This is a story about a sea bird, a ship called The Seabird. The story takes place 330 years ago in 1750.
On the good ship The Seabird the Captain is singing:
'Oh have you heard the news me Johnny
One More day
We are homeward bound tomorrow Johnny
One more day
'Only one more day me Johnny
One more day
Oh come rock and roll me over Johnny
One more day.'
It is the Captain's favourite sea shanty and he always sings it just before they reach port. The Captain has a crew of eight, plus a cook and a carpenter, and they have a cargo of coffee and timber for building houses.
It has been a long old journey from the sunny Caribbean Sea and they’re all looking forward to setting foot on dry land.
Now, the men take turns at being on watch, four hours on and four hours off, but on the good ship The Seabird there is also a dog, a cat, and a bird - not a seabird but a type of parrot – a parakeet! He hangs from the ceiling of the Captain's cabin in a cage and he always seems to know what is going on.
Now, the cat and dog take alternate watches, four hours on and four hours off and the dog's favourite watch is from four in the morning until eight in the morning because he gets to see the sunrise, and this morning, this sunny morning, the Captain sees on the horizon two fishing boats obviously come from Newport, and he hails them:
'All’s well?'
So they wave and hail back:
'Aye, all is well!'
Now, it is eight in the morning and the dog is waiting for the cat to relieve him on his watch but there is no sign of her … the cat is still snoozing, and so the dog pads down the wooden ladder to the Captain's cabin and passes the galley where the cook is brewing up some coffee, and he sees the table is laid for a celebration breakfast. 'Only one more day me Johnny, one more day,' he thinks and when he gets to the Captain's cabin, there’s the cat, lying on the Captain's dressing gown …
'Ahem-Grrr!' maybe it was a cough or maybe a bit of a growl, it doesn’t wake the cat though.
'Your watch! Your watch!’' Cries the parakeet!
That wakes the cat and she stretches and arches her back – oh yes –
'I suppose it is my watch …' She purrs and she slips out of the door and the dog settles down for a well-earned snooze.
Well, he doesn't know how long he sleeps, but suddenly he is awake!
'Abandon ship! Abandon ship!’ The Parakeet is squawking in his cage, fit to burst! Well the dog leaps up and jumps on deck and there is nobody there.
Where’s the cat? She is down below in the crew's quarters trying to find out where they have gone. She pads back up onto the deck and reports that all the hammocks are neatly stowed and the sea chests are there locked and ready to carry home. The dog does a round of the deck and notices that the longboat, the rowing boat with its six oars, is missing, so he scans the horizon but there is no sign of the Captain and the crew. The dog goes to the prow of the ship and looks ahead and sees land.
'Land Ahoy! Land Ahoy!' cries the parakeet from below decks. The dog wonders, how does he know when he cannot see what is happening outside, on deck?
Well, Newport harbour is very difficult to navigate, so what is the dog to do? Well, of course, he could beach her, just let the wind in the sails simply take her onto the beach. Eastern Beach? That would be an idea, but the breakers there are fierce, great big waves pounding in onto that gravelly shore.
In the distance he can see the beach and there is a line of people, watching and waiting; they seem to have empty carts and to be holding empty sacks …
'Ahh!' The dog remembers …
A ship that comes around the coast with not a single soul on board – that is then legally then wreck. These people are w reckers! They want to come on board and take the cargo, well anything really that is not nailed down… maybe even a cat, a dog, and a parakeet? What is he to do?
The wind gets up and they are heading towards that beach and with a grunt and growl and a whoosh … they are washed up and stuck on the beach and those wreckers wade through the surf and climb on board, they search the hold, find the coffee and they are surprised to find the coffee bubbling away still on the stove and the table in the galley is laid for a celebration breakfast. The Captain's dressing gown is still warm … it really is a mystery, but they take their prizes and they scamper back to the beach pretty quick.
Now, that night there is a storm - the wind howls, the breakers roar onto the beach and they think that the next day the ship The Seabird will surely be found in pieces, wrecked, but when they get down to the shore, there is no sign of the good ship The Seabird … it has simply disappeared along with its crew: the dog, the cat and the parakeet …
Now, this mystery has never been solved, so perhaps you can think about why the Captain and his crew abandoned ship, and what adventures the dog, the cat and the parakeet went on to have?
© Jan Bee Brown 2020