A bit late on this one. I am hoping to keep up at two per week, but stuff keeps happening: Dawn

Stone

Chapter 54 – Mariner’s school

The ship finally reached port the following day and was able to land at WestPort on the morning incoming tide. They had been present for the outgoing tide and saw no less than five whalers leaving port: the whaling season was on again.

Stone and Rayla were at the dock, as normal, to pay off the sailors. As well most of the wives and girlfriends of the crew were there to collect the pays. Rayla had gotten her message from her son via Arthur the prior day and treasured the little slip of paper that told her Jason was thinking of her. She still had it tucked inside her massive bra.

While she was waiting, Nora Keenstone, the captain’s wife, chatted with her while waiting for her son and husband. As the ship rolled in, the half of the crew with no docking duties stood along the port rail, and Nora saw the tiny figure of Kookla, and had trouble not screaming out to him. Rayla looked for Jason, since the cabin boys generally left the ship first. When she did not see him, she would have worried, if not for the message he had sent.

Finally, Stone turned, and called back to her, knowing instinctively that she would be worried. “Look up at the aft deck,” he called out and she saw Jason, wearing a fancy mate’s jacket that was at least three sizes too big for him. The officers left the ship last, with the captain taking the traditional final position.

Kookla came down the ramp, and Stone shook the tiny hand and placed a silver in it as bonus. The little boy then ran down dock and nearly leaped on his mother, who hugged him tightly. Nora had the rest of the family with her: the four-year-old twin girls and their six-year-old brother. Rayla had brought Emily and Sissy along, and Emily held Nora’s baby as Sissy and the little girls played with their dolls. Nora held onto her son tightly as the other sailors came off the ship to meet their wives and girlfriends. After the fears caused by the hurricane, it was an especially sweet reunion for the couples.

Stone paid three silver bonus to the seamen and then five to the masters and seven to the mates, including, to his surprise, his son. Keenstone got a gold for bringing the ship back to port, and then Stone walked the captain down the dock. “Captain’s pay to this one,” she told Rayla and Nora’s eyes went wide when she saw how much money her husband now earned. Keen also handed her the gold, and his tiny wife looked like she thought she was the richest woman in WestPort.

About halfway through the disembarkation, Kalosun came down, along with three other sailors carrying the man still wearing a cast on one arm and one leg. A female voice cried out in alarm, and then raced up to see her injured husband, relieved when he grumpily told her to step back and get his pay. The man has a traditionally bad temper, and she was delighted to see his back to his old ways.

Kalo and his three helpers got their pays and bonus, and then hoisted their burden again to carry the grumbling man home.

Stone and the captain walked together to the shipyard to see about getting repairs made to the vessel. Keenstone saw the skeleton of the Moon Goddess under construction and suggested that if some of the parts for that ship were used, the Sun Goddess could be repaired and made ready faster, in six weeks instead of two months.

While they were there, Jason escorted his family home as well as the Keenstone clan. Sissy was ecstatic with the wooden doll he had whittled for her, which she showed off to her younger friends. Jason was rewarded with the wide smile that the girl gave him. She was already making plans on what clothes to make for the little wooden doll. Jason was silent most of the way, although he did ask his mother a question quietly, since she had her arms wrapped around him: “Do you still teach night school?”

“No, dear. I just do administrative work for the school. No teaching.”

“Would you like to take some on, for the next few months?”

“I could. What do you have in mind?” she replied.

“Well, it is going to be a month or two before the ship is ready to sail again. Some of the men will start to feel the pinch going that long without a pay. I noticed very few headed off to the bars after they got their bonus. They know they will need that money to pay expenses. I was thinking that if we had a seaman’s school, similar to the one we ran before when the old captain taught men to be mates and masters, and Dad paid them a salary to attend, it would be easier on them. Especially if we are going to have two ships to man when the Moon Goddess is complete. Starting a school now will get the second ship crew trained.”

“What would you want me to teach? I don’t know all that much about matters nautical,” Rayla asked.

“No, but most can’t read or write, and have poor number skills. I taught some of the men on my shift when we were coming back. If you could teach that, then I could concentrate on rules of the sea and navigation. I am pretty good at that stuff. Hopefully Kalosun could teach first aid and Kithren fighting. The men are quite eager to learn that.”

“How many students?”

“There are 35 on the ship. Well, 32 now since the three left. There might be a few more who want to learn to sail. Most men were signed on to the whalers, but there could be more,” Jason said.

“Two classes then,” Rayla calculated. “We could do it in the new school at night, or even use the old school next to the house during the day. Oh, I have a surprise for you? Our neighborhood is changing.”

Jason looked up and noticed that the house next to the old school was gone. As they got closer, he saw that the foundations and basement walls were still there. A dozen Kithren workmen were scurrying about the place. The house was what Stone had called a split level, although Rayla had never known such a building style in 1950s Earth. Half the basement was about eight feet below ground level, and the other half was only four feet down. Men were dumping sand into the floors onto heavily tarred concrete.

