50 Fun Facts About The Cay

In The Cay, what kills Timothy after he shields Phillip Enright with his own body?

A hurricane tears across the island in July, earlier in the year than Timothy expects such weather. Timothy takes the full force of the wind and driven sand on his back and dies soon after it passes.

Which actor played Timothy in NBC's 1974 television film of The Cay?

James Earl Jones took the role opposite child actor Alfred Lutter as Phillip, with Gretchen Corbett as the boy's mother. The film premiered on October 21, 1974.

In The Cay, what danger fills the sea when Phillip tumbles off the raft at the first sight of land?

Sharks swarm the warm water around the raft, so Timothy dives straight in after the boy. He hauls Phillip back aboard by the hair and orders him to crawl from now on.

Theodore Taylor dedicated The Cay, published in 1969, to which American civil rights leader?

Martin Luther King had been assassinated the year before the book came out. Taylor later summed up the story as a simple message of understanding and love.

In The Cay, how do Timothy and Phillip keep count of their days on the island?

Pebbles in a can mark the days, one for each. By late May the can holds 48, and Phillip keeps the count going alone after Timothy's death.

In The Cay, the cat on the raft belonged to which member of the S.S. Hato's crew before the sinking?

The cook kept him aboard the freighter, a fitting owner for a cat called Stew. He drifts away on the raft with Timothy and Phillip and is rescued alongside the boy months later.

In The Cay, which fever leaves Timothy delirious and staggering into the sea one day in May?

Malaria strikes him down, and blind Phillip has to drag a man of well over 200 pounds out of the surf. Timothy never fully regains his strength afterwards.

In The Cay, what injury during the sinking of the S.S. Hato later costs Phillip Enright his sight?

A blow to the head from falling timber as the freighter goes down damages the nerves. Phillip's world goes dark on his second day adrift on the raft.

In The Cay, what does Phillip plan to do one day, as he pores over charts of the Caribbean?

Phillip means to sail back to the island where Timothy is buried, chartering a boat to search for it. He expects to know the place by closing his eyes.

In The Cay, Timothy admits the island lies in which maze of shoals that ships rarely enter?

The Devil's Mouth is a cluster of small islands hemmed in by banks that make navigation hard, so no ship is likely to pass. Timothy keeps this from Phillip at first, then pins their hopes on a signal for aircraft.

In The Cay, which island west of Curaçao do German submarines attack first, in February 1942?

Aruba is hit first, and Phillip's best friend claims almost nothing is left of it. The news excites Phillip more than it frightens him, and he slips out to look for submarines.

In The Cay, which American state does Phillip Enright's nervous mother long to go home to?

Virginia is home: she never wanted to leave Norfolk for the Caribbean. Phillip was seven when his father's war work moved the family to Curaçao.

In The Cay, what short name does Phillip use for the German submarines hunting tankers off Curaçao?

U-boats slip in at night in February 1942, and school is cancelled. Phillip wants to rush out and shake his fist at them with the crowds, but his mother orders him to stay home.

In The Cay, which schoolfriend explores wartime Curaçao with Phillip before the boy leaves for home?

Henrik van Boven has a father in the island's government and a know-it-all air that irritates Phillip. After the rescue, Phillip finds his old friend seems very young.

In The Cay, why do Phillip and his mother leave Curaçao by sea rather than a safer way?

She refuses to fly, even though her husband warns that the sea is the dangerous way home. He books them onto a small freighter, joking that it is not worth a torpedo.

In The Cay, which raw catch does Timothy share with Phillip on their first evening on the raft?

Flying fish skim around the raft just before dark, and Timothy grabs two that land aboard and skins them. He hands the two biggest pieces to Phillip, who does not want to eat them uncooked.

In The Cay, which nickname does Timothy call Phillip until the boy asks to hear his real name?

Young boss is how the old sailor addresses him from the moment Phillip wakes on the raft. After their one real fight, Phillip asks to be friends and to be called Phillip instead.

In The Cay, Timothy comes from Charlotte Amalie, the main town of which Caribbean island?

St. Thomas is in the Virgin Islands, which makes Timothy an American like Phillip, as the boy points out. Timothy replies that he never thought about it.

In The Cay, what does Timothy first blame when Phillip's eyes turn hazy on the raft?

Staring at the sun is Timothy's guess, and he promises the darkness will pass. He says a man he knew in Barbados got his sight back after the same thing.

In The Cay, Phillip's island home of Curaçao lies just off which South American country?

Venezuela is close enough that small sailing boats arrive loaded with bananas, oranges and melons. Curaçao sits only about 65 km off the mainland.

In The Cay, what name does Timothy use for the shellfish he catches to roast on the island?

Langosta is the native lobster, the kind without claws, as Phillip already knows. Timothy roasts some for their first meal in the new hut, though a sulking Phillip gives him the silent treatment.

In The Cay, what does Phillip learn about Timothy while they lay out a message for aircraft?

He cannot spell, and is too proud to say so, so blind Phillip scratches the word HELP in the sand himself. For a moment the boy feels superior to the man keeping him alive.

In The Cay, which chore does Phillip refuse, starting the quarrel in which Timothy slaps him?

Weaving sleeping mats is impossible for a blind boy, Phillip insists, before insulting Timothy. The slap shocks him into seeing that the old man is only trying to help.

In The Cay, what does Timothy run from the hut to the signal fire so Phillip can find it alone?

A vine rope lets Phillip feel his way to the fire pile if a plane comes while Timothy is away finding food. Later a cane frees him to walk the whole island.

In The Cay, Timothy fears that Stew Cat may be which kind of West Indian evil spirit?

