This one was evil. I had to drop two scenes out of it and it still grew to a fair size. Don’t worry, the deleted scenes will appear next time the ship is at sea: Dawn

Stone

Chapter 53 – Heading to Port

The morning after Kilmer had been rescued from drowning, he woke up in sick bay with nothing more than a massive headache, caused by the sugarwine he had consumed. Luckily Kalosun had a remedy for that, so when the captain and Jason approached the sick bay on their morning inspection of the ship, his head had stopped pounding, and he felt very close to human. He even heard Jason and the captain speaking just outside of the sick bay,

“I think if Kalosun feels he can work, we should put Kilmer back on duty,” the boy said.

“But he was drunk on the job,” the captain insisted. “He needs to be punished.”

“Nearly drowning is punishment,” Jason argued. “When the men tell him how close he came to being shark food, that will reinforce the close call he had. And making Kull and Kertle work extra shifts is punishing them, and they did nothing”

“Okay, if you feel he has learned his lesson, then no demotion. I have faith in your sense for the men,” Keenstone said. “But he must be punished. Twenty heavy lashes from one of the tillermen. No Jason lashes.”

“Ten,” Jason argued. “Twenty lashes would leave him in sick bay for a week and the others will still have to cover his shift,”

“Twelve,” Keenstone said. “He should be able to work through that, and he will never again steal sugarwine.”

Kilmer stood inside the sick bay, listening to the two talk, and was completely flummoxed. A day before he had wanted to kill the boy for embarrassing him, and now he had saved his position. A few lashes were nothing compared to being demoted. He had worked 20 years to earn a master’s position, and if he lost it, he would certainly never be considered for another one. Jason had saved his life yesterday, and today he had saved his career.

The captain entered sick bay and spoke to Kalosun for a few minutes and then came to Kilmer and told the man he was not being demoted but was to be whipped after lunch. Jason went to the closet he and Kookla shared, planning to get the dolly he had been whittling for Sissy. Jason normally didn’t sleep until after lunch.

The smaller boy was not there but ran up before Jason got settled with his knife. “Jason,” the new ship’s monkey said, “there is water in the lower hold. Up to almost my knees.”

“Good work,” Jason said. He followed the little guy down into the hull, where Kookla stopped three rungs from the bottom of the ladder, the last dry one. Jason went on down and stood in the middle of the hold. He listened and could hear water coming in from somewhere on the forward port side of the ship.

“Kookla. Go get the carpenter and tell him there is a leak and bring him back here with his tools.” And tell your father there is need for a crew on the pumps.” Jason then worked his way through the barrels and sacks in the hold towards the sound of water.

“Where are you, Jason,” the carpenter called out.

“Over here,” the boy said. “I don’t know if you can get all the way here. It is pretty narrow. Have Kookla come. He can squeeze in, and hand me tools, if you can tell me what to do. The water is gushing in pretty fast. It seems to be a seam between two planks, about an inch thick and three feet long.”

The carpenter only thought a few seconds. “Press on either of the boards, top and bottom. Are they solid, or do they give?”

Jason took a minute to check as the water spilled over him. “The bottom board gives about a half inch when I press on it. The top one is secure.”

“Damn,” the carpenter swore. “We are near port and we could just limp back with men manning the pumps. But if that lower board pops, the water will gush in quicker than we can pump it. We will go down in 10 minutes. Tell me how many boards from the deck above to the bad ones.”

Jason counted. “Twelve, thirteen counting the one above the leak.”

“Damn again. That means that the leak is five boards or so below the water line. We need to try and plug the leak with a rope. I’ve got four feet of inch-and-a-quarter rope. Can you plug it into the gap? I’ve got a mallet.”

“Have Kookla bring them in to me,” Jason said.

Soon he could hear the small boy crawling through the stacks of goods to near Jason.

“Have you got the rope and the mallet?”

“Yes Jason,” the boy said with a quivering voice. “It is dark and scary in here, isn’t it?”

“Don’t be afraid,” Jason reassured the youngster as he took the rope and mallet from badly shaking hands. “I’m here, so you know nothing bad will happen.”

Jason took the rope and hammered it into the gap with a half-foot at either end quickly sliced off with his knife. “Back out Kookla, to where the carpenter is. Take this mallet to him. I’m going to sit here a minute and make sure it holds.”

After a minute Jason called out: “It is still leaking, but the rope is holding most of the water out. I would say that less than a tenth of the former leak is getting through.”

“Come out boy,” the carpenter called. “We can do nothing more here. We must report to the captain.”

As Jason came out, he saw Kilmer pounding the beat out for the pump crew, who marched over the pump in silence, looking down and ignoring the master. The carpenter, Kookla and Jason headed up to the aft deck to report to the captain.

“The water is down, Captain,” Kookla said excitedly. “It is just above my ankles now.”

The captain smiled at his eager son, and then looked to the carpenter: “The board below is weakened. If it pops, then the ship will go down. We really need to seal the joint from the outside as well. The problem is that the leak is underwater. We need three sailors who can swim to seal it well.”

“Few sailors can swim,” the captain said. He called out to the assembled men on the day shift, along with men of the other shifts who were idling on the deck. “Who here can swim?” No man raised a hand.

“I can swim,” Jason said. “I was underwater for several minutes yesterday.”

Keenstone looked long and hard at his second mate. If Jason dies, Rayla and Stone would be furious with him. But if the board pops, the entire ship will sink, and Jason could still die. The only difference was Keenstone would also die, which seemed like a better path.

“If Jason goes, I will too,” called out one of the men from the third shift. “And I,” another man said. It seemed that Keenstone’s decision was made for him.

