The Ghost Ship Mystery

  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?

  CHAPTER 3

  Windows Rattle

  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.

  By afternoon, their group was finished with their work. They reported back to the beach where Captain Bob was directing a group of teenagers raking the sand.

  “What else can we do?” Henry asked the captain.

  Captain Bob pushed back his cap. “Unless you can drive a pick-up truck, not much else. We’re shipshape here.”

  Benny tugged on the captain’s sleeve. “You think you’ll take your whale watching boat out tomorrow?”

  Jessie tried to shush Benny, but she was too late.

  Again, the man looked upset when Benny mentioned the boat. “I told you, I have work up the coast to do. I won’t be going out on my boat for awhile.”

  Benny pulled down his sailor cap and tried not to get upset. “Sorry,” he apologized.

  Captain Bob turned away from the children. He didn’t seem to want the Aldens bothering him.

  Henry handed over the work gloves, brooms, and extra bags without saying anything to Captain Bob. He turned to his brother: “Come on, Benny. Violet had a good idea in the middle of the night. Let’s see if we can find the grave of the lost sailor from the Flying Cloud. Wouldn’t that be interesting?”

  Captain Bob spun around and faced the children again. “Why don’t you kids get going—I’ve got work to do.”

  Henry’s eyebrows went up.

  “All right, Captain Bob,” Jessie said softly.

  The Aldens slowly walked toward the town. They didn’t say anything right away. All of them were puzzled.

  Benny kicked sand every few steps. “Why did Captain Bob get angry after we did a good job?”

  Jessie shook her head. “I don’t know, Benny. Maybe he was up working all night and got in a bad mood.”

  Henry put his arm around his younger brother. “Maybe he’s upset about losing business because of the storm. Mr. Pease seems to like him, so let’s not say anything. Jessie might be right that he’s just in a bad mood from working too hard.”

  “What about what that guest said about Captain Bob last night?” Violet asked.

  Henry walked along. “You mean that the museum curator says Captain Bob is no better than a pirate? That’s probably just a lot of talk.”

  Violet turned around to take another look at Captain Bob. He was off in the distance putting up benches that had blown over. “I think it’s a lot of talk, too. Maybe somebody he loves is buried in the cemetery and thinking of them upset him.”

  Henry smiled at his sister. “Maybe you’re right. We’ll be careful and respectful while we’re there.”

  The children strolled toward a bluff that overlooked the town and the beach. Beach plum bushes lined the small road that led up to the cemetery.

  The Aldens were quiet in this special spot. The cemetery looked very old. Many of the words on the gravestones were worn away by time and weather.

  “It’s pretty here,” Violet said quietly. “You can see the town and the ocean in every direction.”

  The children walked to the very top of the bluff. The oldest stones were there. They stopped in front of a section marked off by a rusting fence. A sign on it said: COFFIN Family Plot.

  Jessie read some of the granite markers. “Oh look! There’s Emily Coffin’s gravestone —1844–1879. She only lived ten years after her husband drowned.”

  “It’s so sad that he drowned at sea. They couldn’t be buried next to each other,” Violet said softly. “There’s an empty space between her grave and their children’s graves.”

  The Aldens were silent for a few minutes. The wind had died down. They listened to the faint breeze blowing through the beach grass that surrounded the gravestones.

  Jessie walked away first. In a minute she found what she was looking for. She waved her brothers and sister over.

  “Here it is.” She pointed to a small, half buried gravestone. “Caleb Plummer. 1855– 1869. A brave young sailor, too late to save his ship.”

  “Isn’t that the name in the book you read last night?” Henry asked.

  Jessie nodded sadly. “Yes. He was fourteen, just like you, Henry. Everyone thought he rowed to shore to get help for the Flying Cloud. But he was too late.”

  The children took one another’s hands. The sun was going down. Out in the cove they could see the boaters returning to the docks. A little farther out, they saw a dark figure rowing to shore.

  “It’s time to leave,” Henry said quietly.

  The children turned away from the graves of Caleb Plummer and Emily Coffin. They made their way back to town without a word and without seeing that the little rowboat had disappeared.

  CHAPTER 4

  Go Away!

  Golden sunlight poured into the Crow’s Nest as the Aldens awakened.

  Jessie tiptoed to the big windows to feel the sun. She opened the doors that led to the widow’s walk. “Mmm, fresh sea air.”

  “Do you see any land yet?” Henry joked. “I dreamed we were on a long sea voyage.”

  Jessie focused the telescope the Peases left by the window. “I see lots of land with lots of people,” she answered, laughing. Then she stopped. “Hey, come here, Henry. Isn’t that Captain Bob out on the Jonah?”

