A Piratical Sabbatical

A Piratical Sabbatical
or The Students in an Adventure with Coconuts
or MechaCroc Vs. ????

Whilst recovering from the events of the day Burley, William, Susan and Brutus notice that the climate seems quite warm, although there is a cool breeze blowing from the bay.

Burley does a bit of rushing around, the end result is, is that there is a slightly bemused Persian in the possession of a note and drawing of a certain ship.

The beach has turned white and sandy, and all along the bay hundreds of coconut trees have appeared, some heavy with fruit. The sounds and smell of the city behind them have been muted. In the bay there are some decidedly old fashioned looking vessels of an eccentric nature - there’s even vessels with the distinctive fan shaped rigging of the seas of Cathay.

A number of very piratical looking people are gathered on the beach, looking at a vessel in the shape of an enormous mechanical crocodile, together with articulated jaws and tail! moored at a jetty.

“It’s discriminatory, is what it is.” Mutters a piratical type to his mate as he and his mates are apparently regected - too old it seems, for The Captain's purposes.

The Captain is seeking a crew and there is quite a queue - many sailors seem very eager to join, or even just to have the opportunity  to speak with The Captain. He is a well spoken man in quite a restrained dark uniform, with a long coat. He has lost his left hand at some point and wears an iron hook as a replacement. 

He asks if any of the students attended Eton, and is wearing cufflinks with this device -Azure, a lion rampant argent, crowned or,impaling Gules, an orle argent, which some of the students identify as being Balliol's achievement.

The Captain offers the students a place. The Jolly Roger's clockwork tail is a major means of propulsion and he needs winders and lookouts., As his mission is to deliver invitations to the various inhabitants of "Neverisle" he needs people of sufficient youth not to be an affront to Neverisle, as he will be staying mostly on his ship.

As 15 ships in the past have been lost in the past few years (although the crews saved, and eventually sent back with apologies, but no regrets by the mysterious captain who says he's nobody of the undersea swordfish shaped vessel), it's considered that The Captain's orichalcum clad ship, with her retractable masts and great orichalcum deck covers, and her speed too, even with no wind, will at least be a match for the devastating underwater vessel.

The students are assured that they will be returned in time to catch their train - however many weeks may pass! and that while, of course there is some danger, the Captain gives his word that he will make every effort to return them safely. "Even my own worst enemy will agree that once given, I have never broken my word. It would be of the poorest form to do so!"

The students agree, and The Captain introduces himself as "Captain James - pirating days behind me - a privateer, I can show you Letters Of Marque from any country you can name!" and tells them to return within two hours, so they go off and amuse themselves with snake dancers and jerk chicken up at the settlement at Landfall.

Then they return to the ship and are shown around her marvels. Steam in the galley, and the great winder, regulator and movement. The masts telescope and can be retracted, and the entire ship can be clad - the deck and sides entirely.

She's a very clean vessel and cuts through the waves with barely a roll.

Set sail for NeverIsle!