I like the imagery you’ve used throughout, and the twist in the tail is most amusing.

A couple of comments on apostrophes: “it’s” means “it is”; “its” means “belonging to it”: you have two “it’s” where you should have “its”. In the last line, it should be “captain’s rail”.

Thanks Ethel, had to put it away for awhile and come back it, strange how simple mistakes become invisible.