Prospero (A Series of Unfortunate Events)

In the fictional series A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket, theProsperois the ship belonging to the V.F.D. It is anchored along Daedalus Dock (in Hazy Harbor), and among other things makes journeys to Perú.

In Regards to Uncle Monty

The Prospero (named after Prospero, a character who can control the sea in Shakespeare's The Tempest) plays its biggest role in The Reptile Room.

In The Reptile Room, Count Olaf (masquerading as Stephano) attempts to take the Baudelaires with him to Perú, where he plans to kill two of the Baudelaires, and wait with the third till he/she comes of age (thus acquiring the enormous Baudelaire fortune). His plan is foiled, however, when his car crashes into Mr. Poe's automobile.

Olaf had acquired the tickets from the late Dr. Montgomery Montgomery, who had shredded Olaf's original ticket (having suspected him of espionage).

The ship was scheduled to leave at 8:00 to some unknown destination, but in actuallity left at 5:00, in order to take volunteers out of the country. Count Olaf was unaware of this schedule change ¹ (possibly because it was written on the special V.F.D. tickets Dr. Montgomery had presumably purchased), but intended to leave much earlier (in order to, "have time for a bottle of wine before lunch").

A man on the Black Rapids Deck (see below) attempted to explain why the ship was leaving early, but was only heard to shout out the words, "Phase Two,"² and, "Drat!"

In The End, it is revealed by Ishmael that the ship was originally called the Pericles (named after a ruler of Athens in ancient Greece).

Crew

• The woman with the beaded necklace

One of the two owners of the Prospero; wife of the man with the corsage.

• The man with the corsage

One of the two owners of the Prospero; husband of the woman with the beaded necklace.

• Captain Julio Sham

Captain of the Prospero. Both Count Olaf and a person known only as J. (possibly Jacques Snicket) have disguised themselves as this gentleman. Whether there is a real Captain Sham or whether it is simply a generic name for the disguise is unknown.

The following is a list of the crew. It is of note that each of the crew members has the last name of some well-known children's author.

:* Sailor Bellairs

:* Sailor Cleary

(Beverly Cleary has a passage in her novel Ramona Quimby, Age 8, which describes a man very similar to the V.F.D. librarian in Prufrock Preparatory School)

The Ship

Black Rapids Deck

From here a person tried to explain the reason for the ship's early departure to a Punctilio reporter. This is also one of the decks patrolled by "enemies" disguised as either passengers or seagulls.

:* White Jacket Lounge

Black Guinea Deck & Ringman Deck

According to Brett Helquist's illustration (above), these two decks are on the same level of the ship.

:* Typee Shuffleboard Court

Notes

¹ It is demonstrated that V.F.D.'s enemies were unaware of this schedule change because "E." (likely Esmé Squalor) had purchased a ticket for the 8:00 schedule.

² Phase Two refers to phase two of disguise training, Various Finery Disguises, which demonstrates how to disguise oneself using costumes and makeup (Olaf's method as Stephano and countless others).