The maiden voyage of the Mary Belle 11/13

Barnacle Bill was worn out and so thirsty he couldn’t talk properly. After he’d had a drink, Fern helped him to his feet, then picked him up and carried him to the boat. “Back to the brig,” she said, “he needs a good rest and some food before we can expect any answers to our questions.”

It wasn’t too long before he’d recovered enough to sit up by himself and tell the crew what had happened. Jennifer Jane could tell he wasn’t completely back to normal, because he just told his story simply without using any grand words.

“My engines broke down in the middle of a big storm,” he began, “I knew I was in deep trouble, so I quickly jotted down the last position I had calculated, put the note in a bottle and threw it overboard.”

He stopped talking for a moment and took a long drink of water before continuing

“Once I’d done that, I went below to try to find out why the engines had stopped. Then there was the most tremendous feeling of flying through the air and a huge crash. I think a giant wave must have thrown me ashore where you found my boat.”

Barnacle Bill stopped talking for a moment and took another large drink of water.

“I sheltered until the storm blew itself out,” he continued, “and then managed to fix the problem. I didn’t know where I was of course, so I left the next morning and walked east along the coast to try and find a village, or someone who could tell me where I’d been wrecked and perhaps help me re-float my ship.”

“Just a moment,” said Fern, “you were walking east when I saw you coming along the beach!”

“I know, I got the shock of my life when I saw the paddle steamer again. I’d just been following the coast without really worrying about the direction, I was only looking for someone to help me. We’ve ended up on an island and I’ve just spent four days walking all the way round it!”

Jennifer Jane had a quiet smile to herself. The poor goblin looked so worn out it didn’t seem fair to laugh, but the thought of him walking all round an island without realising it, appealed to her sense of humour.

Fern didn’t have any inhibitions at all, nor did any of the brig’s crew who had been listening, they all roared with laughter. Barnacle Bill grinned weakly in spite of himself.

When everyone had calmed down, the captain asked him if he knew exactly where they were and how he intended to get home.

“The dragons have given me a rough idea of our position, but they’re not very precise. If you’re flying five hundred feet or so up in the air, you don’t have to be. Now if your vessel is properly equipped,” he stopped for a moment to glare at the mate, “with a sextant and a chronometer, we shouldn’t have any trouble getting home.”

Barnacle Bill agreed that he had all the necessary ‘navigational instrumentation’. Then he stopped and looked rather embarrassed.

Jennifer Jane couldn’t understand why. He sounded as if he was getting back to his old self with his grand talk and thought he’d jump at the chance to show the Davy Jones sailors what a proper seaman he really was.

Fern was looking at him in a rather puzzled way as well, then her face cleared.

“I think Barnacle Bill has just realised that it would be rather difficult for us to follow his steamer,” she said. “Now if he’d be prepared to lend his instruments to the captain, I’m quite sure that he’d have no difficulty in following the brig.”

Barnacle Bill’s face relaxed into a happy smile. “That’s it exactly,” he said, “all that tacking and things that you have to do, whereas I could just head straight for home!”

Fern asked Jennifer Jane to go with her to the paddle steamer and collect whatever was necessary. “The thing is that I don’t believe he really knows how to navigate at all,” Fern explained as they rowed across to the steamboat.

“Most of his voyages stay within sight of land, I’m sure he puts on a good show of using the instruments, but I’m willing to bet he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. I think the position he put in the bottle was just guesswork based on dead reckoning. That’s why he looked embarrassed just then, he knew the captain would find out.”

Now that Fern had explained, Jennifer Jane was quite sure as well, but promised she wouldn’t say anything to anyone.

“I think he’s going to have his leg pulled for a long time to come for not realising that he was walking in a circle all round that island.”