Fearful of their captain, but sorry for the boy who had always done his best, the pirates tied the end of the plank to the deck, and stood back apologetically while the captain shouted at the cabin boy. 

The cabin boy stepped onto the plank and made his way slowly out over the edge of the ship. The plank began to wobble, at first slowly, then with each step more and more violently. It was an old plank, and it been used frequently recently for this very purpose. The captain seemed more and more ken on making his victims walk along it out over the sea and straight off the end into the mouths of the waiting sharks. Yum.

In fact, the plank was about to retire in a most dramatic way. As the boy reached the half way mark there was a sudden cracking sound which stopped even the captain in mid shout. Without further warning the plank broke where it met the side of the ship and the boy fell rapidly downwards towards the circling fins. One of the ship’s cannons, which had been left sticking out of the gun port, prevented the cabin boy from falling all the way to the sea, and he found himself sitting on the plank which was now balanced on the barrel of the cannon, rocking this way and then that way. He quickly seized his opportunity and crawled through the opening onto the gun deck.

Meanwhile the end of the plank which had been secured to the deck hadn’t been as secure as the pirates thought and as the boy and half the planks fell downwards, the other end sprang into the air as if alive, striking the captain a heavy blow on the head. The captain fell to the deck, unconscious and, the pirates realised, silent for once and for the first time at their mercy. Never ones to miss an opportunity to improve their position they hauled the captain the side of the ship and with no ceremony at all threw him over the side, straight into the mouths of the waiting sharks. Yum!