South Sea Shenanigans

South Sea Shenanigans
First page of the story in its 2011 American printing.
Other Titles	Bacicin riprende il mare (original Italian title) Yellow Beak Takes To Sea Once Again (direct translation of Italian title) Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold… Again! (alternative English title)
Writer(s)	Abramo Barosso (plot) Giampaolo Barosso (script)
Artist(s)	Giovan Battista Carpi
Dates	November the 1st, 1962 (release date)

South Sea Shenanigans, later retranslated as Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold… Again! and titled Bacicin riprende il mare in the original Italian, is a comic story plotted out by Abramo Barosso, scripted by Giampaolo Barosso and inked by Giovan Battista Carpi. It features Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Yellow Beak, Scrooge McDuck, the Beagle Boys, and, in their debuts, Miss Meaningwell, Honest Ahab and Swing Lo. Mentions are made of Sir Francis Fake and Captain Crunch.

Plot

On a dark and stormy night, Yellow Beak shows up on Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck's doorstep with a new treasure map, having escaped retirement! With Scrooge McDuck brought on-board, the Ducks depart for the south seas, but the Beagle Boys catch wind of the treasure-hunt and their Polynesian division digs up a cockamamie plot to con the Ducks out of the treasure using fake pearls…

References

• Yellow Beak decided to retire from his sailing days at Meaningwell's Sailors' Rest.
• The treasure is located on Boli-Boli-Holi-Moley Island, one of the Bola-Bola Islands.
• Yellow Beak and “Captain Scrunch” fought in a war together. Scrunch found the treasure on April the 1st, 1718, but, deeming it worthless, left it in place with a note and retired to cultivate cabbage.
• The Beagle Boys of Duckburg are staying at the Former Convicts' Resting Home. According the original version, they consider themselves entitled to some rest because they've just gotten out of three years’ jail sentence, whereas in the localization, they claim to be exhausted from “last week's pyramid scheme”, which scheme apparently involved lugging actual pyramids around.
• At any rate, the result is that Beagle brothers forming the “Polynesian branch of Beagles Internationals” end up being the ones who oppose the Ducks on their adventure.
• Scrooge buys the Midas of the Mariannas, an old sailing ship, which he renames Scrooge's Folly.
• Yellow Beak points out that the ship will need a large crew because “monsoon season is approaching”.
• Yellow Beak displays an ability for escape-artistry, boasting that “no Beagle's knot can hold old Yellow Beak”.
• According to Scrooge McDuck, platinum only became valued in 1735. By the time the story is released, each coin is worth $400.
• Yellow Beak uses his share of the treasure to buy a new ship, which he dubs the Scrooge's Folly II. Scrooge McDuck mentions that he owes a flotilla of ships called the Dollar I, Dollar II, Dollar III, “and so on”.

Continuity

• This story is a sequel to Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold (1942), the first American-produced full-length comic-book adventure of Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck — having been released in time for the 20th anniversary of that story. The 2011 American localization, whose title further emphasizes this connection, has Huey, Dewey and Louie recollect that Yellow Beak took them on “their first adventure” (with Donald claiming that they've been through “5,941 harrowing escapes” since then).
• Scrooge McDuck and Yellow Beak's interactions are consistent with their having met before. Although the Barossos were likely unaware of this, this is in fact the case, with him and Scrooge having previously teamed up in The Treasure of Yellow Beak (1957). Similarly, Yellow Beak's vague recognition of the Beagle Boys, suggesting they've met before, can be attributed to the events of the 1957 story.
• Another, temporary fugue of Yellow Beak's from Sailors' Rest was depicted in Woody, Knothead and Splinter Search For Pirate Treasure (1964). Since Yellow Beak's escape from Miss Meaningwell in the 1962 story seems fairly definitive, the 1964 story must be held to take place earlier in Yellow Beak's timeline.
• The 2011 localization has Scrooge McDuck say that the fish soup “rivals the scones of Scotland for flavour”, referencing Scrooge's nostalgic taste for scones in A Bucket of Scones (1956).
• Also in the localization, Yellow Beak mentions “Young Peter”, “sharp Woodward” and the “Seagoin' Seven” among his former shipmates. These are references to three of the historical remakes of the original Finds Pirate Gold plot: Captain Hook and the Buried Treasure (1953), Woody, Knothead and Splinter Search For Pirate Treasure (1964) and The Seven Dwarfs and the Pirate (1949).

Behind the scenes

This story was first published in 1962 in the Italian Almanacco Topolino #71. It was first printed in English in 1965 in the Australian Giant #330 under its first English title, South Sea Shenanigans. It was eventually printed in the U.S.A. in an all-knew localization by Joe Torcivia, under the title of Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold… Again!, in Donald Duck #366, the second-to-last issue of the Donald Duck monthly book to be printed by Boom! Studios.

Localization

Joe Torcivia's localization, beyond general spicing-up of the dialogue, altered or added several details throughout the story.

• In the original, Yellow Beak is pampered by Miss Meaningwell for entirely spurious reasons, and also criticizes him for swearing as a sailor should, which is why he runs away from the Sailors' Rest, whereas Torcivia's script attributes the panel of her smothering him with care to a specific incident when Yellow Beak injured himself with her furniture.
• Captain Scrunch now got the map from an “evil pirate captain” whom Yellow Beak and Scrunch faced, rather than as an heirloom from Scrunch's great-great-grandfather. In addition, the original script mentions the fact that Yellow Beak and Scrunch were too busy “with the war” to seek out the treasure themselves during their glory days (though it does not identify which war).
• In the original, Scrooge McDuck compliments the Ducks' fish soup by saying he “hasn't had such a meal in forty-seven years” due to how expensive fish has gotten. In the localization, this timeframe is not mentioned.
• It is mentioned that the Ducks first fly to Tahiti as a stop on the way to Boli-Boli-Holi-Moley Island. This is where the Polynesian Beagles are found — whereas in the original, their hideout was identified as an equally-fictional island in the Bola-Bola Islands, dubbed “Rikiki” in the French translation. Consequently, the National Bank of Rikiki is changed to the 23rd Bank of Tahiti.
• The man who sells the Ducks their boat, nameless in the original, is dubbed Honest Ahab, while the souvenir shop owner who reveals the true nature of the treasure is dubbed Swing Lo.
• In the original, Scrooge never changes the boat's name, to Scrooge's Folly or otherwise.
• The letter found in the chest is no longer by “Captain Scrunch” who found the treasure before his partner Yellow Beak but deemed it worthless, but rather a mocking taunt by the pirate who buried the treasure, Sir Francis Fake. It is confusingly dated April the 1st, 1734 even though the original version identified the treasure as having been buried in 1698, and dated Scrunch's finding of it to 1714.