The Griffin Pirate saga continues...

Following The Storm in book 5, during which both Greg the green and Roderick the red's ships both went down, only Benjamin the blue's ship remains in one piece - although it is beached on the sand.
All three pirates find themselves on the same island and Ben feels that they should all "see what they can do about it".
Not much else happens to progress the story very far in this episode, but it is an interesting book because it tackles some very complex social behaviours: Roderick Is obviously a very strong pirate and Ben needs his help especially; so, both he and Greg cooperate in assisting Roderick to his feet and politely making sure that he is alright, even though he is obviously a bad tempered bully. But then, when Roderick turns on poor neurotic Greg and repeatedly hits him on the head in order to get him to divulge the location of his treasure, Ben does very little to help his friend but opts to stay out of the affair.

As a child I remember feeling confused over Ben's apathy. Up to that point I'd understood that a hero always stood up against injustice and protected the powerless. Ben didn't stand up for his friend Greg; in fact when questioned by Roderick as to Greg's General mental confusion all Ben answers is that "He has always been like that" and then even shares some information with Roderick about Greg’s compulsive habit of hording jewels.
Did this mean that Ben was switching sides, dropping helpless Greg and aligning himself with the stronger bully just because he was potentially more useful as an ally?

On the last page it seems Ben does none if these and sighs unhappily at the situation before walking away. Would Superman have done that?
At the time I remember feeling disillusioned that these individuals were not heroic, but just rouges after all. It also enforced the notion that you can't always rely on your friends.

It is surreal to think that all these things crossed my mind nearly forty years ago now, but I still remember much of my feelings towards these books.
I don't recall everything that happened. I remember liking the Griffin in book 7, and recall something about the Mer-People, and the Black Pirates. I must have read the whole series countless times during my primary school years.
Ben was still my hero although I empathised a lot with Greg.

The original illustrations by Mary Gernat have not to this day been surpassed in quality.