The Cay: Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

On April 6, 1942, two days after leaving Panama— their first port of call on the north-bound voyage—a German torpedo strikes the Hato at 3 o’clock in the morning. The first massive explosion throws Phillip from his bunk and onto the floor. His mother, uncharacteristically calm, quietly talks him through getting dressed, reminding him to tie his shoes and bring his wool sweater and leather jacket with him. Another explosion rocks the ship as they leave their cabin. On the deck, the crew prepares the lifeboats with the captain urging them to hurry; tins of flammable oil in the holds are catching on fire. Phillip and his mother climb into a lifeboat, but then Hato lurches, sending them flying out of the lifeboat and into the water. Phillip calls out to his mother as something hits him on the head and everything goes black.

Hours later, Phillip opens his eyes. His head hurts. He hears a voice; he turns to see a very large, very old Black man (later identified as Timothy) whom he recognizes as one of the Hato’s deck crew. Timothy tells the “young boss” that he hauled the boy onto the raft after watching him get hit in the head. He believes that Phillip’s mother ended up in one of the other rafts of lifeboats. It’s just him, Phillip, and a cat on this raft. He thinks they’re somewhere around 15 degrees north and 80 degrees west, based on the ship’s position just before the attack. Phillip sits up and looks around. He sees nothing but empty sea and a few birds drifting in an endless sky. The thought of being stuck on a raft with a stranger—who is, to Phillip’s (racist) chagrin, a Black man—makes him burst into tears.

Timothy says that he’s upset too but that crying won’t help the situation. His soothing voice makes Phillip feel a little better, despite the pain in his head. Timothy introduces the cat, Stew. It belonged to the Hato’s cook. Phillip looks more closely at Timothy. He realizes that Timothy looks strong and powerful despite his age. Suddenly, Phillip needs to vomit over the side of the raft. Timothy comforts him, and in that moment, Phillip doesn’t care that he is Black. Then Timothy builds an improvised sun shelter out of his and Phillip’s clothing. When they crawl under its shade, Timothy tells Phillip that they’ve had rare good luck: the raft is sound, and it has a little cache of water, biscuits, and chocolate. But Phillip doesn’t feel lucky; he misses his parents.

Phillip drifts off to sleep, lulled by the gentle swell of the sea despite the pain in his head. When he wakes up, he formally introduces himself to Timothy, just like his father taught him to do. But he doesn’t call Timothy “mister,” because he’s Black. He’s surprised to learn that Timothy doesn’t have a last name. After a few minutes, Phillip asks for a drink of water. Warning him that they must make their supply last as long as possible, since they don’t know when rescue will come, Timothy hands him a few sips in a tin cup. Phillip drinks it and immediately asks for more. When Timothy offers him only another small sip, Phillip complains and demands more. Without answering him, Timothy puts the rest of the water away.

Phillip begins to dislike Timothy. He wants to be as far away from the man as possible, even though this means leaving the sun shelter. He sits on the edge of the raft, stroking the cat and thinking about how his mother never liked it when he and Henrik would talk to the Black sailors in the harbor. She used to tell Phillip that Black people were different, that they live differently from white people. Phillip didn’t agree with her before, but Timothy’s actions seem foreign to him. He loudly accuses Timothy of hoarding the water for himself. Timothy ignores him. 

Later in the evening, Timothy rouses himself and tells Phillip that, with luck, some flying fish might land on the raft for their dinner. Sure enough, two fly over the sides in short order. Shouting with glee, Timothy grabs them. He clubs them over the head with his knife, then neatly fillets them. He hands the two largest pieces to Phillip. Phillip refuses them, even after Timothy says it’s the only available food that night. Phillip turns away in disgust when Timothy eats the raw fish, bitterly reflecting that Black people are different from him. He remembers Curaçao and angrily blames his mother for his current situation. Timothy points out that this would only be true if she started the war.