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by Fred Neff (Author), Bill Dougal (Illustrator)
The population of winter flounder is disappearing in Long Island Sound. As angry fishermen feud with the local power plant to fix blame, the Great Nutmeg State commissions a legendary whaling ship to harpoon the flounders' nemesis: The Great Spotted Whale. It's up to young Pirate Calvin with the Wise Seaport Rat and a crew of little mateys to save the whale, setting course aboard the strangest pirate ship that ever sailed the seas.
The story reunites two characters from a previous adventure, Pirate Calvin meets the Wise Seaport Rat and is loosely based on historical events in Southeastern Connecticut. Some are factual, like the longstanding feud between the nuclear power plant and the local fishermen over who is responsible for the area's declining population of winter flounder. Also playing into the storyline and significant to the region is Connecticut's unprecedented tax recently imposed on the business profits of the state's sole nuclear power plant.
The author, Fred Neff, read a troubling environmental study that reported more flounder larvae by the power plant's cooling water pumps than ever in Niantic Bay! A footnote added that perhaps something else was driving more flounder in from Long Island Sound. And that is the sliver of truth propelling the author's theory of a third entity at play. Enter the Great Spotted Whale.
At the time this story was written, the legendary 1800s whaling ship, Charles W. Morgan, was being refitted at the Mystic Seaport, to become seaworthy again with her maiden voyage the following year.
The author pokes good-hearted fun at the 3-Headed Beast, local fishermen, and the whaling ship's greenhorn commander, Captain Brag. In weaving imagination with local history, adding equal parts of political satire and a dash of commentary, he has spun a good yarn worthy of seafaring readers and political pundits alike.
