The Ghost Ship Mystery (2 page)

“Emily Coffin was the first to spot the
Flying Cloud
on the horizon. She and the other townspeople ran out to the beach. Everyone watched nervously. Then, right before their eyes, the horror began. A huge gust of wind broke the mast like a matchstick. In a few seconds, it toppled into the open sea.
”

Jessie paused in her reading to look around the sitting room. Even the grown-ups sat on the edge of their seats. Violet and Benny sat up in their sleeping bags. They hugged their knees to their chests as tightly as they could.

“My goodness, girl!” a guest cried out from a corner of the sitting room. “Get on with the story before we die of suspense.”

Jessie went on.
“Everyone on shore watched as the tall mast sank beneath the waves. Only its sail floated across the water like a sheet.

“One voice cried above the others: ‘To the ship! To the ship! We must row to the ship.’ ”

Jessie stopped to catch her breath as if she were one of the very people in the story.

“Keep reading, Jessie,” Benny begged. “What happened next?”

“The
Flying Cloud
tilted sideways. Each gust of wind blew it toward the deadly rocks nearby. Someone on board sent flares into the air, but the blinding rain blew them out.

“Eight of the strongest rowers in Ragged Cove jumped into a rowboat. With Emily Coffin shouting from shore, ‘Hurry! Hurry!’ the rowers tried to beat back the waves. The rain had stopped, but the wind was still strong. Alas, for every inch they gained, they were blown back onto the shore a few feet.

“It was hopeless,”
Jessie read, her voice sad.
“And nearly deadly. For one huge wave swamped the bobbing rowboat. All the men went overboard, and the rowboat sank.”

“Oh, no!” several listeners cried when Jessie got to this part.

“The men, strong swimmers all, made it back to shore. But there was no cheering. Everyone could see that the
Flying Cloud
was now in great danger. A minute later, a glow came from the broken ship as it drifted ever nearer to the deadly rocks.

“‘Look, they’re trying to signal us!’ someone onshore screamed. ‘But what can we do while these winds blow against us?’

“What could they do? The
Flying Cloud
was out of reach and listing badly. People talked about the danger of using fire with so much whale oil on board.

“Another roar went up in the crowd as a huge bonfire appeared over the water. The
Flying Cloud
was in flames!

“Someone cried: ‘It’s going down! It’s sinking!’

“‘Are they lowering the lifeboats?’ someone else asked.

“‘It’s impossible to see with all the smoke,’ another voice answered. ‘Let us hope and pray.’

“But their hopes and prayers did not help. The
Flying Cloud
disappeared beneath the waves. The horizon was empty again.

“The townspeople returned to their homes in grief. Only a few people were still at the beach when a young cabin boy named Caleb Plummer made it to shore hours later. He was in shock. He mumbled about the ship being taken over by a sailor named Eli Hull. He died without finishing his story. No one knew what had happened to Captain Coffin or if there had been a mutiny.”

Benny tapped Jessie’s arm. “Jessie, what’s a mutiny?”

“That’s when the crew fights against the captain to take over the ship.”

“Oh, okay,” Benny whispered. “Now you can keep reading.”

So Jessie did.

“On stormy days and nights, some people claim to see lights flickering, out where the
Flying Cloud
went to its watery grave. Some even say they see a rower on the waves who never reaches the shore. Others hear voices crying along the rocky coast, now called Howling Cliffs. But others say there are no lights, no rowers, no voices, only the sound of the dangerous sea.
”

Jessie closed the book.

“Wasn’t anyone else found besides the young sailor?” Violet asked.

“No one,” answered Mr. Pease, who had just come in. “The ship burned too quickly.”

“Did wreckage turn up?” Henry asked.

Mr. Pease shook his head. “A few months after the shipwreck a sealed bottle washed up on the beach. Inside were some pages from Captain Coffin’s diary recording all but his last few days. It’s a mystery that no one has ever figured out. There are stories about the captain forcing the ship to stay out at sea when it should have returned. And, of course, the sailor’s words about a mutiny. But no one really knows what happened.”

