With the Taoiseach temporarily registered under a foreign flag - he was in Croatia - the Government had to bring in contract staff to man the ship for Leaders' Questions.
Brian Cowen was already familiar with the controls, having deputised before. But the crisis at Irish Ferries had made waters unusually choppy. And mounting a concerted attack on the issue, the Opposition parties were determined to rock Biffo's boat.
Labour claimed it was rocking already, after Dick Roche's performance on RTÉ's Questions & Answers the night before. The Minister for the Environment didn't know his port from his starboard, Pat Rabbitte claimed. But Mr Roche wasn't alone in his rudderlessness, he suggested: "The Government is all over the place on this."
The Labour leader said the ferry crisis was a defining moment in Ireland, when 20 years of social partnership could be "jettisoned" by a company whose race to the bottom had the support of "influential people in bank boardrooms". There was another way, he insisted. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Government could deny the company's right to reflag. It would then be for Irish Ferries to appeal that refusal to an international tribunal.
Steady as she went, Mr Cowen assured the Opposition that the Government would do everything it could under EU and international law to protect ferry workers' rights. But he sailed into murkier waters when, stressing the Government's consistency, he contrasted it with Mr Rabbitte's political career, which has included a number of reflagging incidents. Whereupon, suddenly, he hit an iceberg in the shape of Willie Penrose.
Leaping to his leader's defence, the Westmeath TD reminded the Minister that the Labour Party had been around since 1911, and it wouldn't take lectures on consistency from anyone.
"You would have supported William Martin Murphy," he snarled at Mr Cowen.
Unlike Long John Silver, the Minister didn't "have a leg to stand on," he said. "You're in the employers' pocket," he added, still angry.
The Minister for Finance muttered in the direction of Willie's leader: "I won't be intimidated by that Sticky nonsense".
But he seemed slightly cowed by the attack from his fellow midlander, who is clearly the Westmeath equivalent of a BIFFO (acronyms on a postcard, please). "You picked the wrong issue to be smart on," Mr Penrose concluded.
After that wobble, the Minister steadied the ship and negotiated it safely through the calmer waters of Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin's question. In his reply, Mr Cowen said that no-one had a better record on social partnership "than the person who normally stands in this place". Which is the sort of loyalty that has earned him the position of first-mate, and that should eventually secure him the captaincy.
It was more recent than 1911, but few of us could remember the last time before yesterday that the Ceann Comhairle conceded an emergency debate under Standing Order 31, as he is asked to do every Dáil day by hopeful TDs.
When he allowed one last night on the ferry crisis, there were ironic cheers from the Opposition, tempered by the realisation that they would have to go off and compose speeches.
Mr Rabbitte was as excited as a child on Christmas morning. The threatened no-confidence motion forgotten, he invited Dr O'Hanlon to meet him under the Dáil tree next week to celebrate with a "seasonal drink".
