He was truly terrified of the crocodile
The crocodile had swallowed a ticking clock. Hook knew the day the ticking stopped would be the day the crocodile found him. The sound of the sea itself made him afraid.
Meet the Characters
Who Was Captain Hook?
The elegant, terrified, terribly lonely captain of the Jolly Roger.
Featured on the map at The Jolly Roger · Skull Rock
Did you know?
He went to Eton College
In the book, J.M. Barrie sent Hook to one of England's most famous schools — the same school princes and prime ministers attended. He was quiet, clever, and always a little apart.
Barrie called him a gentleman
Elegant. Brave. In his own dark way, well-mannered. Barrie wrote him not as a silly villain, but as a man who might have been great — if only he had chosen kindness.
Would you rather?
So — would you sail with Peter, or would you sail with Captain Hook?
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Family reading companion
Who Was Captain Hook?
A short bedtime version — one screen. Read it aloud together.
Long before Peter Pan ever met him, Captain Hook was already the most feared pirate on the seas.
Once, he was only a boy — a quiet English schoolboy at Eton College, who loved poetry and books. Even then, they said, he was elegant. Even then, he was alone.
Years later he sailed the seven seas, and the sea changed him. He became a captain, of a great black brig called the Jolly Roger. Wherever it appeared, other ships turned and ran.
Then one night, a boy came flying through his moonlit rigging — a boy in green, with a small sharp dagger and a laugh like a bell. Peter Pan.
In the fight that followed, Peter cut off Hook's right hand and threw it to a crocodile, who liked the taste of it very much. From that day, the captain wore an iron hook in its place — and the crocodile followed him ever after.
The crocodile had swallowed a ticking clock. So the tick-tock of the sea became the sound of Hook's fear. And that is why he is a story worth remembering: not just cruel, but clever, elegant, and terribly, terribly lonely.
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