THE VERY LONG VOYAGE OF THE “THEODORE.”
The “Theodore” was launched to the north of the Two Snags, but[Pg 18] she caught fire suddenly—really, we set fire to a lot of touchwood and stuff inside her because we wanted to see what a ship on fire would look like on the river.
And she looked splendid with the crimson flames coming out of her ports, and the reflection on the still piece of water just under the cliffs was beautiful.
The fire burnt away like mad, and did not go out till she got as far as Safety Cove. But the fire had not done the old “Theodore” a bit of harm; the water kept the fire from burning through her, except for one big hole the fire had burnt through just above the water line.
The skipper set all hands to work to rig up a tarpaulin to keep the water out; we really stuffed a big dock leaf in, and the “Theodore” continued her voyage right through a terribly dangerous passage at the western end of the Twisty Straits, opposite the Desolate Dead Man’s Teeth, and she passed The Narrows, the most dangerous place on the whole river, where there is only just room for one vessel to pass through at a time.
She continued round the next bend in great style, passing under[Pg 19] the Buccaneers’ Gallows, another most desperate place, and came out in the beautiful clear water, where she went along finely.
Then we had to go home, and the last we saw of her she was going round a big bend as fast as anything, and the man on the look-out was singing out,
“All clear ahead!” and the skipper was singing out,
“Keep her as she goes!” and the man at the wheel was singing out,
“Aye, aye, sir! as she goes it is.”
We went down the next day, but saw nothing of her, though we went ever so far along the river.
She may now be on the high seas, with a skipper shouting all the time,
“Keep her as she goes, and for the Spanish Main.”
And let no landsman doubt it,
She was a gallant ship;
And her Cap. (brave man) throughout it
Kept a stiff upper lip.
[THE “PASEAR”]
The “Pasear” was a top-sail schooner, and could not she just travel when the wind was in the proper quarter! She was built out of a bright green cardboard tie box, with a lid, and stones inside to ballast her.
On her fine, long voyage she passed all the dangers of the narrow reaches of the river, and sailed out into the deep, clear channel before the wind; and she went so far and so fast that it took us all our time to keep up with her, so we could not think of names for all the headlands she passed—she went nearly a mile.
Then “it was time for us to leave her,” so we left her all snug and comfortable in a little cove called Huckleberry Cove, after Finn.
We could not get down to the river again for two days, and when[Pg 21] we did we could not find her for a long time, but at last we did find her—under water—she had gone down in twenty fathoms, we could see her quite clearly resting on the sandy bottom; she must have sprung a leak, and her captain had not the sense to beach her, as he should have done.
[THE “NEW CORINTHIAN”]
She was the finest vessel we had in the fleet.
She was built out of a toy lifeboat, with a lead keel fastened on, and she had paper sails and a rudder.
The “New Corinthian” sailed in the nicest way, but we were too proud of her, after we had rigged her, to let her go down the big river, so we sailed her on a small pond called Mystery Bay; we called it that name because it looked so terribly deep, but was really only about three feet deep.
The “New Corinthian” did not have any adventurous voyages, but she had as good a time as she could have, sailing round and round Mystery Bay.
But it must have been pretty exciting on her when the tadpoles tried to board her.
But what we liked best was seeing the vessels of our fleet tearing[Pg 23] and gliding and shooting down the flood and through the currents of the Gara river.
