Gershwin’s submarine adventure

Once upon a time, there was a boy called Gershwin, and Gershwin was an adventurer. He’d been on so many adventures. He’d been to the desert, to the North Pole, to space, up mountains and to jungles. He’d even been to Monster Truck World. He’d been all over the place.

But the place he’d never been was under the sea, so that was where he thought he would go.

He didn’t know how he was going to get under the sea because it was very difficult. There were lots of ways to do it. You could snorkel or go deep-sea diving, but that wasn’t enough for Gershwin.

So he had to make some phone calls. First he called his uncle, then his sister. Eventually he called an old friend of his father’s, General Colonel Major Twelve. It was a very strange name, but it had been given to him to keep his identity secret.

General Colonel Major Twelve was in charge of the Twelfth Fleet, a big group of submarines that patrolled the Indian Ocean.

Gershwin made the phone call, and the general said, “Yes, we can take you for a tour of the Indian Ocean. Come on down to our base in Greenwich, and we’ll get you going.”

Gershwin took a bus all the way to Greenwich and got out at the pier. He walked down and met General Major Twelve, who took him to the submarine.

Gershwin stepped onto the top of the submarine and climbed down the hatch, down the ladder. Inside, everything got dark and very small. The corridors were so thin that you had to walk down them sideways, so they could fit lots of corridors into such a tiny space.

Very soon, Gershwin heard a siren. “Wop, wop!”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing to worry about,” said the general major. “We’re just going to start our descent into the water.”

Gershwin felt the ship going down. It was rather like flying. The pressure built up in his ears until they popped, and he could hear again.

He followed the general major, sidestepping through the corridors, until they reached the control room. It was huge. There were lots of people pressing buttons and watching screens. The most spectacular thing was right at the front: a giant glass window.

Gershwin looked through the glass and could see fish, sharks and all sorts of things. As they toured, they saw old sunken ships at the bottom of the ocean, coral reefs and a pack of humpback whales. Gershwin could see everything. It was the most amazing feeling.

Then Sergeant General Major Twelve turned to him. “How do you fancy test-driving one of our personal submarines?”

Gershwin was excited. He didn’t know what it was, but he said, “Yeah!”

They sidestepped along the corridor, and there in front of him was a really small submarine, only slightly bigger than him. The general opened the door, and they both got in. Before they knew it, they had fallen through a hole in the bottom of the big submarine and were in control of a brand-new tiny submarine.

Gershwin floated around. He could steer it, accelerate and go slower. He could even do a barrel roll, looping and looping, going upside down and all sorts. It was the most amazing thing he’d ever done in his life.

As he went round and round, Gershwin realised his seat belt wasn’t completely fastened. It popped out, and he hit the roof of the submarine. It sent him a bit funny, and he had a big bump on his head. But he managed to get seated again and strapped himself in properly this time.

After seeing all the fish, doing lots of loops and waving to a mermaid, Gershwin headed back to the big submarine. They docked inside it and returned to the control room.

Very soon, they were back at Greenwich Port. Gershwin could see the other eleven submarines surrounding him, all waving to him through their big glass windows.

The submarine made the strange alarm sound again and started to rise, up, up, up, until it popped out of the water.

Gershwin was so excited to be back on land that he jumped through the front window, and it smashed around him. He landed on a platform outside and climbed back onto the pier.

Now his head was really hurting from when he’d bashed it in the submarine, so he headed straight to the chemist and bought himself some lovely Paw Patrol plasters. He took one out, stuck it on his head, and it already started to feel so much better.

The adventure was over, and he’d had such a wonderful time. He hoped that in the future he would be able to see the mermaid he’d waved at again, but that would be a different adventure.

Now he headed home. When he got home, he wrote everything down in his journal. Then, very quickly before bed, he made a phone call to Sergeant General Major Twelve. He apologised very much for smashing the glass and thanked him very much for such a wonderful time. He told him that his head was feeling much, much better, and he would finally be able to fall asleep.

That was exactly what he did. He fell asleep, dreaming of the mermaid and his next adventure.

The end.