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And so the “Moby Dick” was the first to use the Two Snags Passage. Since then all our vessels have used it.

After she had passed through she bore away towards the easterly shore, and went easily along with the Bully Bowline current; but as she was not smoking properly, her Captain gave orders to beach her on Treasure Beach (we called it that name because it looked just the sort of beach pirates would choose to bury treasure in). When she came ashore we stirred up her furnace until it burnt magnificently, then we shoved her off[Pg 16] again, and she looked really great as her smoke and herself were both reflected in the water as clear as anything. She then continued her voyage over the Marbley Shallows on to Safety Cove.

The “Moby Dick” did so well that run that we thought we would send her down the river again at once, and we did send her down, and no mistake, because we put an anchor on her stern, with lots of cable, and just when she was going through No Name Straits she let go her anchor, because we wanted to see how she would look when it brought her up all standing.

Well, she dragged her anchor for a few yards until it caught in a weed, and what did she do but get pulled right down to the bottom of the river, the stream was too strong for her.

THE “THEODORE”

There was nothing very grand about the appearance of the “Theodore”; we were in a great hurry to go out, so could only build her very badly, but in spite of that she was a jolly good clipper.

She was built out of a long cardboard box, and had the lines of her ports painted on with ink, and the portholes were cut out. She did not have any masts, we did not have time to make any for her.

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.