"Don't Judge a book by its cover"
I was scraping the upper deck of the layer of ice on the top all I did was stop for one moment and the next thing I know I’m being whacked in the upper shoulder by a rope. Life as anyone on the Elephant is grueling, especially when you’re going to war. Little did I know that getting hit in the shoulder was going to be the least of my problems. In the book Prison Ship by Paul Dowswell even though the book includes fiction and nonfiction parts it’s still obvious that the author is trying to open the eyes of all readers to see that you should never jump to conclusions.
Sam’s job on the Elephant is to run from deck to deck bring cartages for the people attacking. The War of Copenhagen took place on April 2, 1801. During the war 60 percent of the world’s population was slaves. The masters or rulers of this time were very cruel. Often times the slaves would be beaten or flogged as a punishment. In the book Anne Frank: Voice of Hope by Cath Senker it was well showed the hardship these Jews went through just like Sam and others from the Elephant
Although work on the Elephant is rigid, other thing can get you in more trouble. Mistakes can change your life forever in a good way or a bad way. In a show that is on the television called Make it or Break it there’s a young woman by the name of Payson Keller she was a world class athlete in gymnastics. She had back pain and decided to use quartertone to make her back feel better so she could compete, but in fact she just hurt herself more and can never do gymnastics again. In Prison Ship, the Navy Seals jumped to a conclusion that Sam was hiding from the war when he was just doing his responsibilities. This little mistake by the Navy Seals got him nearly killed. He didn’t die but he went through a lot of pain just because one person jumped to a wrong conclusion.
Even though people jumped to false conclusions they still had to work hard. When on the Elephant Sam did many hours of dangerous work. Even when he got to the island that he was sent to because of his actions he had to do even harder work. When the masters did this they portrayed the feeling that they wanted the workers to die. Although some people wanted Sam to die others didn’t. To get to the island it’s a seven month ride. The captain of their trip by the name of Caswell cared an awful lot about the health of the passengers and the ship its self, firm checks were done of the living quarters and the passengers weekly. At that point in their journey that gave them hope, hope that they could return to their families alive.
Paul Dowswell shows incredibly well in the book Prison Ship that you should never jump to conclusions about anything. Although the famous quote “Never judge a book by its cover” started as "you can't judge a book by its binding," this is still a classic line and it’s excellent one to always remember.
