Ahoy, Ghost Ship Ahead! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - Rotten Trouble

  Chapter 2 - From Sea to Stormy Sea

  Chapter 3 - Soggy Report

  Chapter 4 - Rise and Spook

  Chapter 5 - Whale of a Tale

  Chapter 6 - Shipwrecked

  Chapter 7 - Sleepover Secrets

  Chapter 8 - BOO!

  Chapter 9 - All Aboard!

  Chapter 10 - Gangway!

  For my wife—and the ghost train

  we once encountered.—B J

  To my mom and dad, who have

  never stopped missing the ocean.—JZ

  GROSSET & DUNLAP

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  Text copyright © 2007 by Brian James. Illustrations copyright © 2007 by Jennifer Zivoin.

  All rights reserved. Published by Grosset & Dunlap, a division of Penguin Young Readers

  Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. GROSSET & DUNLAP is a

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  Library of Congress Control Number: 2006038242

  eISBN : 978-1-101-50037-8

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  Chapter 1

  Rotten Trouble

  The waves crashed against the side of the Sea Rat. The sky was dark, too. We were sailing right into a storm. The whole pirate ship rocked back and forth.

  “Arrr! The sea is pretty rough today,” I said. I held onto the mast to keep my balance. “This is going to be a big storm.”

  “Aye! It’s making me a little seasick,” Gary said, covering his mouth. His face was turning as green as the seaweed slop we’d had for breakfast.

  “Blimey! Whoever heard of a pirate getting seasick?” Aaron asked. He held his gut and laughed. “A pirate getting seasick is like a bird being afraid of heights.”

  “Arrr! Stop teasing! You were seasick once, too!” Vicky snapped.

  “Never!” Aaron bragged.

  “Uh-huh!” Vicky argued. She’s Aaron’s twin sister. So she’s known him every day of his entire life. “What about the time on our last ship when that seagull made an oops on your head? Then you made an oops all over the deck?”

  Aaron’s face turned red. He folded his arms and turned his back to us. “That was different,” he said with a huff.

  “Still counts.” Vicky smiled, her dark eyes twinkling.

  I looked at Gary. He still looked sickish. “Maybe you should go belowdecks.”

  “I’ll be shipshape soon,” he said. “I don’t want to miss a single second of Pirate School. Besides, I think it’s the seaweed slop that’s making me sick.”

  “Aye!” I said. “That grub sure is gruesome.”

  It was Rotten Tooth’s very own recipe. Good thing he wasn’t always the cook. Rotten Tooth was the first mate. He was the meanest, dirtiest pirate on the ship. He only made his seaweed slop before storms. “It be good luck,” he told us. He said it was a secret recipe. He should have said it was a stinky recipe.

  But his cooking wasn’t even the worst part about Rotten Tooth. The worst part was that he was also our pirate teacher! We had all come to this ship to go to Pirate School. But so far, Rotten Tooth hadn’t taught us a thing!

  “Where is Ol’ Rotten Guts, anyway?” Aaron asked. “He’s late for class!”

  Just then, we saw Inna running up from the galley and onto the deck. As usual, she was wearing fancy clothes. Inna might not dress like a pirate, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to become one.

  “Arrr! Rotten Tooth’s on his way,” she shouted. Then she covered her mouth to hide a giggle. “He fell asleep with his face flat down in a bowl of slop!”

  “Aye?” we asked.

  “Aye!” Inna said. “And he blew bubbles in it when he snored!”

  Then we all laughed.

  “I wonder if that’s the pirate lesson he’ll teach us today,” Vicky joked. “He’d probably tell Captain Stinky Beard that he was teaching us how to hold our breath and dive for sunken treasure!”

  “Aye,” I agreed.

  Rotten Tooth always told the captain he was teaching us more than he was. One time, he told Captain Stinky Beard that he taught us how to wipe the deck clean of our enemies. He forgot to mention the enemy was only grime and that our swords were mops. All he taught us was how to swab the deck. That’s because Rotten Tooth didn’t think kids could be good pirates. Lucky for us, Captain Stinky Beard was on our side.

  “Yo-ho-ho!” Aaron said in his deepest voice. “I’m Rotten Face.”

  He pretended to walk around like Rotten Tooth. He stomped his feet and made grumbling noises.

  “Pssst! Aaron?” Gary whispered, pointing his finger and trying to get Aaron to turn around.

  Just then, a big hand came to rest on Aaron’s head.

  Aaron gulped! His dark eyes opened wide.

  “AYE?” Rotten Tooth’s voice boomed in our ears. “Then who be I?”

  We looked up and saw Rotten Tooth’s green teeth snarling at us. His face was covered with slop, and he looked meaner than ever!

  “Uh ... um,” Aaron stuttered. He was frozen with fear.

  “Arrr! Stop ye sniveling and fall in!” Rotten Tooth said.

  “Aye aye!” Aaron said, and lined up with the rest of us.

  We all stood as straight as we could. Rotten Tooth paced back and forth in front of us.