“What was in those diary pages?” Jessie asked.

Mr. Pease pushed back his own captain’s hat and shook his head. “No one knows for sure. You see, out of respect for the captain’s widow, Emily Coffin, the pages were turned over to her. She burned them before anyone got to read them. The rest of the diary was never found.”

Mrs. Pease, who had been listening from the doorway, spoke to everyone in a soft voice. “Perhaps. Emily Coffin told her children her husband died a hero at sea.”

Jessie shivered when a blast of wind hit the Black Dog Inn. “It must have been so dangerous to be at sea if it was anything like tonight. How terrible that so little was saved from the ship.”

“Well,” Mr. Pease began, “there were a few things besides those pages that washed up— some carvings on whalebone or whale ivory called scrimshaw.”

Violet’s face brightened. “Oh, yes, we’ve seen them in museums. Sailors used to carve them with pretty pictures during their long trips away.”

Mrs. Pease smiled. “You’ll see no prettier scrimshaw than the collection right here in Ragged Cove at the Sailors’ Museum. Perhaps you—”

Before Mrs. Pease could finish, Mr. Pease said to his wife, “Now, now. You know how Prudence is.” Turning to the children he explained, “She’s the curator of the museum. Lately she only allows organized school groups to visit. She wouldn’t even let our own grandchildren stop in the last time they came to Ragged Cove.”

One of the guests nodded. “That woman doesn’t even want adult tourists. Thinks she owns the place, she does!” the woman complained. “Why I have a mind to complain to the town Visitors’ Bureau.”

Mr. Pease threw up his hands. “I know. I’ve tried to reason with Prudence. Told her more than once she’s going to lose funding for the museum one of these days if she keeps being so stingy with her hours.”

Violet looked disappointed. “Oh, dear. I had hoped to see some of those carvings.”

“Same here,” Henry agreed. “I like to carve things myself and thought I could learn a thing or two. I heard it’s the best sailing museum around. We Aldens like anything to do with boats.”

“Houseboats, rowboats, sailboats, all boats!” Benny added.

Mr. Pease gave Benny a friendly cuff on the shoulder. “When this mean storm gets tired out, I know Bob Hull will give you a ride on his whale watch boat. That’s something you won’t forget in a hurry. It may be a few days, though. There’ll be major cleaning up to do after this storm—no doubt about that.”

“Maybe a treasure from the
Flying Cloud
will wash up onshore, and we’ll find it!” Benny declared.

“We know you will!” one guest said with a laugh.

Mr. Pease turned to Benny. “You’ll find a thing or two for sure, my boy. Maybe not from the
Flying Cloud,
of course. But every storm sends in some surprise.”

Unlike Benny, Jessie wasn’t thinking about surprises. She just couldn’t get the
Flying Cloud
out of her mind. “I do wish we knew what was written on those pages that Emily Coffin burned.”

Mrs. Pease went over to the bookcase next to the fireplace. She pulled down an old gray book and handed it to Jessie. “Maybe you’ll get an idea from this.”

“What is it?” Jessie asked.

“A much longer book about the
Flying Cloud.
”

Jessie opened to the title page. In beautiful old-fashioned letters it said:
The True Story of the Flying Cloud by Prudence Coffin.
“The museum curator wrote this?” Jessie asked.

“Yes. Prudence Coffin is the great-granddaughter of Captain Jeremiah Coffin and Emily Coffin,” Mrs. Pease explained. “She wrote this account of the
Flying Cloud,
based on her great-grandmother’s family stories, which were passed down.”

“Humph!” one of the guests said. “And my father is King Neptune!”

Benny’s eyes were like big blue saucers. “He is? Really?”

Even Violet laughed at this. “Not really, Benny. She’s exaggerating.”

“Not half as much as that Miss Coffin,” the woman went on. “She thinks the Coffins are the only family worth anything in these parts. She claims my ancestor, Eli Hull, led a mutiny against Captain Coffin! And now she’s going around saying that my great-nephew, Bob Hull, is no better than a pirate! She’s trying to ruin his whale watch business with her stories.”

