Stone

Chapter 44 – Back to Sea

The first voyage of the ship went well, although it took 22 days instead of two weeks. Stone was not terribly upset that it was late. He had told the captain to take three weeks if needed. The extra time would allow the crew to learn how to effectively use the jib sails. The extra day was also not a worry as the Blue Point lighthouse had sent a runner to Stone to say that the ship had been sighted, and was expected on the following day.

The ship docked on the low tide, in the early evening, and both Rayla and Stone were present. Rayla had a small table at the land end of the dock, and set up a pay station. The deal Stone had made with the sailors was that pays would be made to their wives or steady girlfriends, and they would only get bonus money. Stone stood at the gangway, and passed out a silver as a bonus to each sailor as they left the ship: enough money for two or three nights of getting drunk. With their pays safely with their mate, they didn’t need to worry about gambling away their earnings, much to the dismay of the card sharks who found the men only willing to gamble pennies and forthings, rather than silvers.

Once the women had gathered up their men’s earnings, they hurried up to hug their mates as they got off the ship. Rayla watched, and found it interesting where the sailors went. Most of the young ones practically dragged their women home: they had been three weeks without female companionship. The older men were split into two camps: those who considered getting drunk at the bar most important, and those with kids at home they wanted to greet first.

There were only five single men on ship who had not designated anyone to get their pay. One was the captain, a bachelor who considered himself a teetotaler now, after his years as an alcoholic. He took his pay and went to his sister’s house: his new land base, planning to give her much of his pay, and the five silver’s in his bonus.

Two men gathered up their pays, and headed to the bars to drink, gamble, and perhaps hire a woman for the night. But the other two went straight past Rayla and joined up with two shy looking women, hugging each and bringing them up to the pay table. They told Rayla that in the future these women could collect their pays, and the elated women led their men off to a bed, in one house or another. Rayla closed her pay books

The ship was closed off for the night: unloading with the stevedores would start the next day, and after that it would move to the shipyard to have some small leaks looked after before being loaded with the goods going to Lakeport. The load was not a big one: there was no prior experience with ship-based trading between Lakeport and Westport. The wagons took two weeks for the trip, and the freight cost was lower by sea, especially for bulk goods. Stone was sending all the coal by ship now, and Keenstone, the first mate, had said that wood was one item much needed in the eastern town: it was located on a delta and was a good distance from woods. Stone decided that he would have to get the Kithren woodsmen to work in the forests. The oak grove was reserved for the shipbuilder, but elm, maple, spruce, and walnut were all available and would sell well in the other port.

Stone and Rayla headed home, but Stone left soon after leaving Rayla and securing her pay bags. He went first to the Captain’s room. The man’s sister apologized that she could offer nothing stronger than choc: she had made the house an alcohol free zone when her brother had come to her begging for help in drying up before starting teaching the mates. Stone spent two hours there, going over every aspect of the voyage. The captain raved about the jib sails, but it was clear that he didn’t completely understand them. He detailed the cargo that they returned with. One item that caught Stone’s attention was the five barrels of sugarwine. The captain explained that the beverage was the cheapest of liquors, dark in color and somewhat bitter, but sought out by those who couldn’t afford anything else.

As Stone walked to his next stop, he thought about sugarwine, and even dropped into a bar and ordered a glass. As he thought, it was rum, and a little nasty. After one sip, he asked the bartender to put three parts of water with it. That made it palatable, and an idea started forming in his head.

His next stop was the first mate, Keenstone’s. He found the man sitting on a sofa with five children crawling all over their daddy. Stone told him to stay when he went to rise, and allowed the kids to continue to hold the man they had been missing for three weeks. Keenstone explained his view of the voyage, and it was clear that the mate had a better understanding of the ship. Stone wanted to immediately promote him to captain, but the man refused, saying that he was still learning from the old captain, and wanted more experience with him before taking off on his own.

Stone did hand him another two silvers bonus, added to the three he had received on disembarking, to make his bonus the same as the captain. The second mate had received two silver, and Keenstone suggested that he had performed well, and deserved another. Stone handed him another silver and told the man to hand it to his mate when he next saw him. Keenstone handed his two silvers to his wife, and slipped the third into his pocket.

“Bless you master,” the pretty little black woman exclaimed. “This will go a long way in getting winter coats for the children. They all need new ones, and this, plus the pay Keen earned, means they will all get new ones instead of hand me downs. Children, please come and thank the master for all he is doing for us.” One by one the children came and hugged Stone, and thanked him.

“Please don’t call me Master,” Stone said: he was uncomfortable hearing that from black people. “They used to call me captain up north, but that really doesn’t work when we are dealing with ships. Perhaps we can use another military term: Colonel.”

“We could call you Boss,” Keen offered, but Stone shook his head. That term also had slavery connotations. Colonel would have to do.

Keen explained the use of the jib, and suggested it would cut a day off from each leg of the voyages, now that the men understood it. That would mean a round trip, including unloading, would only take two weeks in the future.

Stone went home, hoping to have an early evening with Rayla, but found Jason on pins-and-needles hoping to hear everything about the voyage. Stone told him what he could, but really didn’t know the details the boy needed to hear. When Rayla finally told the boy he had to go to bed, Stone stopped the inevitable whining by suggesting the boy talk to Keenstone later.

“But after school, mister,” his mother said, practically dragging the boy upstairs.

