Let’s take the time machine back a few days and see what happened from different perspectives: Dawn

Stone

Chapter 52 - Going down with the ship

Captain Snow grimaced. How is it possible that out of a ship with 35 men on it could he get the two most incompetent. He had ordered them to lower the first boat, and they did. Right onto the deck. The Captain moved to a nearby lifeboat and they tried again, this time getting the davits out over the water. Soon the men jumped into the boat and started to lower.

The stern went down by about two feet before the man in the bow loosened his winch. The boat dropped halfway to the water before the captain called ‘Halt’. This time it was the bow that was late in stopping, about five feet lower than the stern. “Together now,” the captain said, and the boat dropped to the water, hitting the bow first and then the stern. “Cast off,” the captain ordered, and the men managed to get the ropes freed.

The hurricane was just underway, but the swells were already twelve feet high or more. It was when the first wave had broken over the ship that the captain decided to flee and ordered the two novice sailors to help him with the boat. Kollor and Keeper were on their first trip on the Sun Goddess, and neither intended to ever sail again after they returned to Westport. When the captain told them he was heading for shore, they quickly agreed: the huge waves were terrifying to the rookies.

A bolt of lightning went off, followed by a massive roll of thunder. The three men in the boat were able to get a glimpse of the ship a half mile away, headed west. The two men got oars out and started to row, heading north towards shore. At least that is the way they hoped they were going. One oar was lost when the sailor fumbled getting it into the oarlock but that was not a disaster. The boat was designed to carry 10 men and had oars for eight. The captain didn’t help in the rowing but huddled in the bow among the emergency supplies.

One particularly bad wave struck, and both men jumped to the bottom of the boat, which rolled a full 360 degrees. When it righted itself, the two oars were gone, and five of the other six. The men got the last oar in place and rowed with two men on it at once. Even as rookie sailors they knew this was a recipe for going in a circle, so every 20 strokes they moved the oar to the other side. It was on the fifth or sixth time doing this when they fumbled again and lost the last oar.

The men then huddled in the stern, as far away from the captain as possible, and prayed. The next bolt of lightning was about an hour later, and the thunder woke the napping men. The lightning illuminated the boat, and they noticed that the captain was no longer huddled in the bow.

“’e’s gone,” Kollor said. “The cap’n’s gone.”

“An’ we’re gonners,” Keeper said. “Lest we’re close to shore we’re sure to roll agin.”

They did roll, but they were close to shore. It was nearly dawn although the sun only managed to lighten the dark of the night a bit. But after the roll the men saw the low bank of dunes a few hundred yards off and started to swim for it. Neither knew how to swim but being boat-less in the sea was a good time to learn. Keeper made the sandy shore first and lay exhausted for a quarter hour. He then stood and walked over to Kollor. He pulled the man up higher onto the sand, and thus realized that it was a corpse he was moving. He sank down next to the body as the heavy rain poured down on him.

I’ll freeze to death if I stay out here, the sailor thought. He looked both ways up and down the beach and decided to go west, since that was the way he wanted to end up. He chose correctly. It was three miles to the east to the first fisherman’s hut, but only a half mile to the farmer in the west. This was a small farm, and Keeper just crawled into a barn, the first building he came to. He crept under a pile of hay, glad to be out of the rain and snuggled into what soon became a warn little nest and passed out.

“You’re gonna be a dead dog if there is naught amiss,” a voice said as he followed a barking dog into the barn. “Door’s open a bit, but no loss.”

Then the dog stopped at the haystack and barked furiously. He woke Keeper from a deep and dry dream, and the sailor popped his head out.

“Land’s sake man,” the farmer said. “Where you come from?”

“I was on the Sun Goddess. Three of us left. One is dead on the beach a bit that away.” He motioned to the east. I’m sorry for using your barn, but I’d die out there.”

The farmer took Keeper into the house, even warmer, and introduced him to his wife. Even better, the woman was cooking breakfast and added some oats to the pot to feed the third man. The farmer ate quickly and then went to the stable to harness the donkey to a small cart, then went back out in the storm to bring back the dead body.

It was near noon when the farmer returned, saying that the cart and donkey were in the bigger barn. “I think we should set out now,” the farmer said. “That corpse ain’t going smell any sweeter in a couple days. We need a few supplies anyhow.”

“You aren’t going anywhere in this storm,” the farmer’s wife said. “And this fella is near dead tired. Look he cain’t hardly keep his eyes open.”

