Captain Stormalong
How do you know when you hear the truth?
Goal:
Goal:
A tall tale is a made-up story that stretches the truth. Many tall tales are about a person who is “larger than life,” or bigger than someone could be in real life. Watch this video to learn more about Captain Stormalong and the biggest ship ever built.
One day in Massachusetts, a huge tidal wave came crashing down on the shore. The people in the village rushed to see what was making the loud noise. The villagers could not believe their eyes. Crawling onto the beach was a giant baby who was eighteen feet tall!
The villagers took him into the town in a large farm wagon and fed him big bowls of milk. It took ten people to burp him. His first burp almost blew the roof off the houses in the town.
The people of the town named him Alfred Bulltop Stormalong, or Stormy for short. The villagers used a boat for his crib. When Stormy rolled over, he could cause a great big wave!
When Stormy turned 12, he became a part of a ship crew called The Lady of the Sea. At this point, Stormy was 36 feet tall, and he was the biggest boy in the world! During his first voyage on the ship, the ship didn’t move. Stormy saw that the captain looked worried, so he went to the back of the ship and blew. The ship began to move and sail away. Everyone shouted hooray for Stormalong.
Once Stormy got too big for that ship, the sailors built the biggest ship in the world for Stormy. Stormy named his ship, The Courser. The ship was so wide that it couldn’t fit in the Boston Harbor. It was so tall that it touched the moon!
Captain Stormalong became the best sailor in the world. He is most famous for defeating a giant sea creature, the kraken, which was half octopus and half snake. The first time they battled, Stormalong jumped out of the ship and created a tidal wave that went all the way to China!
On one of Stormalong’s adventures, he passed by Florida and a hurricane tore through his ship. When the storm finally stopped, Stormy tried to repair the ship, but one last blow of the hurricane hit the sails of the ship, lifting it into the sky.
Ever since then no one ever heard of Stormalong again. People remember his funeral and how there were thousands of sailors there. People thought the initials of his name ABS really stood for Able-Bodied-Seaman. He was honored as the best sailor who ever lived.
Read each sentence. Decide whether it could be true or is a tall tale. Click the question to check your answer!
A giant baby crawled on the beach.
This is a tall tale. This could not really happen!
Stormy named his ship “The Courser.”
This is the truth! This could really happen.
It took ten people to burp Stormy because he was so big.
This is a tall tale. This could only be a made-up story.
Question
What is true about this tall tale?
Where the story takes place and the initials ABS are true facts.