Stone was at the dock soon after sunup, and found that the stevedores were all assembling for unlading. Keen and the second mate appeared soon after, with the latter man coming directly to Stone and thanking him for the added bonus. Apparently his ploy of making it seem that the money came from Keenstone had failed. “You earned it,” Stone said. “Keenstone said you did a commendable job, and had been instrumental in figuring out the jib sails.”

“Aye, Colonel,” the man said. Apparently Keen had told the mate about his new honorific. “That is a wonderful invention. It makes tacking so much easier. We can actually sail slightly into the wind. Marvelous.”

The Captain appeared shortly thereafter, and the four went on board to direct the stevedores. Keen did most of the work, again demonstrating his leadership, and the Captain tended to stand and watch. Stone watched for a few minutes, and discovered that the crew was extremely inefficient at unloading anything but barrels.

“Barrels are all they deal with from the whalers,” Keen explained. “Bags and boxes are a bit of a problem for them.”

Stone called four of the stevedores over and explained what he needed. The men darted off the dock, to the dismay of their foreman. Stone went over to the irate man and said his workers were not shirking, but had gone on an errand for him. The foreman relented, at about the time the four returned, each pushing a wheelbarrow.

Stone spent a few minutes with the four, and demonstrated how one wheelbarrow could carry three or four bags, and several boxes with about the same effort as carrying one or two on the shoulder.

“Kin youse put a barrel on one o’ them things,” the foreman asked. “Barrels works fine fer rolling down a ramp, but them things look like they would go up a ramp easier.”

“Probably,” Stone guessed. “You’d need to get one for testing. Those come from the shipyard. But I’m not going to return them. I will buy them from the shipyard. Keen said they had trouble loading and unloading at Lakeport.”

The foreman actually learned what he needed to know without buying or borrowing a wheelbarrow. There were barrels in the cargo on the ship, and the device worked much more efficiently in moving those. The foreman decided to order some from the shipyard.

By the end of the day the foreman told Stone that the ship would go to the drydock tomorrow, and would be loaded there as the shipwrights patched up the leaky spots. It would be reloaded by second tide on that day, and it would be ready to sail. Keenstone sent word out to his men to get them sober and ready to sail. The time in the shipyard would not delay sailing.

Stone returned late the next day. A few sailors looked slightly under the weather. Stone went to the galley with Keen and the captain and the head cook. “There is something I remember from my old world,” the big man said. “I have bought two of the five barrels of sugarwine that were on board, and had them moved up here, to the galley.” He tapped one barrel and pulled out a glass of sugarwine.”

“That is pretty nasty stuff,” the captain said. “I drank more than a little of it when I was in my darkest days.”

“Mix in three parts of water to one of liquor,” Stone told the chef handing him the glass. “Here, try this.”

“Not half bad,” the man said, handing the glass to Keen. The captain, of course, refused to sample it.

“The idea is to give the crew a daily ration of this, which is called grog,” Not a full glass like this, but a small glass, perhaps with only an ounce of sugarwine for each man.”

“I don’t know,” the captain said. “Liquor onboard sounds like a dangerous idea. It wouldn’t do to have a drunk crew.”

“And that is why the barrels are here in the galley. Only the cook will have a key,” Stone said. “The idea is that the daily grog is a treat: if a man is being laggard or misbehaving, then he is shorted. And since the captain will not drink it, I suggest that a mate can decide which man get’s ‘the captain’s portion’. It may encourage the men to work harder, and one or two ounces of sugarwine a day is not enough to make anyone drunk.”

“That could work,” Keen said thoughtfully. “We can give it a try on this trip, and decide how it goes.”

“Now,” Stone said. “Where is my son? Jason was not at dinner tonight. I assume he is hiding in the ship somewhere. The man who finds him will get the captain’s portion today.”

Once it was explained that grog was being offered, and a double portion would go to the man who found the boy, the entire crew scoured the ship, and found the boy crawled up into a tiny niche at the front of the vessel. Jason was returned to the deck by one of the sailors, and Stone took his shoulder and tugged the boy to the ramp, which was then removed. The two stood on the dock as hawsers were released and the ship drifted out with the outgoing tide. Sails were being raised and the ship started heading east again as the big white man and the small black boy headed home.

“You are hurting my shoulder,” Jason complained.

“Your mother will probably hurt more than that. Twelve years old is not too old to be spanked. What was the idea of stowing away?” Stone asked.

“I just wanted to sail, and the fourth trip seems so far away,” the boy said.

“Well, you won’t be sailing on the fourth trip,” Stone said. “I think as punishment you will wait until after the sixth trip. Unless your mother makes it a longer wait.”

The boy looked up in shock. “Five more trips. That is so unfair,” he pouted.

“What’s more I am going to have Kalosun make you promise not to try another stunt like this again: a Kithren promise to the sun goddess. If you break that you will prove to yourself and everyone in town that you cannot be trusted.”

The walk back to the house was hard, but Jason found things even harder when he got home and his mother found out where he had been hiding. She did not spank him, as Stone had suggested, but he was sent to bed with no supper. Missa sneaked upstairs with a crust of stale bread for him later, but it was far less than he needed.

And the next day, at noon, Kalosun made him promise to the goddess at noon, with all the other children in his classes gathered around to hear his shame. Some of the other boys thought the idea of stowing away was clever, but knew that Jason could never break his word, and would not sail until the seventh trip, nearly two months away.