The carpenter started to explain what needed to be done. The ship would have to hove to in the water, stopping entirely. The sea was as calm as glass now with nearly no wind, and the three men would be lowered over the side standing on a board, with Jason in the middle. The two men at the side would hold Jason with one hand and the rope up to the deck with the other. This would allow the boy to pound in a tar-soaked rope and seal the leak. The tar would bond with the other rope already in the gap and make for a tight seal.

The plank, and then the three men, went over the side and were lowered down. The first dunking allowed Jason to find the bad plank, about five planks below sea level. The boy also learned that a sea “as smooth as glass” still had waves about a half-foot high. The plank was lifted up and repositioned more exactly over the leak. The carpenter handed Jason another rope, this time coated in tar. The board was lowered again.

Jason secured one end into the leak, hitting it with the mallet to secure it. But halfway across, the rope came loose at the end, and dropped into the sea. Jason called for a lift, and the board was hauled up. One of his two helpers was sputtering badly, and nearly fell into the water. An alert seaman grabbed him and pulled him over the gunwale where he collapsed on the deck. Jason looked first at the other man on the board with him, who seemed fine. Then he turned over and saw another man from his third shift crawling over the rail to join them.

Jason heard a humming from his leg and realized that his knife wanted him to use it as a hammer instead of the mallet. When the carpenter handed him another tar covered rope, Jason bit it in his teeth and gave the mallet back to the stunned man. He reached down and pulled out the knife and signaled the men on the ropes to let them down again.

This time it worked. Using the hilt of the knife as a hammer, Jason flatted the rope into the seam, and it held from side to side. The signal to raise the men was given again, and Jason noted that the replacement helper let go of him just as they broke water. Jason slid over and grabbed the rope as the man, now unconscious, slumped. He managed to hold the man upright on his shoulder until a man on the gunwales could grab him and pull him over to the deck. It turns out the man could not swim and had volunteered out of pure bravery.

After the leak was sealed Jason waited for lunch. With his night shift he slept from about one to nine, before rising a few hours before the shift. As he ate, he noticed that Kilmer was eating alone. None of the men would speak to him, and most would not even look at him. Apparently, a few men had seen the master attacking Jason, and figured out his intent. The word spread, and soon the entire crew had decided to give Kilmer the cold shoulder.

After Jason took his tin lunch plate to the washing barrel, he sought out the mate. “Good to be back at work,” Jason said cheerfully.

“Tis,” the master said to the first words spoken to him in hours.

“Walk with me,” Jason suggested, and the men patrolled the deck. Jason walked near many of the crew and greeted the men by name. The men, of course, replied and Jason often led them into a conversation with the master. The men noticed that Jason was not upset with Kilmer and decided they didn’t need to be either.

“How do you do it,” Kilmer asked Jason when they were alone. “I tried to kill you, and you saved me. Then I heard you convince the captain not to demote me. And now you are making sure that the men don’t shun me for the rest of the trip. How can you be so good to me?”

“My mother always says that there is good inside of everyone,” Jason said. “Maybe not everyone, but she says to assume that the good is there. I think you are good, even if you tried to do bad things. I probably shouldn’t have lashed you like that.” The master reached up to the twin scars on his cheek. “But you definitely did not deserve to drown or become shark food. And I know you are really a good master and didn’t want to see you lose that.”

After two hours walking the deck, Jason went below for a shortened nap, rising at about eight in the evening.

“Land Ho,” came a shout from the watch on the fore mast. Looking up, Jason saw the man pointing to the north. Every man on the deck rushed to the port rail of the ship and peered to the north.

“I sees it,” a sharp eyed sailor called out, followed by dozens of others. Jason, who had good eyes, saw it fairly early, but did not call out.

For the rest of the evening the mood on the ship was greatly improved. The ship was still two days from Port, as the captain and other navigators had claimed, but it was just reassuring to have land in sight after the ordeal from the hurricane and everything that followed.

By the time Jason’s shift started at midnight it was too dark to see land anymore, but it was a relief knowing it was there, a few hours away should the men have to take to lifeboats. Sailing it was a longer route, since the ship sailed at an angle along the shore, headed for the docks at WestPort. The two men who had been taken to sick bay were on duty that night: Kalosun had given them each a tonic that made them expel the sea water from their lungs, and a few hours rest saw them back on deck.

At eight a.m., when the shifts changed again, the land was more clearly in sight. You could see the odd house, farm, or fisherman’s shanty on the shore. After inspecting the deck with the Captain and Kilmer, and going off duty, Jason went to the port rail and stared at the shore. You could even see the road. There were three horsemen heading towards WestPort. Jason stared harder. One of the men was much bigger than the others, on a bigger horse. Suddenly it hit him. It was Stone, his father. The boy jumped up and down and screamed, causing the watch to look out at the shore.

Stone was swinging his arms about, and Jason realized what he was doing. He left the rail, and grabbed the scarfs off of two sailors, then went back to the rail, swinging the red and blue scarfs in a form that had all the other occupants of the ship confused. But Stone, who had learned semaphore signaling as a boy scout, had taught the boy the code, and they were now communicating. Jason had the harder task, since Stone had no flags and was only signaling with his bare arms. But the boy could make out the message: ‘Port, 7, L’ followed by a pointing back to the east.

“Father says the port is seven leagues to the east,” Jason shouted to the captain.

Just then a large eagle landed on the port rail, near Jason. “Ketch it,” one of the sailors said. “It’ll make a fine dinner.”

“No,” Jason shouted. “I know that bird. It is Arthur.” He turned to Kookla, standing by in amazement. “Run to the map room and get me a pencil and a bit of paper. About this size.” He showed a size of about two inches by six.

The little tyke ran and was back a minute later. Jason took the paper and wrote one word on it: ‘Mother’. He then rolled the paper up and tied it to the claw of the bird, who then lifted away and flew straight back to WestPort and Rayla.