be plotting to kidnap and ransom Lilian. But when she tries to get Lilian to go to the Captain, she insists that it’s impossible: Lilian is also a stowaway, the younger sister of Esty. In a heart-racing final encounter, Patch is able to unmask the Robertsons and June as the Snell criminal family and turn them in to authorities in exchange for a reward! With the reward money, Lilian plans to attend the same school as Patch. A final reveal shows that Patch’s missing mother is none other than the flighty, mysterious Babette! 

A sweet and intriguing historical adventure engaging with ideas of class and opportunities. As Patch journeys through the first, second, and third-class levels and makes connections to the workers aboard, she consistently acts with charisma, forthrightness, and a clear sense of justice. Clues throughout will allow keen-eyed readers to put together the mysteries at the same time as Patch. Highly recommended for fans of The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel and The Pear Affair. 

sea voyage, mystery, secret identity, disguise, class, adventure, missing mother, kidnapping, education, opportunities 

1. Patch’s cousins call her “no-mama” constantly so she punches them, which results in her being sent away (p. 5). 2. Mention of adults drinking alcohol (p. 27, 105, 126, 129, 178, 255). 3. Two of the Snells, father-and-son duo Frank Sr. and Frank Jr., pose as a husband-and-wife couple to evade police (Frank Jr., a master of disguise, dresses up as a woman). 4. Frank Jr. chokes Patch, but she escapes without serious injury (p. 208). 5. “What in God’s name” (p. 250).