Chapter 1 - Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe

1693, Trinidad



A sailing ship off the coast of Trinidad, carrying a shipment of silver, was caught in a perilous breeze. The ship rocked and swayed in the gale as the sailors were drenched in the sea-spray. A woman, Elizabeth Hartman, was aboard, as was her fiancée, a sailor named Bobby Shaftoe.



Handsome man, Bobby was. Silver buckles on his knees, long, flaxen hair, the works. Alas, the merciless waters threw him off the ship and into the water, where he drowned. He had been drunk at the time. Elizabeth went into a state of mourning for months afterward.





1694, Guadalupe



Bobby Shaftoe's body was carried by the waters to Guadalupe, where it washed up on a beach. Locals came to investigate the body. They found no signs of life—until Bobby opened his eyes.



The people who found him had just enough time to describe the look in Shaftoe's eyes. The pupils were missing, the expression was vacant and the eyes were bloodshot… They both died of shock two hours later.



The next day, skeptics had come to bury the “dead” body, but no body was found. They looked all over for the body, but it was nowhere to be found.



Bobby Shaftoe had gone to claim his bride.



1697, England



Elizabeth was back in England. She had long forgotten Bobby's death. She looked out the window. She saw cliffs, stars in the black sky, the sea…



But ho! What was that? A black shape had appeared in the water. Not a sea lion's head, nor a fish. It was a human head. Slowly, the man walked out of the water. Elizabeth was so shocked, she hid. A knock on the door was heard. “Come in!” Elizabeth said automatically. She didn't realize how scared she was at the time.



It was Bobby.



Nobody knows what happened afterward, but this nursery rhyme remains.



"Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee,
He'll come back to marry me,
Bonnie Bobby Shaftoe"

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