  Henry jumped out of bed to take a look. “It sure is. I thought he said he was driving up the coast today. Do you suppose he’s running his whale watch trips after all?”

  “If he is, let’s get down to the dock,” Jessie said. “A sign said the trips leave at eight. We’ve only got half an hour.”

  Henry and Jessie tickled Benny and Violet to get them out of bed.

  “Why are we rushing?” Violet said, rubbing her eyes.

  “Captain Bob is out on his boat,” Henry told his sister. “We want to see if he’s going out to watch whales today.”

  “Whales! Did somebody say ‘whales’?” Benny cried.

  The children left a note under the door of their grandfather’s room and went downstairs to tell Mrs. Pease their plans.

  She shook her head. “I’ll pack a few muffins for the trip. But I don’t think the Jonah is scheduled for any whale watches today. Mr. Pease said Captain Bob had other plans for the next few days. We’ve never figured out where he disappears to after every big storm.”

  “Well, we’re going to try, just in case,” Benny said hopefully.

  Mrs. Pease handed Benny a cloth napkin filled with warm muffins for the trip.

  The children ran through the sleepy streets of Ragged Cove and down to the town dock. Sure enough, the Aldens could hear the Jonah’s motor warming up. They raced down the dock to the bright blue boat.

  “Captain Bob! Captain Bob!” Henry yelled, nearly out of breath.

  Jessie whispered to Henry. “Do you think one of us should go on board and see if he’s down below? Maybe he didn’t hear us.”

  Jessie didn’t wait for Henry’s answer. She walked cautiously up the gangplank then walked on deck. Before she got very far, a voice boomed out.

  “What are you doing on this boat?” Captain Bob yelled when he came up from the engine room.

  Jessie jumped back and caught herself on the railing. “We came to see if you were taking people out whale watching after all.”

  Captain Bob’s face grew red. He seemed about to shout until he saw that he was scaring the children. He looked down at his boots and shook his head. “I’m not going out today. Told you kids that. Now off you go.”

  Jessie didn’t argue. She walked down the gangplank and away from the Jonah with her brothers and sister.

  “Maybe another day,” Captain Bob called out. “Just not today.”

  “Let’s go sit up on a bench and have breakfast,” Henry suggested. “We’ll try to come up with some better plans.”

  But coming up with better plans wasn’t easy. It was such a sunny, warm day. Nothing seemed nearly as much fun as whale watching. Jessie unwrapped the napkin full of muffins. The children each took one but only nibbled at the edges. They watched Captain Bob untie the Jonah
then slowly steer it out of the protected cove.

  “Look, he’s heading north, up the coast,” Henry pointed out. “Not straight out to sea. Maybe he decided to take the boat up the coast instead of taking his truck like he told us yesterday.”

  “He’d better be careful,” Violet said. “Howling Cliffs is in that direction. Mr. Pease said there are lots of boat wrecks up that way.”

  Benny tossed crumbs of muffins to the seagulls that had discovered the Aldens. “What are we going to do today, Henry?” he asked his older brother.

  “Maybe we can visit the Sailors’ Museum,” Henry said. “Even if we can’t go on a whale watching boat, we can go look at pictures and souvenirs of boats at the museum.”

  Violet was worried. “What if that woman, Miss Coffin, won’t let us in? Mr. Pease said she doesn’t even like grown-ups visiting.”

  “We’ll try, just in case,” Jessie said. “I’d like to see some scrimshaw and sea paintings.”

  “If I can’t be on the sea, at least I’ll get to look at a painting of it,” Benny said.

  The other children laughed, but they agreed with Benny.

  CHAPTER 5

  A Parrot with a Secret

  The Aldens made their way slowly past the quaint shops that lined the cobblestone streets of Ragged Cove. They headed to a big white captain’s house with a huge black ship’s anchor planted in front.

  “Looks like this is it,” Henry said when he saw the sign for the Sailors’ Museum. “Not exactly busy.”

  “Not exactly open, either,” Jessie said.

  She stepped up to the door and rapped on the brass door knocker. While the children waited for someone to open up, Benny peeked in the window by the door.

  “There’s somebody inside. A lady with gray hair, I think. She’s just standing there,” Benny told Jessie. “Knock again.”

  Jessie did. She rapped nearly a dozen times before the door opened just a crack.

  “No children allowed without an adult,” an old voice said from the inside.

  This didn’t stop Jessie Alden. “But . . . the sign here says the adult can be fourteen or over. Our brother Henry is fourteen.”