  “Normally I’d make shark bait out of anyone caught making fun of me,” he said.

  We all held our breath. I thought for sure he’d have us scrubbing dishes and washing decks for the rest of our days.

  “But orders be orders. And my orders are to teach ye barnacles a lesson.”

  We weren’t getting punished? I couldn’t believe my ears.

  “Aye?” I asked. I was too excited to stay quiet. “We’re going to learn something today?” I couldn’t wait for our first real pirate lesson.

  “AYE! Ye will learn something,” Rotten Tooth snarled. Then he leaned in close and laughed. His laughter boomed as loud as the thunder off the starboard bow. And the wind blew his stinky breath right into our faces.

  Now I felt a little seasick. I held my nose. Something sure smelled rotten to me
.

  Chapter 2

  From Sea to Stormy Sea

  I held onto my pirate hat as the wind whipped around. “Arrr! It’s really stormy up here in the crow’s nest,” I said, wiping the rain from my face.

  “Aye!” Vicky agreed. Her normally reddish brown hair looked black. “How long did Rotten Tooth say we had to stay up here?”

  Inna made a face. Then she squeezed the water out of her skirt. “Long enough to get completely soggy,” she said. Then she looked at her hands and stuck her tongue out of her mouth. “My fingers are all wrinkly. YUCK!”

  “Don’t be such a pollywog,” Aaron said. Pollywog was pirate speak for calling Inna a baby. “Besides, it’s not so bad. The crow’s nest is our secret hideout.”

  “AYE! But not when it’s storming,” Inna shouted and stomped her foot.

  That was true. The crow’s nest was our favorite spot on the ship. It’s where we came to talk secret pirate kid things. But during a storm, it was always better to be warm and dry belowdecks.

  “Aye,” Gary said. “Soon it’ll be our secret swimming pool.”

  I looked at my feet. The water was already up to my ankles. “Aye, we’d better use the bucket to bail out the water.”

  Gary picked up the bucket by his feet. He scooped up the water and tossed it over the side. But Gary didn’t have very good aim. The bucket of water splashed right onto Vicky.

  “Sink me!” Vicky said. “We’re going to turn into fish up here.”

  “I think I’m already turning into a fish,” Inna said, showing us her wrinkled hands again.

  “Aye! Because you had to make fun of Rotten Tooth, we have to get all wet!” Vicky said, poking Aaron in the stomach.

  “Blimey! It’s not my fault Rotten Guts can’t take a joke,” Aaron said. “Besides, Gary got you all wet, not me.”

  Vicky was about to argue some more, but I interrupted.

  “Avast! You’re missing the most important part!” I finally said.

  My friends all looked at me.

  “Aye? What part?” Gary asked.

  “The part about us finally getting our first real pirate duty,” I answered. “We’re the ship’s lookouts!” I said proudly.

  “But Rotten Tooth only sent us up here to get us out of the way,” Aaron said.

  “And to get back at us for your teasing,” Vicky reminded Aaron.

  “Aye,” I agreed. “But he also told us to keep our eyes on the seas for rocks, reefs, and any other pirate ship that’s being tossed by the storm. Being a lookout is a big job during a storm.”

  My friends all thought about what I’d said. Gary took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Inna put her finger up to her mouth. Aaron and Vicky squinted their eyes. That meant they were all thinking very hard.

  “Pete’s right,” Vicky finally said. “Let’s stop bellyaching and start doing our duty.”

  “Aye aye!” Gary agreed.

  “Aye, we’ll show Rotten Tooth that we’re the best lookouts on the Sea Rat,” Aaron said.

  Inna frowned. She hated being soaking wet. “Aye,” she mumbled. “I still wish he’d taught us something a little less soggy, though. But I’ll do my best.”

  “That’s the spirit, mateys!” I said. “A good pirate always tries to do the best he can.”

  Then I lifted the spyglass up to my eye and looked out to sea. I didn’t see any rocks or reefs. I didn’t see any other ships. “I only see waves,” I said.

  “Let me look,” Aaron said.

  I handed him the spyglass.

  “Yep, nothing,” he said.

  Vicky took a turn next. She didn’t see anything, either. Then she handed the spyglass to Gary.

  Gary looked through it.

  “ARRR!” Gary shouted. “A sea monster!”

  Then Inna shouted, too.

  We all ducked down to hide.

  “If there’s really a sea monster, it’s our job to tell Captain Stinky Beard,” I whispered.

  “Aye, but first we better make sure it’s a real sea monster,” Vicky said.

  “Aye!” I agreed. Sometimes Gary made mistakes. If we told the cap’n there was a sea monster when there wasn’t, then the whole crew would think we were scallywags.

  I stood up. Then I looked out to the sea. I didn’t see any monsters.

  I took the spyglass from Gary. Then I looked out again.

  “Do you see it?” Gary asked.

  “Aye,” I said, and everyone gulped!

