The Typhon is the ship captained by Barbarro Wrathe, Molucco’s brother. There is a (slightly embarrassing) story as to how I created its name. I wanted to find a two-headed monster, so as to reflect the captaincy and deputy captaincy of Barbarro and his rather terrifying wife, Trofie. When I searched for this, Wikipedia said that, in mythology, the Typhon was a two-headed monster. “Perfect!” I thought, “I’ll use it”. Then, when we got to editing the book, we found that in fact the Typhon was a many headed monster! This wasn't really what I'd intended. But it sounded good and I still couldn't find a two-headed monster so I decided to go with it!
Life on The Typhon is very different to that aboard The Diablo. It’s rather more formal - when Barbarro and Trofie entertain, they literally roll out the red carpet. There is a dress code for dinner, something that makes Bart, Cate and Connor rather uncomfortable when they visit. There also seem to be more servants, including the Wrathes’ trusty majordomo, Transom. The food is also a little rarified, for example blowfish sashimi and champagne. It’s a far cry from the ramshackle galley and dining area aboard The Diablo.
The Typhon is a (just slightly) smaller ship than The Diablo but it is decorated more lavishly. The quarters occupied by Moonshine, Barbarro and Trofie’s son and heir, is a good example of this. He has a VIP cabin in the depths of the ship which he has kitted out with black painted walls, a pirate pinball machine and metal four-poster-bed curtained with chains. He shares his cabin with his pet twin rats, Flotsam and Jetsam, and his stereo constantly blasts thrash shanty around the lower levels of the ship!