Enjoy: Dawn

Stone

Chapter 62 – Bringing back the ship

Kalosun heard the same shattering of wood that Jason had heard, but from only a few feet of distance. This was followed by a splashing sound and the ship began to roll in the waves. Jason had visited him a few hours earlier, just before the storm picked up, and Kalo suggested that he and the three drunks could weather the storm on board. Suddenly that seemed a less than wise decision.

Soon the ship was tossing about terribly in the rough seas. Kalo strapped the men to their benches so they would not be thrown to the deck. The men were still totally out of it. Fermented coconut certainly had a stronger effect than normal alcohol. The three men this time were different from the two before. That pair had learned the effects of the nuts, and never wanted to face that again.

The ship was tossed badly in the storm. Normally there was a full hull of supplies, but all those had been moved into the caves. The super-buoyant empty vessel sometimes tipped halfway over without a man on the tiller to sail into the waves instead of rolling with them. Kalosun finally had to belt himself into his cot after being tossed to the deck several times.

He got up several times during the night to feed the men the soup broth that Jason had sent up before the storm got too bad. Kalo had set up his kitchen/dispensary so that a rolling ship would not cause problems, so long as everything was fastened down. But with the ship tossing so badly even the soup he ladled into a bowl spilled violently before he could get near the men. He slurped the rest of the bowl himself: he had to eat as well. A rag was thrown onto the spill and he mopped it up with his foot. The next time he used a tall glass for the warm soup and managed to get most of it to the closest man without spilling by putting his other hand over the top. He got that man to drink half of the glass, and then the next man finished it.

A second glass was taken to the third man. Kalo know that feeding the men was an important step in getting the men through the alcohol poisoning. He drained that last of the soup and then got a clean glass and fed each man water: a full glass each to dilute the poisons. He also took a glass himself, and then spoon fed the men a potion that had seemed to help the time before.

Back strapped into his bed he tossed about for the next two days. He realized that the ship was being carried by the storm, riding along with it as it moved west. He wondered if they would ever get out of it. He got up every 12 hours or so to feed and water his charges. All three of them pissed themselves on the benches. There was a small privy in the sick bay, but only Kalo was strong enough to use it in the tossing ship.

The following day the storm seemed to be abating, or more correctly the ship was no longer trapped in the center. The ship still pitched, but no longer seemed near to tipping over, and Kalo no longer had to tie himself into his cot.

The men were conscious now but moaning in pain. The soup was gone, but they craved water and the potion. Kalo risked making a pot of oatmeal for the hungry men in the tossing ship, and finally managed to get some cooked enough to be edible. He had very little salt in his stores. Most of it had been taken by the cook, and the healer wanted to save what he had for potions.

He fed the men and himself, and first one, then the others made an attempt to use the privy. Two succeeded. The other was too weak to hold himself up and fell backwards out of the tiny room, violently hitting his arm hard enough that Kalo had to make a sling for it.

He had gotten piss all over himself, and the area around the privy and Kalo used the rag still on the floor to mop up what he could. There was oatmeal again 12 hours later and the men were moaning less, claiming that they were regaining strength.

The next morning the ship was rolling, but not so violently, and all three men were able to navigate their way to the privy when they woke. Kalo was already cooking, and the men said they felt able to work a bit. Kalo opened the door, and the heavy rain poured in. The waves were smaller, and the rain seemed a bit lighter as well, but it was hard to tell. The ship was a mess. Lines and spars littered the deck. It was barely light, and that was the dawn light streaming under the clouds. When the sun rose higher later the heavy black clouds would darken the skies again.

Kalo found a line coiled near the door. It was not supposed to be there, but had been tossed there by the waves, which thankfully no longer were topping the ship. The wind was still a problem though, and Kalo tied the rope to the handle of the sick bay door, and then struggled alone out to the railing at the rear of the ship, where he tied the other end to the railing up to the afterdeck. This would allow the weakened sailors to get to the rear safely. The rain had one good effect: it removed the piss from the men’s clothes.

Normally the three men were each twice as strong as Kalo, but they were tentative in attempting to come to the rear on the line. They were still weak from the poisoning they had brought on themselves. Finally, all three were on the top of the aft deck stairs and paused. They could see the wheel spinning out of control. They all made a dash towards the wheel during a gap between two waves. Kalo made a side trip and grabbed one of Jason’s steering ropes.

The wheel was spinning too fast for the men to grab it, and two of them bruised their knuckles trying.

“No, no,” Kalo said. “See how it spins so much one way, then stops and spins the other? What you need to do it grab it when it stops before spinning the other way. All three of you together, one man to an adjoining spoke.”

They managed to grab the wheel, but of course it was at the maximum turn and the force of the seas wrested it from their hands. Kalo had tied one end of Jason’s steering rope to a belaying pin, and the men tried again. This time, once they had stopped the wheel, they quickly spun it until it was centered properly. Then Kalo looped the rope over a pin.

