Jenny Haniver (airship)

The Jenny Haniver is a fictional airship in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines Quartet.

Appearances

In the quartet, the Jenny Haniver is described as a small cargo airship with a crimson envelope.

Anna Fang built the airship when she was a slave in the junkyards of Arkangel, sneaking away bits and pieces and eventually assembling it in full. When the airship was complete, she escaped in it and began her life as an Anti-Tractionist spy, using her cover as a trader to spy on Traction Cities.

When Fang is killed at the end of Mortal Engines, Thomas Natsworthy and Hester Shaw "inherit" the Jenny, and start their own lives as traders. Two years later, Blinkoe, a paid agent of the Green Storm, drugs Hester and takes her and the Jenny Haniver to Rogue's Roost.[1] Tom and Hester manage to steal it back during the chaos of the Lost Boys' attack. Later in Predator's Gold, the Jenny is stolen by Nimrod Pennyroyal at the climax of the book.

Pennyroyal later becomes the mayor of Brighton, and the Jenny Haniver (now renamed the Arctic Roll) is put on display as the ship he escaped from the Arctic in. At the climax of Infernal Devices, Tom and Hester steal it back and escape the city in it.

It then become a trading airship for Tom and his daughter Wren, and is used as their means of conveyance in the final book, A Darkling Plain. As they approach their final battle, they are attacked by Stalker birds, and the Jenny explodes and crashes.

The Jenny had souped-up engines, and rocket defence pods that were removed in the second book. It was considerably faster and more maneuverable than it looked, as is proved in Predator's Gold when it escapes from Green Storm airships by flying through a traction city. The rocket pods remain empty after Mortal Engines, as Tom Natsworthy morally refuses to use them. The rocket pods are filled up by Pennyroyal after he steals the Jenny at the end of Predator's Gold. These rockets allow Tom Natsworthy and Hester Shaw to escape Brighton near the end of Infernal Devices.

In the movie, the Jenny is described as lifted by gas envelopes and powered by jet engines. The models are made by Alex Falkner.[2] The Jenny participates in an air raid against London towards the end of the film.

References

1. Reeve, Philip (2003) Predator's Gold, page 187. HarperCollins Publishers. First Paperback American Edition, 2004.
2. "Making Models – the Jenny Haniver Airship from Mortal Engines". RunPee. Retrieved 2020-01-16.