Stormy Seas: Part 8

I climbed up out of the hold with Patrick behind me. I had no pity for him and his headache, Captain Peck had warned us all that we would be sailing today.

“Ray, unhook the tug!” Rhoden bellowed. Ray ran off in the direction of the prow. “Loose the sails!”

I grabbed hold of the rigging and scampered up the tall mast to the sails. I moved out of the way and crawled down the yard of the sail as other crew members climbed up after me. We spread out down the sail sitting on the wooden crossbeam of the mast and began to loosen the ropes holding it in place.

“Ready?” Rhoden called up to us. It was not a question, though he made it sound like one. It had confused me my first few days on board. “Let her down!”

We let go and the sail unfurled. The wind caught it and it billowed outward, carrying the Lethargy out to sea. I watched it and the water below me. I loved the feeling of the wind coming up under me, as if it would lift me and carry me into the air.

There was no time to stop and daydream though. I grabbed my rope and swung myself down to the rigging. It shook a bit when I leapt onto the ropes and someone above me voiced a loud complaint. I ignored him, I tightened the rigging myself now and knew that it couldn't give him more than a little scare.

I landed back on deck as the stream of orders coming from Rhoden found me as their mark.

“Eldon, down to the engines!”

“Yes sir!” I called. I scrambled below deck after Ray and Victor. I had never helped with the engines before, only observed and helped fill the firebox.

“It'll be a mess in there when we finally make port again,” Ray complained as we all scurried down.

“More than usual?” I asked.

“Nobody cleaned it yesterday,” he said. “We were all hoping to sail in the evening.”

“It's probably out of water too,” Victor said. “We'll be filling it constantly.

We hurried to the deepest part of the hold where the boilers were. The boilers were two large tanks connected by the square shaped firebox.

Victor went to one tank and Ray to the other. “Less than one third full,” Ray called.

“This one's around that,” Victor responded.

I joined Ray and watched as he checked on the gauges. Nearly all of them were down at zero since there was no fuel in the firebox.

“Good thing we took on more water,” Ray said. He pulled a lever and I heard water start to gush into the boiler. We watched the water level rise.

“Better get filling it!” Victor shouted over the noise.

I hopped down and went to the front of the firebox where there was already a heap of coal. I donned gloves and opened the small iron door. A wave of heat came out since the fire rarely ever went completely out. I peered inside at the red coals that were still burning.

I grabbed the metal shovel and began shoveling coal into the firebox. Between shovelfulls I tried to watch Ray and Victor checking levels and temperatures and pulling levers. I watched Ray pick up the speaking tube which would lead to the wheel where Captain Peck was.

“She's heating up,” he paused and listened. “The wind has us, calm down.” Ray was the only one who spoke to Captain Peck the way he did. I had heard everyone else call him Captain at least once, but never Ray. He listened to Captain Peck for a moment longer and then stopped up the speaking tube with his finger. “How's the fire?” he asked me.

“Bigger,” I called back after throwing in another shovelfull. The heat was growing rapidly. I was already covered in sweat and sticky with coal dust.

He unplugged the speaking tube. “We're not going to get there any faster with the engines when the wind is the way it is!”

I continued shoveling. Victor came down and began shifting more coal closer to where I could reach.

“I wonder what has him in such a hurry,” Ray grumped as he hung up the speaking tube.

“It's almost up to heat,” Victor called after checking his boiler.

“Same here,” Ray called. “That should make him happy.”

I shoveled one more heap of coal inside and shut the firebox door.

“You can't have filled it already,” Victor called down at me.

“Can't?” I shouted back with a grin. I took off the big gloves and wiped my brow on my shirt sleeve.

Victor came and took one of the gloves from me. I stepped back as he opened the door and peered inside. “It can always use more,” he commented. He picked up the shovel and continued the work.

“Come on Eldon, we'd best check the wheel before the engines start.”

We climbed up a ladder above the boilers and onto a thin platform below the wheel. Ray and I each grabbed a wire brush that was hanging on the wall and set about cleaning the spokes of the wheel. I was impressed with the amount of slime that coated the wheel from the steam and coal dust. It had to be cleaned often or the wheel would clog and we risked damaging it.

“Had you ever been to England before this?” Ray asked me through the spokes.

“No,” I said. I scraped off a hardening lump on the metal. “I'd never really traveled much at all.”

Ray was only a few years older than me but he had sort of adopted me as his apprentice. I liked to think of him as being a kind of Third Mate.

“It's too bad you couldn't see more of it then,” he said. “Peck likes it there so sometimes we make port for up to two weeks. Jack told me he thinks he has a wife in London.”

“He must not see her very often then,” I said.
“I don't think she's really his wife,” Ray commented.

“How long have you been sailing?” I asked him.

“On the Lethargy?” he asked. “Four years, but I was on another boat before this.”

“What ship?” I asked. I had looked into many to see exactly what kind of boat I wanted to captain someday, though I hadn't yet made up my mind.

“A slave ship,” he said. “Mostly from Africa and India to the Australia settlements. I hated it though,” he admitted. I watched his face and could tell that he had been thoroughly disturbed by it.

“How did you end up on it?” I asked.

“I needed a job and they paid me good money,” he shrugged. His brush was moving swiftly and expertly. “They can't pay you enough to do that for long though.”

I nodded. We had passed a slave ship as we were leaving one of the Americas and I distinctly remembered the smell. You would have needed to have your nose removed to captain a ship like that for long.

“Peck was First Mate there, and when he got his own ship with CTC he brought me along.”

“Do you want to be a captain?” I asked him. He was already working on cleaning the turning panels on the wheel.

“Me?” he laughed. “I'd hate being a captain. I imagine you'll get tired of it pretty quick if you get to be one.”

“I don't think so,” I said. “Captain Eldon Palmer has quite a ring to it.”

“Is that the only reason you want to be a captain?” he asked me seriously.

“No,” I said. I thought for a moment. It wasn't that I particularly liked ships in the way that boys who wanted to be train conductors liked trains. I knew that I didn't like the steam engines on the ships but old fashioned sailing ships only existed for pleasure cruises now. “I'd like to be at the ship's helm,” I said. I could picture myself turning the great wheel and guiding the ship safely through storms.

“Thats it?” Ray asked.

“Isn't that part of the captain's job?” I asked.

“Tell Peck that's what you want and he'll gladly hand it over,” he said. “You'll be bored with it in less than an hour.”

I finished my side of the wheel and began to help him clean the panels.

“Hey, don't listen to me try to talk you out of it,” he said. “It's good that you know what it is you want to do.”

“You don't want to be a sailor the rest of your life?” I goaded.

He laughed. “I'm getting off this heap as soon as I can.”

I didn't believe him. We had stopped at several ports along our way and I had never seen him attempt to find another job.

“Ray!” Victor shouted up to us.

“What!” Ray shouted back.

“Captain wants to start the engines!”
“Of course he does,” Ray grumbled. “Climb down before the wheel starts.”

I hung up my brush and began to climb down. “What about you?” I called back. There was a rule on board that no one could be near the wheel alone.

“I'm coming.”

I waited on the ladder and watched as he quickly finished up cleaning the panels. The wheel began to turn and he continued scrubbing even as it began to move faster.

“Ray,” I called in a warning tone.

“Done,” he said. He hung up his brush and I scurried to get down and out of his way. “Don't tell Peck I was doing that, and don't ever do it yourself.”

“Right, but it's fine for you?” I asked.

“I know what I'm doing,” he said. “Come on, lets get out of here.” He led the way up and back on deck.