Ship in Distress

**Ship in Distress** is the twenty-third *TUGS: The Bigg City Chronicles* story.

## Plot

One evening, Captain Star informs his fleet that he will going on holiday and is leaving Captain Lucky in charge whilst he's away. The Star tugs are excited. The next morning, Captain Lucky gives the tugs their instructions for the day. Around lunchtime, Pisces comes to Lucky's with a poorly looking Scorpio, Ember and Hail who had taken on bad water. Big Mac, O.J. and Sunshine offer to help the Salvage Fleet whilst Scorpio, Ember and Hail are being repaired. Captain Lucky then gets a call for Hercules to help out in another port for a few days. Only Ten Cents, Top Hat, and Warrior are left working in Bigg City Port but Captain Lucky has an idea.

The next afternoon, two tugs arrive from Massachusetts: Ariel and Penny, both of whom Hercules had met in his Navy days. Penny is thrilled to learn that she, Ten Cents and Hercules are siblings. Ten Cents, Top Hat and Warrior show the two visiting tugs around. Ariel reveals how much she enjoy the journey to Bigg City Port and how she sometimes wishes she was a human. Penny then accidentally upsets Ten Cents with an 'exploded fuel barge' comment and quickly apologises when the three Star tugs tell her and Ariel what had happened a few years ago.

The next day, Warrior and Ariel head off to the quarry. Ten Cents and Penny takes supplies to the waterworks and sing a little song on the way. Meanwhile, Delta Queen is having engine trouble. She sends up a distress flare. Cappy then races off to Lucky's where Ten Cents, Top Hat and Penny are waiting. Captain Lucky sends the three tugs to rescue Delta Queen.

As the three tugs head out to open sea, they come across Zeus who wants to know what they are up to. After learning Delta Queen's troubles, Zeus brags that he could handle the job far better. Ten Cents then frightens him into thinking that Nantucket is in quarantine. Realising that he'd been tricked, Zeus huffs away.

Soon, Ten Cents, Top Hat and Penny arrive to where Delta Queen is waiting. Top Hat hitches lines to the tramper and begins to pull her along, while Ten Cents and Penny go alongside to guide her. Zeus is nearby and hatches a devious plan to get Delta Queen, unaware that someone has overheard.

Meanwhile, Ariel takes a delivery of stone Up River where she meets Sunshine, Moonlight, Misty and Stormy. The five tugs discuss Ember, Scorpio and Hail breaking down and after they realise that they take their water from the sea from the salt filtered out but only Ember, Scorpio and Hail, Stormy concludes that someone sabotaged them whilst they were asleep. They then see Zak with a barge of compost and looking quite pleased with himself as he had filled Ember, Scorpio and Hail's boiler with compost just so the Stars could help up river. Quickly, Ariel comes up with a plan. They are able to trick Zak in getting trapped with a tramper. Peeper Pipes and Davy Jones arrived to arrest him.

Ten Cents, Top Hat and Penny slowly move Delta Queen towards the harbour mouth, already feeling worn out. Their progress is slower than ever, with Top Hat urging the two switchers to go harder, while Ten Cents and Penny are up to full steam. Delta Queen soon comes to a halt as the two strain to keep her steady. But of course, the Star Tugs never give up, and with a blast of his hooter, Top Hat makes one last huge effort and the tramper starts to move. Zeus, who is nearby, makes his move and races past at full speed, causing a huge wake. Delta Queen begins to slip sideways, as Ten Cents and Penny are not able to keep her straight. It looks as though they are out of luck, and the Z-Stacks would have to take over. With an unexpected loud blast from Warrior, he pushes against the tramper and begins to help. Zeus is so angry that his plan was foiled, he accidentally says it out loud in front of Snowy. Penny and the three Star Tugs eventually successfully make it through the harbour, and after her cargo is unloaded, Delta Queen is taken to Lucky's to be repaired. Captain Lucky praises them for a job well done. Then Davy Jones arrives and informs that about Zak's plot.

Once again, Zak and Zeus are dry docked for the rest of the year and Captain Zero has to pay for Scorpio, Ember and Hail’s repairs and compensate the local farmer for the stolen compost.

That evening, Ten Cents, Top Hat, Warrior, Ariel and Penny tell each other about the day’s events. Penny then notices signs of romance between Ten Cents and Ariel.

A few days later, Scorpio, Ember and Hail are back at work; at the same time, Hercules has returned from up the coast and Captain Star has returned from his vacation. He is proud of his tugs for their hard work and proving they are still the best around. He also thanks Captain Lucky for looking the Star Fleet whilst he was away and thanks Ariel and Penny for their help. Ariel and Penny set off for home, with the former singing whilst thinking about Ten Cents and vows to someday be part of his world.

## Characters

* Captain Star
* Ten Cents
* Big Mac
* O.J.
* Top Hat
* Warrior
* Hercules
* Sunshine
* Grampus
* Captain Zero (does not speak)
* Zak
* Zeus
* Pisces
* Misty
* Scorpio (does not speak)
* Ember (does not speak)
* Stormy
* Hail
* Moonlight
* Captain Lucky
* Ariel
* Penny
* Delta Queen

## Voices

### Official

* Simon Nash as Ten Cents
* Sean Barrett as Big Mac and Hercules
* Ian James Corlett as O.J.
* John Baddeley as Top Hat and Mr. Stone
* Shaun Prendergrast as Zak
* Lee Cornes as Grampus and Peeper Pipes
* Nigel Anthony as Davy Jones

### Fan chosen

* Peter Dickson as Captain Star
* Jeff Bennett as Warrior
* Michelle Creber as Sunshine
* Richard White as Zeus
* Catherine Cavadini as Pisces
* Tara Strong as Misty
* Nicole Sullivan as Stormy
* Katie Leigh as Hail
* Shaun Prendergrast as Moonlight
* Jodi Benson as Ariel
* Alice Oswalt as Penny
* Paul Dobson as Cappy
* Anya Taylor-Joy as Snowy
* Lenore Zann as Captain Lucky

Undecided for characters who speak

* Delta Queen