In 19th-Century London, five orphaned children from St. Norbert’s Home for Wayward Boys arrive at a wharf: Peter, James, Prentiss, Thomas, and Tubby Ted. Peter, the leader of the group, does not know his real age and so always pretends to be “one year older than the oldest of his mates” (1). Grempkin, the boys’ unkind chaperone, escorts Peter and the others to the Never Land, a ship meant to take them to an unknown destination. The Never Land is in poor shape, and Peter wishes he were sailing on another, newer ship nearby—the Wasp. Grempkin introduces the boys to Willian Slank, the “First officer, second in command of the Never Land” (5). Slank is as mean as Grempkin, and the boys are apprehensive about the dangerous journey ahead. Peter notices a black trunk being loaded onto the Wasp. 

Two crewmembers from the Never Land, Alf and Mack, retrieve a wooden trunk from a warehouse near the wharf. The wooden trunk and a black trunk came into the warehouse at the same time. The black trunk was loaded onto the Wasp, and Slank promised Alf and Mack extra pay to load the wooden trunk onto the Never Land.