About this Story
In American folklore, just about every occupation has its legendary, larger than life hero. Lumberjacks have Paul Bunyan. Cowboys have Pecos Bill. Farmers have Febold Feboldson. And sailors have Old Stormalong. . . .
This story, written by Dennis Goza, was a hit as one of the stories in our show Humdingers, which toured to schools and libraries across the U.S. for two years. Stormalong is a tall tale, much like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill and other great American heroes. What you read here is not the script from our show, but an adaptation of the story for you read out loud!
No one knows exactly what an old kraken looks like - so we asked for some help from our readers. Their art work is featured here.
You can join in the fun by making a Kraken Kite. We'll show you how!
So Stormy had his own ship built, and of course it was the largest ship ever to set sail. The deck was so long that its crew had to use horses to get from one end to the other. The sails were so big they had to be stitched together in the desert, because it was the only flat surface big enough. The mast was so high that it had to be folded down to let the moon pass by. The ship was so wide that when it tried to sail through the English Channel it got stuck. The crew had to rub soap all over the outside of the hull so the ship could squeeze on through. To this day there is still white soap all over the cliffs near Dover.
One day, they were sailing along as smooth as a teacup, when all of a sudden, something started hacking at the hull, crunching at the keel and slurping at the sail. It was that pesky old myth again, the kraken.
But this time Stormy didn't jump in to do battle with it; instead he tried a trick he'd learned on land.
Grabbing a huge coil of rope from the deck, he tied a big loop in the end and twirled it around and around like a lasso, the way he'd seen the cowpokes in Texas do. Then he slung it around the kraken's neck (or what looked like one) and snagged it tight.
Well sir, this made the kraken so mad that he began thrashing around like crazy trying to get free, but Stormy held on tight. The kraken took off like a rocket trying to outrun the ship but Stormy kept holding on so the ship was just dragged along like a water sleigh. The kraken wasn't watching where he was going so he got caught in a giant whirlpool and it dragged him into the center.
The ship of course followed, going around and around faster and faster and faster. At last Stormy let go and the ship was shot out of the whirlpool like a stone from a slingshot. And the kraken went down, down, down never to be heard from again - as far as anyone knows. Old Stormalong kept sailing the seas for many years, and had many other great adventures, until he was very old.
One day as his ship was anchored near Boston; he saw a tiny vessel approaching that had smoke rising from it. Fearing that it was on fire, Stormy scooped up some water in his hat - which was about the size of an average yacht- and dumped it on the smoking ship. He didn't realize that it was actually a newfangled invention called a steamboat.
Well, the captain of that steamboat was furious because Stormy had drowned his engine. He challenged Stormy to a race from Boston to Liverpool to prove that his steamboat was faster than an old-fashioned sailing ship. So off they went. But not to worry, Stormy won by half a length - which for him was a couple of miles. But he had to work so hard to run the race, that the old giant slumped at the wheel, and never awoke.
The greatest sea captain of all time had passed into legend.
~The End
Read more Act!vated Folktales