  But then I showed them the end of the spyglass. There was a small piece of seaweed stuck to the lens.

  “That’s the sea monster?” Aaron asked.

  I nodded. “It must have blown up here with the wind.”

  Gary shrugged his shoulders and smiled. “It looked scary through the lens,” he said.

  “Just wait until it makes its way into Rotten Tooth’s slop.” Vicky giggled. “Then it’ll be really scary.”

  We all laughed. Then we went back to looking for the things we were told to look for. We also looked for mermaids. That was Inna’s idea. “It’s a true fact that mermaids love to swim in storms,” she said.

  But we didn’t see any.

  In fact, we didn’t see anything.

  The only things we saw were waves, waves, and more waves. But that was okay with me, because being a lookout sure beat scrubbing dishes!

  Chapter 3

  Soggy Report

  By the time Rotten Tooth came back, it was raining even harder. We were soaked all the way through to our skivvies.

  “Ahoy, all hands on deck,” he shouted up to us.

  We grabbed the ropes and swung down from the crow’s nest.

  My feet splashed down in a puddle on the main deck, and I gave Rotten Tooth a soggy salute.

  Vicky landed next to me and did the same.

  So did Aaron and Inna.

  Gary did, too. Only Gary didn’t really land on his feet. He landed splash-down on his butt.

  “Lookout Pete reporting for duty!” I announced with a smile.

  “Aye aye! Us too!” Vicky said for everyone else.

  Rotten Tooth gave us all a long look. “Arrr! Why are ye mangy pups so sunny?” he sneered.

  “Because!” I answered. “We completed our first real pirate duty.”

  Rotten Tooth roared with laughter. “Real pirate duty?” he said, shaking his head. Then he held his stomach and laughed some more.

  We stopped smiling.

  I put my head down. “Maybe being a lookout isn’t such an important job after all,” I mumbled.

  “Great sails! Lookout is one of the most important jobs on a ship,” Captain Stinky Beard corrected, suddenly appearing behind us. “Especially during a storm,” he added.

  I popped up my head. Then I looked at Aaron and winked. “That’s exactly what I said,” I whispered to him.

  Rotten Tooth had stopped laughing as soon as Captain Stinky Beard showed up. “Aye, Cap’n,” he muttered. “I was just telling me little buckoes what a fine job they did.”

  Vicky rolled her eyes. “What a fibber,” she muttered.

  “Aye, a big stinky fibber,” Inna whispered back.

  Rotten Tooth glanced over at them and they quickly covered their mouths with both hands.

  “Hmm,” Captain Stinky Beard said. He gave Rotten Tooth a mean look. Then he looked back at us. “Well, what have ye to report?” he asked.

  “Waves! Lots of them,” I reported. I smiled extra wide. It was my first ever official report to the captain in my whole entire life. All nine years and three-quarters!

  “Aye?” Captain Stinky Beard asked.

  “AYE!” Gary shouted. “And water, too!”

  We all giggled, even the captain.

  “I’m proud of ye,” he said. “It was mighty brave of ye to stay up there in a storm. Aye, Rotten Tooth?”

  “Um ... aye,” Rotten Tooth stuttered.

  “But it’s getting dark, and the deck is no place for little shipmates during a storm,” the captain said to u
s. “It’s too dangerous. That’s why Rotten Tooth is taking your place as lookout until morning.”

  “Aye?” Rotten Tooth asked in surprise.

  “Aye,” the captain answered.

  Rotten Tooth made a face and groaned. He looked up at the crow’s nest. It was almost hidden by storm clouds. He gulped. Then he started to climb the rigging. “Aye,” he mumbled, “orders be orders.”

  Then Captain Stinky Beard ordered us belowdecks for some grub.

  “Not seaweed slop, I hope!” Gary said, turning a little green.

  “No,” Captain Stinky Beard said. “Only the best for me bravest pirates. Sardine ice cream for everyone!”

  “HOORAY!” we cheered. Sardine ice cream is every pirate’s favorite treat.

  We hurried down the stairs. We dripped all the way into the kitchen.

  “It feels good to be a pirate,” Inna said, “even if it is a soggy job.”

  “Aye!” I said. “I couldn’t have said it better myself!”

  Chapter 4

  Rise and Spook

  The next morning, I woke up before the sun did. The Sea Rat creaked as I rubbed my eyes.

  I looked out the porthole window.

  “Arrr! Gary, the storm stopped,” I said.

  Gary answered with a snore.

  I peeked over the side of my bunk. Gary was sound asleep in the bottom bunk. He used to have the top one, but he kept falling off in his sleep so we switched.

  I looked around our quarters. Aaron and Vicky were asleep in their bunks, too. I couldn’t see Inna. She had a pink curtain around her bed. But I could hear her snoring louder than anyone.

  I picked up my spyglass as they slept.

  I was still proud of the job we’d done the day before. I decided to give being a lookout another try. Now that the storm was over, maybe I’d see something besides waves.

  I pointed the spyglass at the window and looked through.