“No, we got to go now. That body warn’t in the sea for long, but ‘e’s still gonna reek in a bit. We’ll head out now. The boy kin sleep in the back if he needs ter. And doesn’t mind the company. Even with the storm as bad as it is, we should reach Westport afore midnight. I’ll stay with yer brother ov’r night and then handle business the next day. If it is still blowing like this, I’ll stay a second day. You’ll be fine with Copperhead here.” He nodded at the dog.

Keeler went out to the barn with the farmer and held the door for the man to bring the donkey out. He shut the door and climbed into the wagon bed, keeping as far from the corpse as possible. He was asleep in minutes.

It was dark when he woke. He scrambled up next to the farmer. “Good sleep lad? ‘tis about eleven. Two more miles and we’ll be in Westport. Ahead of my schedule. Where you want to be let off? My brother-in-law will take me in, but not you.”

Keeler thought about it. His family were farmers west of the port, and he didn’t relish walking five miles at midnight in the rain. “Mebee you kin drop me at the Colonel’s house. You know, where the Kithren school is?”

-----

Stone was walking home in the rain, his rubberized cloak doing little to keep the rain out. He had been at the shipyard, talking to the owner about the new ship he had decided to have built. The Moon Goddess was to be a sister ship, nearly identical to the Sun Goddess. He had gone to check on the new ship just after supper, getting drenched on the walk there. Once he had finally dried off, he had little desire to get wet again, and had delayed in hopes the teeming rain would let up. It hadn’t, and a bit before midnight the shipowner had politely kicked him out.

As he walked home, he saw a figure lurking on the porch to the house. He went to draw Pate, but the sword sang out that there was no danger, so he didn’t draw it. “What, do you want here,” Stone said as he walked up the steps.

The Kithren man there was startled. He had been napping in a chair on the porch. “I am waiting for Colonel Stone,” the man said.

“You have found him,” Stone said.

“Forgive me lord,” the man said, falling to his knees. “I was on your ship. My first voyage. The captain and I, and one other, left in a lifeboat when the big storm started. I was rescued from the beach by a farmer, and he brought me and the body of the other here to town. We don’t know what happened to the captain. He was on the boat, then he wasn’t.”

“Come into the house,” Stone said leading the man in where they both doffed their wet over things. Stone added a log to the fire, and the two men stood in front of it, trying to warm up. Stone got a few more details out of the man, and then Rayla appeared in her night gown.

“Aren’t you coming to bed,” she said and then noticed the black man. “Sorry, who are you?”

“This man was on Jason’s ship,” Stone said. “He and two others left in a lifeboat, and he is the only survivor.”

If you ever have stood under a fire department alarm in a small town, you might have heard a sound that resembled what ensued. Rayla wailed loud enough that not only all in the house were roused, but people in houses two or three away.

“Jason is drowned,” she sobbed over and over. “My boy is gone.”

Soon Emily, Sissy and even Cass were in the room. Emily heard what Rayla was saying and ran to hug her mother and wail just as loudly at the loss of her brother. Cass also was crying. She had fallen in love with the boy she fed every day. Sissy really didn’t understand what was happening, but with everyone else wailing, she joined in.

“Stop!” Stone ordered, loud enough to cause a break in the noise. “We don’t know if Jason drowned. He was on a big ship, and the two who died were in a tiny boat. I have faith in the captain – er, mate, and I’m sure the ship weathered the hurricane. They may be blown off course, but there is no reason to think the vessel went down.”

“I never should have let him go,” Rayla said, sobbing quietly now.

“You have seen his eyes about the ship,” Stone. “There is no way that the boy wouldn’t go to sea the minute he came of age. We just let him go early. And now he will have surviving a hurricane to add to his list of adventures.”

“You really think he survived?” the pretty woman said. “He will come back to me?”

“Yes he will. For a while: but he will go back to sea again,” Stone said. He turned to the black man, who had looked on in stunned silence. “We all need to go to bed. I plan an early start tomorrow. You can sleep on the couch.”

The next morning Stone arose early but not early enough to beat Cass up. She was in the kitchen and had a hearty breakfast ready. The black man was helping her.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” Stone asked him as they ate their porridge.

“My family lives about five miles to the west. I could go there. I need to make sure that Kollor will be getting a decent funeral, though,” the sailor said.

