The Boys of the "Puffin"

The Boys of the "Puffin" by Percy F. Westerman

The Boys of the “Puffin” follows the Aberstour Sea Scouts and their yacht, the eight-ton auxiliary cutter _Puffin_, in a series of sea adventures led by Scoutmaster Theodore Grant and centred chiefly on Peter Craddock and Patrol-leader Frank Brandon. Peter first encounters a stranger on Aberstour pier who questions him closely about Mr. Grant, the Scouts, and their yacht. Soon afterward, while Grant is away, a supposed Scoutmaster, George Gregory, arrives with a letter authorising him to take the boys to sea. Gregory proves an able sailor and takes the _Puffin_ far from home, deliberately disabling the motor and arranging a night meeting with a ketch. He receives letters and a parcel from it, claiming they are to be carried ashore. Peter becomes suspicious when he notices that the letter supposedly written by Grant repeats Grant’s own misspelling of “accommodation.” He also observes secret signalling between Gregory and the ketch. The Scouts imprison their false Scoutmaster in the fo’c’sle, alert the Customs officers, and discover that the parcel contains cocaine. “Gregory,” really Harry Benz, is arrested, although an accomplice’s motorcar crashes while attempting to assist him. On another cruise, the Scouts find a drifting mine in the fairway. Grant and Peter swim out and attach a makeshift buoy to its chain, enabling the coastguard and a gunboat to locate it. Rifle and machine-gun fire eventually detonates the mine safely. The Scouts next encounter the abandoned s.s. _Getalong_, apparently sinking in fog. Grant boards her with Peter and Phillips and discovers that her flooding has been deliberately caused by an opened valve and broken pipe joint. A dead sheep has temporarily blocked the intake, preventing rapid sinking. Grant closes the valve, starts the bilge pumps, and sends the _Puffin_ back for the tug _Stormcock_. The _Getalong_ is salvaged and towed into Aberstour. Her captain, Josiah Quelch, and chief engineer had arranged to scuttle her for insurance money under pressure from Mr. Fiandersole; returning to Aberstour, they are confronted by their intact ship and arrested. The underwriters later reward the Sea Scouts with fifty pounds. Peter’s eagerness to suspect danger causes trouble when he is left as ship-keeper aboard the _Puffin_ at Sablesham. Mr. Ulysses Paynton, an underwriter connected with the _Getalong_, comes aboard seeking Grant. Peter mistakes a steel spanner in Paynton’s pocket for a revolver and locks him in the cabin. During a stormy night the yacht breaks adrift, loses her anchor and cable, and grounds on Tinker Shoal. Paynton uses his sailing skill to help Peter refloat her, and the misunderstanding is cleared up when Grant returns. Frank Brandon helps old fisherman Negus aboard the smack _Frolic_. A Belgian drifter, the _Marie-Celeste_, cuts their trawl while illegally fishing near Silverknoll Bank. Negus retaliates by dropping the _Frolic’s_ anchor into the drifter’s gear, leaving the smaller boat fast to its trawl. When Belgian fishermen attempt to board them, Brandon and Negus defend themselves with boathook, stones, hatchet, and boiling water. Brandon signals ashore, and the destroyer _Seagull_ arrives to arrest the poachers. Their conviction explains the disappearance of fish from the bank. Peter and George Carline then serve as crew aboard Mr. Clifton’s ketch _Thetis_. At Ravensholm, the unpleasant Horatio Snodburry resents the yacht’s berth because it obstructs his view. The boys help Farmer Thorley recover ducks that Snodburry’s men have driven into his garden so that Snodburry can demand payment. Later Snodburry’s house catches fire. Peter and Carline rescue Snodburry from an upper room, Peter suffering burns and Carline breaking his wrist. Snodburry nevertheless remains ungrateful. On the return voyage of the _Thetis_, Peter, Grant, Clifton, and Rex the sheepdog endure a sudden squall that tears sails and nearly capsizes the yacht. Peter climbs aloft to cut away a jammed topsail halliard, and he helps repair the mainsail. Later, while Peter is alone at the helm at night, he disappears without explanation. Grant and Clifton search unsuccessfully and reach Mapplewick with their ensign at half-mast. Peter’s parents and Grant mourn him for a fortnight. The account ends with a letter revealing that Peter is alive aboard the s.s. _Boanerges_, off Bahia, Brazil. He has been picked up after his disappearance, has become an Able Seaman, and is enjoying life at sea; but the text does not yet explain how he was rescued or how he came aboard the ship.

By Percy F. Westerman · First published 1918 · Genre: Juvenile Adventure Fiction, Nautical Adventure, Scout Fiction · 25 chapters · 40,708 words

First lines

"ANY luck? " Sea Scout Peter Craddock had heard that question many / times before. It seemed to be a stock phrase with the numerous / trippers at Aberstour whenever they attempted to open a conversation / with any of the amateur fishermen on the pier-head.

Peter finished the task on which he was engaged -- placing a plump and / slippery ragworm upon a sharp, brand-new hook -- before replying.

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juvenile fiction · adventure · nautical fiction · sea voyage · British literature · coming of age · friendship · courage · shipboard life · maritime adventure · schoolboys · early 20th century

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The Boys of the "Puffin" is listed on Textopian as a novel by Percy F. Westerman, dated 1918 CE.

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