The Colours of the Rainbow Old Jack's Boat

Good day to you.

# This is the place to be

# For Salty Dog and me

# Down by the harbour We'll be there

# Round every corner there's something to share

# Give us a cheer Our friends are here

# Just Salty Dog and me... #

Come on, Salty!

# This is the place to meet

# Down at the end of the street

# Seagulls flying up in the blue

# There's always a cup of tea waiting for you

# Out in the sun having some fun

# Just Salty Dog and me

# Haul away, haul away

# Sing a song of the sea

# Hoist the sail I'll tell you a tale

# Of Salty Dog and me

# This is the place to go

# And these are the people we know

# The village is busy with things to see

# And there's the Rainbow down by the quay

# There's stories to tell Join us as well

-# Just Salty Dog and me. #

-MOBILE RINGS

Greetings, Sam. Everything shipshape?

And Bristol fashion, Captain.

What do you think?

A fine job. Well executed.

Thank you.

All right, all right, will somebody please tell me what is going on?

Jack, didn't you get the message?

No, what message?

It says here - "Grand reopening of the Rainbow Fish Stall today.

"Come along and buy some fish. From the owner, Mr Ernest Starboard."

-Ernest?

-That's Ernie.

You decided to rename Ernie's fish stall?

Yes. Well, it was looking a bit shabby,

so I told Ernie I'd brighten it up by painting rainbow signs

and renaming it Rainbow Fish Stall, after your boat.

Well, I'm very touched.

I spent all morning painting these.

CRASH!

My signs!

Oh, dear!

Sam! Are you all right?

I'm fine.

Ohh! But the new signs aren't.

Oh, no, this is ruined, I'm afraid.

It's a disaster. And Ernie'll be back soon.

Come on, Sam, I'll help you clear up.

Well, we need to get off to the other Rainbow. Don't we, Salty?

Good luck, you two. Come on, Salty.

Oh, no!

There she is, the Rainbow.

But what have you got for us today, my dear?

BOAT'S WHISTLE TOOTS

Hey! Come on, Salty.

HE HUMS A TUNE

Here we are.

BOAT'S WHISTLE TOOTS

You know, Salty, it's very nice of Sam

to name Ernie's fish stall after the Rainbow, isn't it?

Still, it wasn't always called the Rainbow, was it?

Do you remember, long, long ago,

when this little old boat was called the Little Brown Tub?

You stay there.

I'll make myself comfortable

and I'll tell you the story of how the Rainbow got its name.

Yes, I know you know already.

Once upon a twinkly time, long, long ago,

the Little Brown Tub set sail from Staithes,

waved goodbye to Whitby, and disappeared over the horizon.

It was a sunny day and as we sailed we sang -

# Just Salty Dog and me

# A-sailing on the sea

# Giving our backs and our tummies a rub

# Sailing along in the Little Brown Tub

# The wind's on our knees

# We're chasing the breeze

# Just Salty Dog and me. #

Well, we hadn't gone far when we saw

a stovepipe hat waving at us from the middle of the ocean.

It was Charlie the squid.

"Hello, Jack. Hello, Salty," he smiled. "Where are you all going?"

"Adventure," I replied.

"We're looking for adventure."

"Oh, I love adventures. I'm coming too," said Charlie.

So, I set our course for adventure.

Well, we hadn't gone far when we ran into a terrible storm.

Charlie wrapped himself around the wheelhouse

and Salty hid in the hold, reading holiday brochures

and making plans for a quiet trip to Filey.

I steered us through the storm.

And after a crashy, bashy, smashy sort of a ride,

we emerged in the open sea.

The sky above was white.

The sea all around was grey.

And the dots of the rocks in the distance were black.

In fact, we were the only colourful things to be seen for miles.

And then, a long, thin black object

poked out of the water like a skinny periscope.

As it came towards us, I realised it was a paintbrush.

A diddy little fish with a glum look on his face

was holding the paintbrush.

Like everything around him, he was coloured black and white and grey.

"Hello," I cried, "are you looking for something?"

"Yes, indeed," said the glum fish.

"I'm a painter and I'm looking for something to paint.

"But everything here is so dull."

We looked around at the grey sea.

Salty suggested that maybe there was

a better subject for a painting under the water.

"Not really," said the painter fish sadly. "Come on, I'll show you."

So, in two shakes of a stingray's tail, we were under the waves.

And what a sight greeted us!

"Welcome to Black White Grey Land," said the little painter fish.

The whole underwater world was black and white and grey.

No bright colours at all.