“Do you have money? Here, take a gold. That should pay the undertaker and the change will be your pay for the bit of a voyage you took. You can stay here tonight, and until the rains stop.

«You expect me to go out in that? You must be crazy,» Doug said as Stone saddled him. But his complaints ended as soon as he read the big man’s mind about his son. Stone placed a rubberized cover over the horse and then climbed aboard. They headed to the east in a trot. Two soldiers and a pack horse unhappily accompanied them.

Stone had recognized the farm Keeper had spoken of. In the days when he led wagon trains along the road, the man there let him water his horses for a silver. It took several hours to get there.

The farmer’s wife was hesitant to let the wet men in, until she recognized the big man from his earlier visits. She fed the two soldiers, who had been roused from their sleep without breakfast while Stone walked Doug east to the cove the woman said the men came ashore in. The rain over the past 24 hours had completely obliterated any signs of the event, so Stone started walking west along the beach. The waves were still fairly high, although Stone thought the rain was lighter than yesterday.

At the house the newly fed soldiers mounted up, and the three men walked along the beach. A mile later they started to see debris, but Stone quickly recognized it as from a boat, not the ship. Two miles further along, they came across a body bobbing in the surf. Stone identified it as the captain, and it was tied astride the pack animal.

The three men walked the rest of the way back, stopping for a supper at the lighthouse at Blue Point. Stone paid four silver for the meal, and an hour of warmth in the keeper’s house and then they headed back to town with their gruesome burden. Stone sent one of the men to the undertaker’s with it and then the others headed back to the house where Rayla eagerly interrogated him before he even got his wet gear off.

“What did you learn!” she asked.

“Well, there is good news and bad news,” Stone said. “The good news is that there was no evidence of a shipwreck. There was some debris, but only from a boat. Nothing from a ship. If a ship goes down, even if it sinks, there are masts and sails and ropes that come to shore. We saw none of that.”

“The bad news?” Rayla whispered.

“We found the captain. Dead,” Stone said softly.

“Oh no,” Rayla moaned. “So, Jason could have drowned too?”

“I don’t think so. And definitely not to the east.”

“Will you check the west, then?” the woman said.

“Yes I will,” Stone replied. “But not until tomorrow. What have you been up to today?”

“Well, word spread fast, like it always does in this town. I had several wives of sailors on the ship come by. Many of their husbands have sailed for years, so they were able to calm me down. Nora Keenstone, the wife of the first mate came by. We really clicked. She has a lovely family: two boys and two little girls. Her eldest son is on the ship too, as a cabin boy. I think that is why we clicked so well. Sissy played dolls with the little girls, and Emily took over with the baby while the older boy, about six, played with some of Jason’s old toys. When she left, Nora paid Emily eightpence for babysitting, and tuppence to Sissy. She said she was glad to find someone she could trust to babysit. The two of us made a date to go to one of the cafes next week. Emily will sit with the kids again.”

“Well, hopefully by then your boys will be back and safe by then,” Stone said. “What of Keeper? Is he still here?”

“Yes, he has been most useful. I think he has a thing for Cass, even if she is nearly 10 years older. He certainly loves her food. And he has been useful, getting wood from the barn to use in the stove and the fire. Then, without even being asked, he took several more loads of wood from the woodpile and moved into the barn to dry off.”

“So, you don’t object to him staying on for a while?”

“No. It is nice having a man about the house when you are away,” she said.

“Well, I will be away for two days this time,” Stone said. “One day out, and one day back. Have Cass pack up a dozen meals for us. We leave early in the morning.

The ride out the next morning was less miserable. The rain continued, but at times fell back to a heavy drizzle. Then that evening it stopped completely and the sun broke out just before sunset. The black clouds of the hurricane were far to the northwest. The men pitched their tents and were able to get some soggy sleep that night.

On the way back, it was actually sunny after mid-morning. One the way back Stone, who had scanned the near shore on the way out, looking for debris, was now scanning the sea. He thought he saw something on the horizon. He pulled out his looking-glass and peered through it.

It was a ship. It looked like the Sun Goddess, but the main mast was shorter than the mizzen mast. He looked out and the ship came closer. The vessel was not coming at them, but at an angle. The search party continued along the shore to pace it. Finally, he saw that a small person on the deck started jumping up and down. He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with what looked like flags. He started to wave the flags, and Stone immediately knew what he was doing.