A jumbi is the spirit of a dead person, and Timothy blames one for their run of bad luck. Phillip, who does not share the belief, is terrified for his pet.

In The Cay, what does Timothy nail to the hut roof to drive bad luck off the island?

A carved wooden cat, bristling with spikes, goes up while the real Stew Cat waits unharmed out on the raft. Phillip had feared something far worse for his pet.

In The Cay, which feat does blind Phillip manage at the second attempt, delighting Timothy?

Climbing for coconuts scares him: the first time he freezes about ten feet up and comes down. He goes straight back and reaches the top, and the two feast on the milk and meat.

In The Cay, what does Phillip burn to make the black smoke that finally brings a plane down low?

Sea grape is oily enough to burn dark, unlike the pale smoke that failed to stop an earlier plane. Phillip works this out alone, weeks after Timothy's death.

In The Cay, what does Timothy lash himself and Phillip to as wind and waves sweep the island?

A palm tree becomes their anchor once the hut is torn away, and Timothy puts his own body between the boy and the wind. Phillip has to work the knots loose himself when it is over.

In The Cay, what does Phillip later guess seized his wrist in a rock hole after Timothy's death?

A moray eel is his best guess afterwards, since he never sees what seized him. The teeth go deep into his wrist, and he never dives in that hole again.

In The Cay, losing his sight helps Phillip unlearn which attitude picked up from his mother?

Racial prejudice fades once Phillip can no longer see skin colour and has to rely on Timothy for everything. He ends up asking his friend whether he is still black.

In The Cay, which point of view lets readers hear only Phillip's thoughts, never Timothy's?

First person narration has Phillip telling the story himself, looking back on it. Theodore Taylor later wrote a companion book to fill in the life of Timothy that readers never see.

In The Cay, where does the rescue vessel land Phillip, at a hospital his parents fly to?

Panama is where the navy ship docks, at the port of Cristobal. Its captain can hardly believe the boy's story, because the freighter he names went down back in April.

In The Cay, in which American city does surgery finally give Phillip Enright his sight back?

New York is where the first of three operations takes place four months after the rescue, and the third restores his sight. Phillip then returns to Curaçao, where he feels far older than the friends he left behind.

In The Cay, which keepsake of Timothy's does Phillip send a rescuing sailor back to fetch?

A hunting knife is the one thing Phillip asks the sailors to go back for. Timothy had cleaned it and lashed it high up in a tin box before the weather turned.

In The Cay, what does Phillip find lashed to a tree for him after Timothy's death?

Fishing poles, at least a dozen with hooks and sinkers already fitted, were Timothy's quiet preparation for the day the boy would be alone on the island.

In The Cay, which wartime industry brings Phillip Enright's father from America to Curaçao?

Oil refining made the island a target: his father is a Shell expert raising the output of aviation fuel. German submarines arrive to cut that supply off.

In The Cay, Phillip's home of Curaçao belongs to which European kingdom that seized it in 1634?

The Netherlands had already been invaded by Hitler's Germany when the story opens in 1942. Phillip's classmates on the island come from a country under occupation.

In The Cay, what does a sleepless Phillip tuck under the couch in case the Germans come ashore?

A hatchet from the tool house is his secret defence against a German landing. He barely sleeps anyway, his mind on the tanker crews out in the dark.

In The Cay, Phillip recalls learning at school that America bought the Virgin Islands from which country?

Denmark sold the islands for $25 million in gold under a treaty agreed in 1916. Timothy, who grew up there, shrugs at the news that he counts as an American.

Theodore Taylor carried the idea for The Cay around for 11 years, then wrote the book in how long?

Three weeks was all the writing took. The idea came from a wartime report of a boy last seen swimming to a raft after his ship was torpedoed in 1942.

Which prize did Theodore Taylor return after its committee chair called honouring The Cay a mistake?

Jane Addams Award judges had honoured the book in 1970. Taylor said he returned it by choice and not in anger, and the book still appears on the list of winners.

Theodore Taylor's 1993 book Timothy of the Cay relates to The Cay in which unusual way?

Prequel and sequel in one, it follows Timothy's life at sea before the sinking and Phillip's life after the rescue. Taylor put off writing it for years, wary of comparisons.

Which Hollywood job did Theodore Taylor hold while writing books like The Cay in his spare time?

Press agent work paid the bills after wartime service in the merchant marine and the Navy. Taylor had left high school at 17 and started out as a teenage sports columnist.

A cay, the landform that gives The Cay its title, builds up on top of what?

A coral reef gathers sand swept along by currents until a low island rises above the waves. The word is often pronounced like key, as in the Florida Keys.

In The Cay, sailors of which nationality face mutiny charges for refusing to crew the lake tankers?

Chinese crews refuse to take the small tankers out past the submarines, and Phillip's father says they have a right to be afraid. Soon the island is running low on fresh water.

In The Cay, Timothy recalls being the only survivor when which kind of vessel sank in 1928?

A schooner called the Hettie Redd went down in weather like the kind he now senses coming. The memory explains how carefully he prepares the camp and the boy.

In The Cay, in which capital city of Curaçao does Phillip Enright live before the sinking?

Willemstad is where the family has its home while his father works for the war effort. Phillip returns there after his rescue and seeks out people who had known Timothy.

In The Cay, an army officer orders Phillip off which floating pontoon bridge in Curaçao's capital?

Queen Emma Bridge swings aside on its pontoons to let ships through, earning the local nickname the Swinging Old Lady. Phillip and his friend find no ships passing when they reach it.

In The Cay, what does Timothy say about his parents when Phillip asks on the raft?

He never knew them, having grown up an orphan, and cannot even say exactly how old he is. He never went to school and was working on a fishing boat by the time he was ten.