Immediately the ship stopped tossing so much now that it was steered on an even keel. Two of the men dropped to the deck, exhausted, but Kalo and the other man managed to steer the ship into the waves, cutting the tossing even more. The two managed for about a half hour, and then the other two were recovered enough to take over. The sailor dropped to the deck, but Kalo managed to rest his aching arms while standing, telling the other two men how to steer.

Kalo had them take each wave at a slight angle to the starboard. He wanted to aim the ship away from the center of the storm at the port. The men continued in that method. Kalo went down to the galley and found it nearly empty. There was a package of a dozen ships biscuits, as hard as rock. He took them back to the men, and the ones not on the wheel eagerly chewed on them as they rested. The rain quickly took care of the staleness. In fact, at the end of each biscuit it was a soggy mass that helped hydrate the men. Each of them had two of the little rocks immediately, and then the other four were saved for several hours later.

The men worked through the night, and gradually came out of the worst of the storm. Waves were down to four or five feet, and Kalo went to sick bay and made more oatmeal. There was enough for six days, he calculated, if they only ate twice a day. The hot porridge was welcomed by the soaking sailors. They worked through all the dark hours, and finally could see light at dusk as the sun finally dropped below the horizon. The clouds were lighter, and farther off to the left. They were steering out of the storm.

The keel was easier to handle now as well and Kalo decided to have only one man on the wheel though the night. They were on two-hour watches, and all got much needed sleep in the six hours they were in bed. The men even went below to their normal cots rather than the soiled ones in the sick bay, where Kalo woke a bit early and started a hot breakfast.

“’snot rainin’ anymore,” one man said as he started spooning the warm porridge down his throat.

“Gawd, it stinks in ‘ere’” the other noted.

“Well, you lot are the reason for that,” Kalo admonished. He finished first and went to take the wheel so the third man could go eat.

“We found a mop stuck in a railing, and cleaned up your sick bay a bit,” one man said when the three came back aft.

“That privy were a real mess,” another said. The other man didn’t speak but took over the wheel. Kalo rested his aching arms and turned to the rear to survey the seas. The water was calm now, if you consider two-foot waves calm.

“I want to get some sails up. Topsails and one jib at least,” he said. “Can you three do that?”

“Shore ‘nuff,” a sailor said. “Though with only three it would be easier if we did it with the wind. You kin turn the ship easier when we have some sail.”

“Alright,” Kalo said. “Give me another few minutes to rest and I’ll take the wheel again while you men go aloft.”

“You really think we kin find th’ others?” a sailor asked.

“Maybe,” Kalo said. “We’ve only got enough food for six days, starting from today. I know the island is that way,” he pointed, “but I have no idea if it is south east or north east. We’ll have to put our faith in the Sun Goddess. Surely she wouldn’t let her namesake perish.”

A half hour later the sails were up and one of the sailors apparently knew how a jib worked, and he led the others to tacking the ship back and forth against the brisk breeze. Kalo was happy to see the ship leaving the hurricane behind and went through the captain and mate’s quarters looking for spyglasses. Unfortunately, these had all been taken out for use on the island.

The men sailed four more days and saw nothing. Kalo had no training in navigation, so had no idea how far they had travelled, and whether they had reached the vicinity of the island. He took to climbing the crow’s nest when he was not cooking and serving meals, the only things he was capable of on ship. The other three manned the ship on shifts, although Kalo still took a turn on the night watch which had been extended to two-and-a-half hours, giving each man nearly a full eight hours of sleep.

Kalo was planning to come down from the nest one evening to make the oatmeal. It was the last of the stock. There was enough for one meal, and another case of rock-hard biscuits and then the food would be gone. Kalo stood and looked to the south east and saw a glimmer of flickering light.

No one knows why Jason had picked that particular evening to burn the pile of tops and leaves of the trees being used to make the new dock. Later Kalosun told the crew that it was the Sun Goddess making him do it when the ship was in sight. Jason wasn’t sure, but he was thrilled when the ship appeared the next morning heading straight for the island. But by then the fire was out but the men on the ship had sailed in that direction all night, and in the dawn’s early light they were able to make out the island itself on the horizon.

It was Sissy, feeding her chickens and looking for eggs who saw the vessel first. She squealed, and when Jason came to see what the problem was, the girl was jumping up and down, shrieking: “Boat. The Big Boat. It comes.”

It was late evening when the Sun Goddess finally reached the island. Perfect timing as the tide was right for the vessel to approach the floating dock that the men had worked so hard to build. Captain Keenstone had appointed shifts to man the vessel when it came in and four tired and hungry men clambered down the gangway. The shifts not sleeping or manning the ship started reloading the vessel. It was easier than the unloading had been. It was downhill from the caves to the beach and a plank road allowed the wheelbarrows to cross the sand. And the fact they could just roll the supplied onto the ship in the water, rather than up in the air made things easier.

It still took several days to load the vessel. Gathering goats and chickens took some time. An ostrich was harvested a week early to allow the men to have a feast of Thanksgiving with the huge bird roasted in the ship’s gallery.

The last person to leave the island was Stone, riding Doug, who proudly stepped up the gangplank. It was much more regal than his leaving the ship on the end of a hoist had been.