'Ah!' Captain Bill said. 'The problem, if you don't mind me saying, is that when I said turn left you turned right.'
'But you said hard a starboard,' Horace replied.
'Precisely!' Captain Bill mooed. 'Now, I'm not blaming you, although it was your fault, but it's these kind of elementary errors that lead to us getting lost.'
'But..' Horace began.
'The thing is,' Captain Bill continued, 'how do we find out where we now are?'
'But..' Horace began.
'This way!' Captain Bill interrupted. 'Follow me!' and he herded off to the side of the ship.
'The wheel?' Horace said.
'No need to bring it with you,' Captain Bill replied. 'Leave it there.'
So Horace abandoned the wheel and joined Captain Bill.
'Now,' Captain Bill said, 'strictly speaking I shouldn't be telling you this, bit of a Captain's secret, but it won't hurt, so what we have here is what we call 'a map'.' At this point Captain Bill flourished a map that had been tucked behind his knitted compass. 'So, if you have a quick look overboard.'
So Horace did.
'What colour do you see?' Captain Bill asked.
'Well,' Horace replied, '.........it's a sort of blue I suppose?'
'And if we compare that to the map the blue bits are?'
'....................Sea?' Horace suggested.
'Well done!' Captain Bill mooed. 'So immediately we know we must be somewhere on the sea and not on one of the green bits because the green bits are?'
'Land?' Horace replied.
'Correct!' Captain Bill exclaimed. 'I'll make a navigator of you yet!'
And at that very moment Bertha called out 'Land ahoy!' from the Cows Nest which gave Captain Bill the perfect opportunity to prove his theory.
Comments