Sandship

The Sandship is the 5th dungeon in Skyward Sword. The main item obtained is the Bow and its boss is Tentalus.

Entrance to the Ship
The Sandship, once captained by Skipper, is a mechanical galleon that protects Nayru's Flame, and is able to cloak itself. However, it was taken by pirates in search of the Sacred Flame on a stormy day ages before Link's quest, so Link and Skipper search through Skipper's Retreat, the Shipyard, and finally the Pirate Stronghold to find clues to the ship's location. At the Pirate Stronghold they finally find broken pieces of the ship, allowing Fi to dowse for it. Skipper explains that the Sandship will still be sailing the Sand Sea, cloaked and invisible to the eye, but that attacking it with his own boat's onboard cannon will damage the Sandship enough that the cloaking will fail and the ship will stop. Link and Skipper hunt down the Sandship, and after enough bombardment from the cannon, the ship stops and Link boards it.

Themes and Navigation
Shortly after boarding, Link finds the ship mostly deserted and non-functioning. In this state, several Arachas have overrun the place (a passageway is even completely loaded with them), and sand is a commonplace element. After investigating the ship, Link discovers Scervo, the pirate captain. Link defeats Scervo in battle, and gains the ship's treasure: the Bow.

The Sandship's center mast contains a Timeshift Stone which, when activated, encompasses the entire ship and the surrounding area. The dungeon also features many Eye Switches.

After activating the Timeshift Stone using his Bow, Skipper informs Link that his crew is trapped in the brig below. To free the ship's crew, Link must use the Timeshift Stone to alternate between past and present to navigate the ship and reach the generators. Once the generators have been activated, Link climbs underneath the ship's main passages to the brig, freeing the crew. After the ship's crew has been freed, they give Link the key to the Captain's Cabin, where the control room key, the Squid Carving, lies. Upon entering the control room, Fi notes that the ship seems to be under attack by a monster of considerable size, and recommends that Link exits to further assess the situation, using Skyward Strikes to eliminate the tentacles. Link has to fend off large tentacles using Skyward Strikes to clear a path to reach the deck. Once Link reaches the deck of the Sandship the culprit of the attack, the Abyssal Leviathan Tentalus, reveals itself.

After the boss fight the ship is nearly completely destroyed by Tentalus, but Skipper and his crew quickly repair it and continue to sail the seas.

Trivia

 * If Link returns to the ship once it is rebuilt after the boss has been defeated, he can not enter the control room because he is not authorized. Furthermore, after the ship is rebuilt, if Link returns to the prison cell where Skipper's crew was held, he will find that a number of Technoblins (which can still be killed) are now imprisoned in the cell instead. In addition, there are about seven Ancient Robots from Skipper's crew scattered throughout the ship, in places like the deck, engine room, captain's cabin and the battlefield where Scervo is found.
 * The initial inaccessibility of the ship due to its cloak is reminiscent of the Ghost Ship from The Wind Waker due to the absence of the Ghost Ship Chart, and in Phantom Hourglass due to the mist.