“There, there, Miss Blue,” Mrs. Pease said to calm down the woman before she spoiled the evening. “Here, have another johnnycake and cup of tea.”

Mrs. Pease’s delicious “Bennycakes” worked their magic and quieted the woman. The Aldens, though, were more curious than ever. What was the
real
story of the
Flying Cloud?

By six o’clock in the morning, rays of sunlight squeezed through the shutters. It was warm in the sitting room. The heat was on again. Henry was sound asleep right next to the Peases’ dog, Blackie.

“Shh, Benny,” Mrs. Pease said when she came in to check on her sleeping guests. “The electricity and heat came back on at four. We told Henry to leave the fire and get some sleep in his own bed upstairs. But he wouldn’t leave you children. He’s been sleeping on the floor for two hours.”

“Well he won’t be sleeping much longer. Look!” Benny cried.

Blackie was licking Henry’s face and making the same kind of whining noises Watch always made to get the Aldens up.

“It’s too early, Watch,” Henry mumbled when he felt the dog’s wet nose on his face. “Go back to sleep.”

The Aldens and the other guests couldn’t help laughing.

“Here, boy, here,” Jessie called to Blackie.

The dog trotted over to Jessie and looked up at her. She patted his smooth, black forehead. “I’ll take you outside.”

The word “outside” was magic. Just like Watch, Blackie raced around in circles while Jessie got his leash.

“I guess all dogs are the same,” Benny laughed.

“And I guess two hours is all the sleep I’m going to get,” Henry said, yawning.

The Peases urged their guests to go back to their rooms for real sleep. It was no use. Everyone wanted to see what damage the storm had done.

“Let’s get dressed,” Benny said. “I want to see the ocean!”

“Wouldn’t you like some breakfast first?” Mrs. Pease asked.

“Wow! I almost forgot!” Benny answered.

The Aldens sat down to breakfast when Jessie came back with Blackie. “The town needs volunteers to help with the clean-up,” she told everyone. “There are branches and papers and things blown all over. Anyone who wants to help should meet down at the beach in half an hour.”

“I’d better have some seconds on those Bennycakes,” Benny said. “Cleaning up a whole town is going to make me hungry!”

The minute they had finished, the Aldens said good-bye to their grandfather and raced through the old, narrow streets.

“Everything is blown all over the place,” Violet said when she looked around.

Ragged Cove did look a bit topsy-turvy. Store signs were hanging crookedly from buildings. Window boxes had smashed onto the streets.

“Looks like the whole town is here,” Jessie said when the children reached the crowded beach and docks.

Owners were busy putting their boats back into the water. Mr. Pease was holding a clipboard. A younger man in a blue sailor cap handed out big black trash bags and work gloves to the volunteers.

Mr. Pease waved to the Aldens. “Come over here and meet Captain Bob. He’s organizing the litter crew. Captain Bob, meet the Aldens—Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. Best crew you could ever have.”

“Welcome aboard,” the young man said.

Mr. Pease teased Captain Bob. “Now don’t talk boat-talk today, Bob. Not unless you want to upset this crew. They were counting on a whale watch ride on the
Jonah
during their visit.”

The young man’s smile suddenly disappeared. “No boat rides anytime soon,” he told the children.

This didn’t stop Benny Alden. “You don’t know how fast we work. We can get everything shipshape today. Then maybe could we go for a boat ride?”

Captain Bob shook his head. “Sorry, I have to drive up the coast with my truck tomorrow, once we get Ragged Cove in shape. I can’t see my way clear for awhile.”

Benny was about to speak until he saw Henry give him a look. He knew what that look meant: Button up, Benny!

With some of the other volunteers, the Aldens set off through Ragged Cove with a street map, trash bags, some work gloves, and brooms.

“I never cleaned a town before,” Benny said, sounding as if he were on a treasure hunt instead of a clean-up. “Maybe we’ll find something.”

The Aldens found lots of things. Wet newspapers, boxes, bottles, even a sandy old sneaker went into a garbage bag. Then the children fanned out through the town to gather up the broken branches that were lying everywhere.