“What is that?” the boy asked.

“It is going to be a swimming pool. Stone is building it as a present for Emily’s birthday. But the whole family can use it. When the hot days of summer come, I suspect it will be full of students as well. The school has a program where doing well on a test or exam, or just working hard, earns the student a pass to use the pool. Unfortunately, there are too many students for unlimited use.”

“That is so cool. We could teach the sailors to swim.”

“Can’t they swim now? I mean, being at sea you would expect that they can.”

“No,” Jason said sorrowfully. “Very few can swim. If we could teach them even a bit, it could save their lives. Being able to get to a ring tossed from the ship, or a life raft would be important.”

“Well, I have hired two people who can swim to be lifeguards at the pool, and they will be giving lessons to Emily, Sissy and anyone else who wants to learn. They could teach your men as well.”

When they got into the house, Cass was there to encircle Jason in her mighty bosom. Apparently, she had prepared all of the boy’s favorite foods for the next few days. After dinner Jason and Stone left to go to Captain Keenstone’s home for a report on the voyage. Jason barely got into the door when Kookla pried himself off his mother’s lap and ran and nearly leaped on the young mate.

The reporting on the ship’s voyage took until late in the evening. Jason turned red several times as Keenstone extolled the boy’s actions during and after the hurricane.

“Do you wish to make his promotion permanent?” Keen asked. “And my own, for that matter.”

“The Captain must be retained,” Jason interrupted to tell his father in no uncertain terms. “He is far better a captain than Snow ever was. And if he doesn’t lead us, I know a lot of the crew will go back to whalers. I’ll not sail without him, that is for sure.”

“Don’t tell your mother that,” Stone joked, “or she will want me to fire Keen just to keep you ashore.”

“I said I wouldn’t sail with a different captain, not that I would stop sailing. Whatever ship the captain sails on will have me aboard, even if it is just a whaler.”

“Well we can’t have that, can we,” Stone said with a smile. “Keen will remain captain.” He turned to the Kithren man. “And what about Jason? He is young to be a mate. Aren’t the men upset that the owner’s son got to be mate at such an early age?”

“Jason saved the ship twice, and two different sailors from drowning,” Keenstone said. “The men love him. He teaches them math and writing during idle times in their shifts. They would miss him if he was not on board and might mutiny if he was demoted back to cabin boy or ship’s monkey. Besides, he is the best navigator we have.”

Stone then explained Jason’s plan for the seaman’s school, which the captain agreed with, and even volunteered to help wherever Jason felt was appropriate.

“Something else,” Jason said. “I think we should have a larger crew on the ship. Twelve seamen on each shift instead of nine, and two masters. A second cook, a second carpenter and two cabin boys. A third mate. The captain shouldn’t do mate duties. It will be more than we need, but it means that when the Moon Goddess is ready, we can split the crews better. Then we could go back to the regular crew size: except the third mate. I think a captain unencumbered by mate’s duties will be more effective.”

Stone and Keen talked the idea over, and eventually came to the conclusion that the idea was a good one. Then Keenan, the captain’s six-year-old son spoke up: “If there are going to be two cabin boys, can I be one?”

Keen laughed. “No son. I think you need grow a bit more. Besides, your mother needs a boy at home. Kookla found it hard at age nine, I think the second boy will be 11 or 12.”

Eventually Stone and Jason left. It was getting late into the spring, so the sun was up longer, but it was dark when they headed for home.

In the house Rayla led Stone up to their bedroom, telling Jason he was in charge of the girls. They immediately sat down around him and started an interrogation: enthralled by his stories of the trip. Sissy had her new doll on her lap, already clothed, but ignored it as they listened to the stories their brother was telling. Even Cass came in to listen.

Jason woke early, but the sun was already up. He walked to the Keenstone house, and found Kookla on the porch, watching the day start on a deck that didn’t roll with the waves.

Jason waved the boy over, and they walked into town together. They walked down to the dock and saw that the gerry-rigged mast had already been removed, making the ship look odd. On the way back Jason stopped into one of the town bakeries. They each bought a sweet, and then Jason remembered the bakery back in Greenstone.

“I need to get some for Emily and Mom, and Sissy and Cass too,” he said. “Do you want to get some for your family too?”

“I should,” Kookla said. “We seldom got store-bought treats when Dad was on the whalers. There just wasn’t money. But Mom says we have lots now, and your Dad gave me a silver when we landed. I’ll pay you back tomorrow.”

“No need. Or you can buy tomorrow,” Jason said.

“Tomorrow? You mean we will do this again?”

“Sure, why not. I like being with you,” Jason said as the boys walked to their prospective homes. Kookla shone with pride at knowing that his hero enjoyed his company.