Summerford youth has book on public display, written at age six

SUMMERFORD -

Thomas Hawkins, a 10-year-old at Summerford, has accomplished what many an older person has only dreamed of. He has a copy of a book he wrote on public display. Not only that, the book was written - printed - the summer he completed Kindergarten at the age of six. The title? Titanic by Thomas Hawkins.

From a very early age Thomas, son of Chris and Treena Hawkins of Summerford, had always been fascinated by boats, advised his grandmother Maxine Bourden of Bayview, Twillingate, in an interview with The Pilot in early August.

"He would spend hours making cardboard boats, drawing boats and even now making up stories about adventures he and his friends would have on boats," she informed. "One boat in particular that he took a great interest in was the 'Titanic'. He had just finished Kindergarten, at age six years," she said, "when I read to him from a book on the Titanic disaster that had been passed to me by my grandmother Maude (Maidment) Boyde a former school teacher originally from Twillingate. She would have been Thomas's great-great grandmother."

The book referred to was a memorial edition entitled Story of the Wreck of the Titanic, the Ocean's Greatest Disaster - Memorial Edition.

Mrs. Bourden advised that she still had the book in her possession. She had read the book to Thomas several times, she said, and then had written down some important facts from the account. Thomas recopied the facts in his own hand and style in a little four by six-inch booklet that he called Titanic by Thomas Hawkins.

Mrs. Bourden explained to The Pilot that she had found out about a Titanic display that was carried by the Fox Moth Heritage Museum in Norris Arm. The display, she understood, depicted photographs and incidents dealing with the ship Titanic and the tragic disaster of 1912. Early in the summer, therefore, she set her plan in action without Thomas being aware of the details. She arranged for her husband Eric and Thomas to visit the Fox Moth Museum. Secretly she carried with her the only copy that existed of the book written by Thomas four years earlier.

"The Titanic display at the museum was marvelous," said Mrs. Bourden, "and well worth the visit. For anyone interested in the story of the Titanic, this is the place to go."

Mrs. Bourden explained that she had shown Thomas's book to the museum co-ordinator who in turn wanted a photocopy for the museum display.

"A copy of Thomas's book is now on display in the Fox Moth Heritage Museum in Norris Arm as part of the Titanic story," said Mrs. Bourden, "and we're all so proud of it."