Ben the Sea Lion

Tsimshian artist and storyteller Vickers has added to his catalogue of books for young people (the “First West Coast” series and “Northwest Coast Legends” series) with this stand-alone story. It is based on childhood reminiscences of growing up in a remote community on British Columbia’s north coast.

The first-person narrative provides a realistic take on the events that occur after a Stellar sea lion gets caught up in Uncle Johnny’s fishing net. The young animal, separated from his mother, is nearly dead of starvation.

We asked Uncle Johnny and Auntie Jane if we could keep him until he got strong enough to swim by himself. Auntie Jane looked at us as if to say, “This isn’t going to happen.” But the more we talked the more her face softened. Finally, she looked at Uncle Johnny and he nodded his head and said, “Okay, we’ll do this but you boys have to be responsible for this sea lion. You are going to have to feed it. You are going to have to clean it. And one day when it is big enough we will have to let it go back to the wild.” We happily agreed.

After some discussion, the three boys – two brothers and a cousin – christen the animal Ben, short for the Tsimshian ‘teeben’ for sea lion. As Ben grows, he moves out of the house to sleep under the house with the dogs, learns to tow the trio in their rowboat around the bay, and even (somewhat ponderously) goes for walks on land with them. If people do not always know what to make of this 250-kilogram creature lumbering through town, the local dogs certainly take exception to his presence.

One day we saw King (…a big, mean German shepherd…the boss of all the dogs in the village…) in the salmonberry bushes at the corner where the water pipe was, waiting to ambush Ben. King leapt out, hit the ground once and bounded up with his mouth wide open, aiming for Ben’s neck. Ben went up on his flippers, turned his head and opened his mouth. King tried to slam on the brakes in midair but it was too late.

Ben shows his gentle nature by dropping the dog back to the ground rather than snapping his spine, but King knows he has been vanquished and that Ben is now the animal ruler of Kitkatla.
Naturally, the time comes to release Ben back into the wild, and it is not easy for the boys to see him go.

So down to the wharf we went on to Uncle Johnny’s boat. Ben came from under the water and jumped up onto the skiff, then crawled up on one deck with one flipper on each side to balance. He loved to perch there and sniff the fresh air just like a dog riding in the back of a pickup truck.

Ben is left near the shore up the coast, splashing in the water and catching fish. This isn’t the last that the boys will see of Ben for he returns to Kitkatla a few days later. The children plead to let the animal stay, but they realize right away that this cannot happen, and so once again Ben is loaded onto Uncle Johnny’s boat.

This time we were going to take him farther away, to a place called Sea Lion Rocks where Ben would be surrounded by other sea lions. It was a couple of hours from the village of Kitkatla. There was an island with a big lighthouse called Bonilla Light on it and near the light was Sea Lion Rocks. We could smell them and so could Ben. Ben’s head was rocking back and forth like someone listening to music. When we got close to the rocks, overboard he went. He has never seen sea lions before, but that didn’t stop him from swimming straight to the colony. A bunch of sea lions, which we could tell were female or cows from their smaller size, came swimming out to meet him. Ben is back where he belongs.

The details of Pacific Coast geography and of daily life in a northern settlement in the 1950’s lend immediacy to the fluid text which is somewhat longer than that of many picture books. Young readers may imagine sitting at the kitchen table listening to a father or uncle recounting this memorable incident from boyhood.

Vickers’s signature illustrations in bold colours and strong formlines place the sea lion firmly front and centre across the wide page spreads. Ben is depicted in the traditional stylized two-dimensional Northwest Coast manner while the human figures and background elements are much smaller and shown in silhouette.

Ben the Sea Lion, with its strong sense of place and touches of humour would be an enjoyable read-aloud for a primary class studying First Nations culture or as independent reading for an older child who still appreciates an illustrated tale.