The wharf was drawing down for the evening as boats and barges came in to dock and offload their cargoes. Drew, Chris, and Justin were sent with loads of stone, timber, and oil to the wharf and shunt at the yards overnight, then return in the morning with empty trucks to Knapford Junction. When they arrived, Skarloey met them.
"Hello, Chris, Drew, and Justin. I see you are here to help out. You can drop those loads off by the keyside and there are some trucks that need to be organized." he said.
"Thank you, Skarloey. We'll be on it." Drew replied. The three engines left their loads on the key and went to work around the wharf. Chris shunted some wagons around the yard, while Justin took a rake of vans to the other end of the keyside, and Drew could be seen shunting conflat wagons around the key, while Rheneas, Freddie, Peter Sam, and Rusty all were puffing in and out of the wharf, coming to and from the transfer yards. By the time the engines decided to take a break, the sun had long since set. A full moon shone through a cloudless sky as Drew, Chris, and Justin took on some water alongside the narrow gauge engines. At about that time, Arthur pulled in with fish for the Crovan Kipper, and taking this train was Rheneas. Arthur looked up a the sky.
"Oh my, this reminds me of a story." Drew was intrigued.
"Tell us, Arthur, please!" she pleaded. Arthur's eyes shifted as he said,
"Oh no, you couldn't handle it!" Arthur said.
"It's probably nothing." Chris scoffed.
"Oh it isn't nothing, it's...something!" Arthur said, dramatically. Drew was nearly about to bounce off of the rails with excitement.
"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" She whistled excitedly.
"Just tell her, Arthur. I don't want to get caught in the explosion when her boiler goes critical." Justin muttered. Arthur relented as he began his story.
"This is an old seafarers tale I picked up from some fishermen at Norramby Harbor. The scariest part of it is that it's all true!" Drew, Chris, Justin, Rheneas, Skarloey, Peter Sam, Rusty, Freddie, and Sir Handel all listened closely.
"Long ago during the war, a hospital ship full of wounded soldiers was just about to dock in this very wharf on a cold night, when the moon was full!" Arthur murmured. A brisk gust of wind blew, sending a chill through all of the engines' frames.
"It was nearly into port, when lurking below the water was..." Arthur said.
"A shark?" Chris interrupted.
"No." Arhtur answered.
"A dolphin?"
"No."
"A mermaid?"
"No."
"Lurking below the water was A U-BOAT!"
"I knew a U-Boat when I piloted at Southampton!" Drew said.
"Not that kind of U-Boat! A German Submarine!" Arthur said, raising his voice. The engines were suddenly terrified. Chris, however, rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"The U-Boat slithered into position and fired a torpedo, then BLAM! the ship exploded, all hands lost, and every night, when the moon is full, you can see the ghost ship with the spirits of its cargo trapped aboard sailing in to dock, but it never does!" Arthur finished. The other engines faces were white as sheep, but Chris wasn't impressed.
"That's boiler sludge! To quote Ghostbusters, I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" Chris smirked, confidently. Justin, Drew, and the narrow gauge engines all eyed each other, mischievously. Rheneas then left with the Crovan Kipper while Arthur took his vans to be washed out and to collect some empty ones to take back. The engines of the wharf then got back to work. Justin, Drew, Skarloey, Rusty, Peter Sam, Sir Handel, and Freddie all gathered while Chris was working.
"We're going to give Chris a good spook!" Drew told them. Before she could continue, the victim of their trick passed by with some trucks.
"What are you talking about?" Chris asked her.
"Don't poke your funnel where it doesn't belong!" Rusty said. Chris chuffed off, rolling his eyes as he blew off steam. The engines continued their plan to get back at Chris for spoiling their fun. Chris was later reversing into onto another line with some vans when an eerie moaning.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" came a voice. Chris paid no attention. On the other side of the vans, Rusty was making the noises into a barrel for the spooky effect. Later, he was shunting some sand wagons onto the keyside when clouds of smoke suddenly appeared. A barge covered in grime slipped through the mist. Across the wharf, all of the engines were blowing smoke across the water while the barge came into view, then ghostly voices were heard. Ghostly wailing and screaming could be heard across the wharf. Chris was suddenly starting to get a little scared.
"We have come to haunt you! You did not believe our story! You have disgraced our memory! You shall pay! YOU SHALL PAY!" the voices roared. Clouds then gathered and covered the moon. Chris then puffed away as fast as his wheels could take him, the trucks trailing behind him.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he wailed as he sped out of the wharf. Justin, Drew, and the others all emerged from the smoke and steam, all laughing raucously. The next morning, Justin and Drew went to see Chris. He was about to collect some passengers from Knapford Station. They then moaned
"OOOOOHHH!" Chris jumped with a fright as they then rolled up alongside him.
"We got you good last night!" Justin chuckled.
"You should have seen the look on your face!" Giggled Drew.
"I wasn't scared! I just had to get back to the junction quickly!" Chris said, defensively.
"And the Worsdell F5s were efficient coal burners! I could see the rivets on your frames standing on end!" Drew retorted. Chris was rather embarrassed about this incident, but knows that Arthur's story was just a story. Or was it?