BIGGLES AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

‘Why does Clarence Collingwood choose to return to Jean Bonney Island more than twenty years after the war is over and deliberately cut himself off from the rest of the world? And when Biggles and Algy arrive to inspect this British Crown property, why is he so uncommunicative? A tour of the island convinces Biggles that Collingwood has something to hide, though the havoc wrought by a hurricane and by more than one monster from the sea upsets all Biggles’ theories.’

by Captain W. E. Johns

First published February 1968

TITLE PAGE – Page 3

CONTENTS – Page 5

I. A TALE ABOUT ISLANDS (Pages 7 – 21)

“Biggles sat in his usual chair in the office of his chief, Air Commodore Raymond of the Special Air Section, Scotland Yard, and waited for him to speak. The Air Commodore looked at his senior operational pilot with a curious expression on his face. “You’ve had quite a lot of experience of islands, Bigglesworth, haven’t you,” he said. It was more a statement than a question. “Too much.” Biggles answered. “I’ve been trotting about islands of one sort or another for so long that I dream about them. But any romantic notions I may have had about so-called desert isles was knocked on the head long ago. With all respect to Robinson Crusoe they’re not what they’re cracked up to be. There are too many perishing islands”. Raymond tells Biggles that the Colonial Office have asked them to check up on a little piece of British property. (The Colonial Office was merged into the Commonwealth Office in 1966, which must have around the time this book was written. Although published in February 1968, the book was written significantly before that date. When Johns died in June 1968 there were four completed books still to be published and he was working on a fifth. The Commonwealth Office became the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1968 and in 2020 that became the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office). “Sound a nice little job for the Navy” says Biggles. Raymond says there are reasons why it might be more advisable to send an aeroplane. Nobody has been to this island for twenty years as far as they know. The island is almost in the middle of the Bay on Bengal; or roughly half-way between the east coast of India and lower Burma. It is called “Jean Bonney Island”. (This is a fictional island and I am not sure how it is supposed to be pronounced. I initially thought it was the French “Jean”, pronounced Zhohn, but as the island is named after someone’s wife, I believe it is Jean to rhyme with “mean”). “It was the name of a ship, although I imagine the ship was named after a woman, possibly the owner’s wife”. The Jean Bonney was the name of a craft, an East Indiaman, commanded by a Scot named Grant. He came across the island in the early eighteenth century, having been blown off his course by a hurricane. He went ashore for water and staked his claim by painting his name, and the name of his ship, with the date, on a rock”. The island is mostly volcanic rock. It’s a little over a mile long, about three hundred yards wide, flat, tapering towards the end and lies low in the water. It is not more than twenty feet high at the highest point. There’s a slightly curving beach on the weather side, but impossible to land there due to the heavy surf. On the opposite side there is a coral reef enclosing the usual lagoon, but there is no break in the reef. It's a dangerous place for a ship. During the Second World War, a landing strip was built there for flights between India and lower Burma. Recently, a retired Squadron Leader by the name of Stonehouse was sailing from Singapore to Calcutta and he saw a small aircraft heading due east, apparently for nowhere. Not knowing about Bonney Island, he reckoned the plane had about eight hundred miles of open water in front of it before it could make a landfall. He decided the pilot was either crazy or lost to the world. When back in London, he happened to mention it to a friend at the Aero Club, who happened to have worked on the Bonney Island run during the war and suggested that was where the unknown plane must have been making for. Later, this friend remarked to someone at the Air Ministry that he’d heard that the Bonney Island route had been reopened and this reached the ears of someone in the Colonial Office who wondered if someone was trying to jump our claim to Bonney Island. The Navy haven’t got a ship anywhere near the place and a plane would be less expensive and faster. Biggles asks “Is the water of the lagoon deep enough for a marine aircraft to land on without tearing a hole in its keel?” Raymond doesn’t think it has been properly surveyed and adds “In that case you’d have to take a chance with the lagoon, I’m afraid”. “You’re afraid, sir! Not as afraid and I am” replies Biggles. (In the author’s original hand written text for this book, he underlines the word “you’re”, no doubt to indicate to his typist that he wants the word to be italics). “Don’t talk nonsense, Bigglesworth. You know as well as I do that when a pilot starts to be afraid of anything the time has come for him to hang up his cap and goggles. But don’t let’s talk about it. Any more difficulties to raise before you go? You can usually think of some” says Raymond. “For which reason, so far, I’ve always managed to get back. I like to know what I might run up against before I start. I find it’s better than bumping into something nasty unprepared” replies Biggles. Raymond says “All right. You needn’t get sarcastic”. Raymond suggests Biggles will have ample endurance range with the Gadfly aircraft. (A footnote tells us that the Gadfly is “an all metal high-wing cantilever monoplane amphibian flying boat with twin 1,000 h.p. engines installed in the wing. Accommodation for two pilots and six passengers. Endurance range 2,000 miles. Retractable landing gear and hydraulic wheel brakes for land work). Raymond says it was the machine Biggles used for the South American treasure ship job (and another footnote tells us to see Biggles at World’s End). Raymond asks Biggles how soon he can be ready and Biggles says he should be on his way inside a week. Raymond asks “Who will you take with you?” Biggles says he may let his chaps decide that for themselves, or if they all want to go, they can toss a coin for it. Biggles returns to his office to see Algy, Bertie and Ginger. He briefs them on the task and asks who wants to go. All three put their hands up. Biggles tears three strips of paper and writes ‘go’ on one and leaves the other two blank. Ginger draws first and gets a blank. Bertie draws a blank as well. Biggles looked at Algy. “Looks like you and me, chum,” he said. “Sit down and I’ll give you the rest of the gen. Then we’ll see about getting organized”.