All the fish looked sad and grumpy.

"See?" explained the painter fish.

"Everything's just a bit, you know..."

"..dull," said Salty, Charlie and I.

"I want to paint a picture for our queen to cheer her up a bit.

"She's a very sad queen. Everyone's sad down here."

Salty sniffed a greyish rock.

Even she was starting to feel sad.

"You've got no colour in your life," I said.

"Colour?" said the little painter fish. "What's that, then?"

"Well," I said, "look at me.

"My jumper is coloured red

"and Salty here is a sort of orange colour.

"You see, where we come from, colours are everywhere.

"We've got all the colours of the rainbow."

The little painter fish looked a bit confused.

He'd not seen any colours before.

And then Salty's whiskers started wiffling.

She was having one of her bright ideas.

She rushed off in her doggy way and I chased after her.

Soon, we were back on board the Little Brown Tub

next to my important bits and bobs box.

Of course!

Inside were lots of old pots of paint.

"These paints are all different colours,"

I declared to the painter fish proudly from the deck of the tub.

"I can't see from down here," said the painter fish,

bobbing in the waves.

Salty had another bright idea.

"Paint the Little Brown Tub," she woofed.

"Oh, marvellous," I said.

But I wasn't sure, because boat painting isn't an easy job.

"It is if you've got lots of arms," said Charlie.

"Pass the paint!"

So, Charlie picked up lots of pots of paint in his many tentacles

and he set to work painting our boat with all the colours of the rainbow.

Splosh, splash, splish, and sploosh, went Charlie.

Salty and I hid under a tarpaulin

because I don't know if you've ever seen a squid painting -

it's a very messy business.

And after a very short time, he had finished.

"There!" said Charlie proudly.

Salty and I peeped out

and what a sight greeted our eyes.

The Little Brown Tub

had been painted in glorious colourful stripes

every colour of the rainbow.

It was a firecracker of colour.

"What do you think?" I called to the painter fish,

who was now covered in splashes of colour too,

thanks to Charlie's sploshing.

But the painter fish, he was lost for words.

Instead, an enormous colourful smile

grew on his once glum, grey face.

"I'm off to show the queen!"

cried the fish, with a smile in his voice.

And with that, he dived under the water,

leaving a trail of colour behind him.

That's when a magical thing happened.

The painter fish swam and swished through the water

and with every swish of his tail,

he painted colour onto the Black White Grey Land.

Like a wiggly paintbrush, he painted colours onto fish

and rocks and water and weed.

And everywhere he went,

he didn't just leave a world of colour behind him,

but of world of smiles, too.

By the time he reached the queen,

he had coloured in the whole of Black White Grey Land.

"Behold, I have something to cheer you up a bit, Your Majesty -

"all the colours of the rainbow," said the painter fish.

The queen was thrilled.

She swam up to the Little Brown Tub and thanked us.

"Jack, Salty and Charlie,

"you have brought rainbow colours to our world.

"We are very grateful for the smiles you have given us."

"The Little Brown Tub helped too," I said.

The queen looked at our boat in surprise.

"It's not much of a brown tub now, is it?

"I shall rename it

"so you will always remember the happiness you brought to my world."

And do you know what she named it?

Yes, yes, that's right - the Rainbow.

So, with happy hearts we waved goodbye to the queen

and the smiling painter fish.

"I loved that adventure," said Charlie.

"And we did, too," I replied

as we set sail in the Rainbow for Staithes and home.

Yeah, it was exciting, wasn't it, eh?

She had a really good time.

SHIPS WHISTLE TOOTS

Did you like that story, Salty? All true, of course.

Mind you, my stories always are.

Come on.

Oh, dear! Sam's looking a bit down in the mouth.

Operation Sign Rescue abandoned.

They're ruined.

We're out of paint.

And Ernie'll be back in a minute. I need a rainbow!

Oh, dear. Perhaps a little bit of family magic would help.

I don't know what you're talking about, Jack.

Come on, you know - that thing that Shelley does. I won't look. Go on.

Yep.

ERNIE WHISTLES A TUNE

Oh, Ernie! He's here!

Ohhh!

MAGIC CHIMES

You know, I think today might be your lucky day, Sam.

What?

A rainbow!

Oh, my, it's beautiful!

-What a stroke of luck.

-Yeah!

Wow!

I love it!

Hey, who needs paintings of rainbows when they can have the real thing?

Fantastic!

Roll up!

Roll up, everybody, and welcome to the Rainbow Fish Stall!

OLD JACK CHUCKLES