The brass compass / Four clues and a friendly star
Has anyone
seen north?
The needle was pointing at a fish. Tilly was fairly sure this was not how compasses usually behaved.
Look around
before setting off.
At Compass Island, the crew found four clues. Choose a direction to read its part of the mystery. The visited count belongs only to this open page.
A needle with an opinion
The fish drifted left. The needle drifted left. Rufus wondered whether the compass simply liked the company.
0 of 4 clues visitedWhat the crew discovered
The star was
the surprising part.
The bass had borrowed a little iron star from the island’s weather vane. It wore the star like a hat and looked enormously pleased with itself. The compass needle, distracted by the iron nearby, had been following the hat rather than helping the crew.
Tilly asked whether the fish would lend the star back to the island. It agreed, provided someone made a smaller paper one it could keep. Rufus folded a star from a spare page of his logbook, leaving the important biscuit count untouched.
When the iron star was put away from the compass, the needle settled. The crew checked their bearings, thanked their neighbour and returned to the ferry. North had never gone missing. They had simply needed to understand what was close at hand.
A fanciful story, not a navigation lesson. Real voyages need appropriate charts, equipment and expertise.
Back to the trunk, with a story to tell →