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The Dark Frigate  By  cover art

The Dark Frigate

By: Charles Boardman Hawes
Narrated by: Domenick Allen
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Publisher's summary

In 17th century England, a terrible accident forces orphaned Philip Marsham to flee London in fear for his life. Bred to the sea, he signs on with the Rose of Devon, a dark frigate bound for the quiet shores of Newfoundland.

Philip's bold spirit and knowledge of the sea soon win him his captain's regard. But when the Rose of Devon is seized in mid-ocean by a devious group of men plucked from a floating wreck, Phlip is forced to accompany these "gentlemen of fortune" on their murderous expeditions. Like it or not, Philip Marsham is now a pirate - with only the hangman awaiting his return to England.

With its bloody battles, brutal buccaneers, and bold, spirited hero, this rousing tale will enthrall all listeners in search of seafaring adventure.

©1971 Little, Brown, and Company (P)1999 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Winner of The Newbery Medal for Best Children's Book

What listeners say about The Dark Frigate

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    1 out of 5 stars

Inaudible

Any additional comments?

The sound quality was so poor that I couldn't understand the narrator's accents. In over three years of membership and dozens of books, this is the first time I had to simply give up. Very disappointing.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Please don’t sell this to anyone

I am working my way through the Newberys. I couldn’t find this anywhere else. The audio quality is very poor, and the narrator actually yells quite a bit. Some of his characters were difficult to understand. I had to listen to parts of it twice to understand what was going on.

I may not have looked closely, but I didn’t realize it was abridged. Please re-record it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • CY
  • 11-07-09

Good, but lower sound quality

The book was good, as could be expected from a newbury award winner, but the sound quality was not as good as i expected. It sounded like they'd just digitized an old degraded recording.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

story keeper

I agree with other reviews. The audio is very unclear and scratchy. The narrator is okay with different voices but tone and volume are a problem.

I listened because I am going through all the Newberry Award books.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

worst audio ever

If only I could give it 0 stsrs! Only a few minutes into the audiobook and we have to turn it off. The sound is so muffled and the reader is mumbling so much we cannot understand what the he is saying. I wish I could get my credits back for this one!

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

horrible recording

I couldn't get past the first minute. The story is great, but the recording quality is horrible. I hope this one gets redone.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Good story, muffled recording

This was a very action packed story, filled with adventure, suspense and a bunch of bungling pirates. I listened as I read along with the physical book and noticed it didn't always match, that little chunks of text were left out here and there, but it really made no difference to the story. The reader was engaging but the main drawback was the poor quality of the recording, I had to stop and rewind every so often due to how muffled it was.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Difficult to listen

The audio needs improvement
With clarity of sound. I had to follow along with the book to understand what they were saying.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

The Reader is a English Pirate Robot

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

The book was good but the reader was awful, it was so bad that it was hard to understand.

Would you be willing to try another one of Domenick Allen’s performances?

No, this was the worst audio I've ever heard.

Do you think The Dark Frigate needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

The Dark Frigate wasn't very good, I don't want the author to waste his time on another mistake.

Any additional comments?

If the audio was better my review would've been too.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • R.
  • 05-17-09

abridged! poor quality! NOT WORTH IT!

FALSE ADVERTISING! approximately 15 pages or so are missing from random places, poor audio quality, SAVE YOUR MONEY!!

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