The readers may well remember the battleship called Balmoral, which disappeared from a port in Ceylon without a trace, so that later on, under the name of Radzeer and under the command of Dirty Fred, the Captain, she could carry out heroic deeds. In this novel however the battleship Radzeer disappears again, along with the ship called André de Rémieux, which was carrying peculiar 'holiday-makers' to an island in the South Pacific Ocean. Well, Dirty Fred was not called the 'prime minister of the oceans' for nothing - whilst out on peaceful whaling, he spared some time to 'track down' the two ships. Smiley Jimmy and the Bluebeard receive a prominent part in the action, this time making a name for themselves aboard the ship called the Blind Dad.