THE GIRL WITH HAIR LIKE FIRE

We have a winner!

Congratulations to 11-year-old Ione Knight from Rhodes Avenue Primary School, London for her story ‘The Girl with Hair like Fire’. Ione's story about the fate of a young girl and her father, a famous Sea Captain,  captured the imagination of our judge Greg Jenner. She has won a set of coins for herself and £5,000 worth of equipment and books for her school library.

Transcript

The Girl with Hair like Fire by Ione Knight

1622

It was at the harbour when the girl with hair like fire noticed it. Rusted, peeling the words: The Serendipity etched into the gnarled wood. Her first instinct was to draw it. A pile of papers sewn together by silver thread and a long stick of charcoal. Shadowy sketches in dusty black. She pushed the charcoal against the yellowed paper and drew. The girl with hair like fire inspected it, frowning slightly. The Serendipity. She knew that name. The famous Serendipity was Captain Finn Nightlock' s ship. A legendary captain, a legendary ship.

She stood up and approached the ship. It bobbed on murky waves and as she gazed at her reflection in the water a figure appeared on the edge of the watery mirror. The girl with hair like fire stiffened and clutched the golden coin in her pocket. She turned. Captain Finn Nightlock stood silently behind her. Captain Finn Nightlock. Her father. She grabbed him and they embraced with her inhaling the comforting smell of sea salt and fresh linen. He laughed at her enthusiasm. He suddenly stood and bowed, holding a velvet bag out to her. "Sweets for the sweet." She giggled and accepted the bag graciously. Inside were small, sugar coated multi coloured squares. "All the rarest flavours. Rosewater, bergamot, cinnamon and clementine." He smiled. She beamed back. "Thank you! Are we going soon?" she asked. Her father simply nodded and waved his hand. "Speck, we have her." He called up to a gangly young man with rosy cheeks and a mess of chestnut curls. " Right you are Cap'ain" The girl with hair like fire took her father's hand and stepped aboard.

1629

The girl with hair like fire stood at the ship's prow beside her father and her hand clutched at the golden coin in her pocket. The waves ahead of her were midnight blue and dipped in pearly white froth. The sky was black and filled with the dark wisps of storm clouds, and from them, rain beat down mercilessly, crashing into the water like it was hitting stone. "It'll be alright." Her father was aged by seven years at sea with silver grey hair and creases around his green eyes but he glowered at the storm with the ferocity of a much younger man. "It has to be." That was before the wave hit.

1685 - An extract from a newspaper

Legendary Serendipity Ship found sunken by local fisherman Albert Sanders

The famous ship The Serendipity missing and the crew presumed dead until local fisherman Albert Sanders sails over the ruin. Continued investigation is in process

1690

The diver leapt down and into cold blue water. He swam down and caught sight of the ship with two skeletons at the prow. It must the Captain and his supposed daughter. He leaned tentatively toward the girl. She wore a dress made of tattered rags - once rich now broken. Something slipped out of her torn pocket- and the diver saw a golden coin.