Forever Young The Beginning (6 page)

He thought
we will be blown off course, but not as badly as
Tico. With their mast likely down and dragging them, they will do
well not to capsize.

In an aft cabin, Alandra sat on the
floor in a corner, holding Celita. The ship tossed and plunged
endlessly. The girls had never been exposed to such a thing.
Alandra was impressed at the seamanship she had witnessed this day.
That these sailors were no strangers to this type of storm was soon
apparent to her. They were a different breed of men than the
sailors who sailed the coastal waters of the Mediterranean. There
was never the first sign of any panic or fear in this
crew.

She couldn’t stop thinking of Ian on
that smaller craft with a spliced mast. Although she admired the
way the sailors directed by MacCarr had rigged it to sail, she knew
that it couldn’t still be holding. Such a thing couldn’t be
expected to last long in conditions like this. She knew that Ian
was at the helm of the Tico right now as was Angus, standing above
them on Elsie’s aft deck.

The night dragged on and it seemed
that it would never end. Anything loose had long since ended up on
the floor. She was glad they hadn’t eaten.

***

It was nearly dawn and the wind still
howled, but it had slackened. All were exhausted having manned the
bilge pump all night long. They had gathered in the stairwell
leading to the aft cabins and rested there, out of the rain. After
an hours’ rest Ian again led them all below to man the bilge pump
again for another hour and a half with one break in that time. The
cold sea water was up to their ankles still. He said “Well lads,
we’ve at least stayed warm all night. By Heaven it is cold for this
latitude! I’ll have a look topside.”

“
Aye Ian, you may be the
only one who can climb the steps.” Several laughed tiredly but they
just sat, sweat-soaked, their heads hanging down, breathing
deeply.

The sky and sea were gray with
whitecaps visible as far as the eye could see. The crew gradually
came topside and joined him. By then he had retrieved his spyglass
and climbed the remaining mast.

Descending he said “Nary a sail in
sight lads. Get to the bilge. Lorn and I will gather some food.”
Handing his glass over he said “Li, take lookout. We’ll eat in
shifts of two and take turns on the pump.” The day passed without a
change in the sky, but with fewer and fewer whitecaps as the rough
sea abated some. Finally around midday, the bilge was picking up no
more water, and everyone was glad of that. Towards dusk, Ian saw a
strip of bright pink at the western horizon. “Look lads, it may
clear later tonight so I can get a bearing.”

“
How d’ye think Elsie fared,
Ian”?

“
Well Stu, a damned sight
better than we did in this low slung tub!” At that they all
laughed. It was a like a tonic. Mindful of what his uncle Angus
would do, Ian then said “Lads let’s thank the almighty that we’ve
lived to tell about this fearsome storm. Let’s bow our heads now.”
He said a short prayer of thanks for their coming through the storm
and for the food they were about to eat. They all sat down wherever
they could and ate fruit and bread from Elsie’s stores. No one
wanted to cook or even to wait on a hot meal as bad as they wanted
it. Li surprised them with hot stew that he had hastily put
together using some of the salted beef, and a blend of vegetables.
They all wolfed it down, thanking him. Ian set the watches and all
but him and Stu went to the cabins to make the best of getting some
sleep.

Three hours later he had his sextant
and compass at hand and a crewman to help and another to hold a
lamp. The minutes slipped by and he did a complete recalculation,
making notes. Finally he said “All right, let’s go to the cabins.”
After some calculations he looked up and said “We’re ninety miles
off course. We may make Marseille in five days.”

***

“
The worst of it’s past,
Cap’n.”

“
Aye.” He thought
I wonder if Ian blew all of the way to
Sicily
. The men were aloft and sails had
been set so as to tack, but headway was scant. He called for relief
and gratefully went below, dropping into his rack, but taking a
while to fall asleep as he fretted about Ian and the
others.

In their cabin, Alandra awoke.
Carefully so as not to waken Celita, Alandra made her way to the
door and came up on the main deck. The wind had subsided and the
sea was gray, and covered with whitecap waves. She walked as best
she could around the main deck, holding the side rail to keep
herself from falling and made it to the stern deck, approaching the
helmsman.

“
Do we….. know where… are
yet.”

“
Yes ma’am.” We’re some
fifty miles off course to the east, but we’ll make up some of that
today.” She went below and told Celita.

“
You are worried about Ian,
Alandra?”

“
Yes, Celita. And you are
worried about Tom?”

Celita lowered her pretty eyes
briefly, then raised them again and answered “Yes.”

***

Two uneventful days passed then with
improving weather. Thanks to a special stinkbait that Li made for
them using salted pork and some evil-smelling goo that he
concocted, they caught a small marlin. That night, they sat around
feasting on roast fish. Stu had found the rest of the bread, where
he had secured it high up in Alandra’s cabin.

Before eating, Ian gave thanks to God
for their food. Stu kept digging at Li Hong about the fish not
tasting quite as good as that he had served on Elsie. It was in
fact excellent, but Li had no way to duplicate the sauces he made
on board Elsie. He had fussed about Tico’s galley, saying that it
was fit for little more than heating dung, and he had long since
learned how these men loved to joke and carry on with one another
by now. First blaming the cooking facilities in the galley then
feigning being hurt, he swore that he would fix them a meal never
to be forgotten when they reached Marseille.

Stu said “All he needs is the company
of a good woman and he will be right again.” Tom said “Yea lads, as
long as she can cook, at least one of them’ll know how!” At that,
all laughed uproariously, slapping Li on his back heartily. It was
a welcome change of pace after the stress of surviving the
storm.

More wine was poured and Ian allowed
all to have two more glasses. He had learned from Angus to ration
strong drink tightly for safety’s sake while at sea, but tonight
was an exception. He and his crew needed to unwind from the
tensions of the past days. “Say Tom, did you bring your mandolin
aboard?”

“
Aye, I’ll get it.” Tom
struck up a lively and bawdy ditty he had learned in Liverpool, and
all but Li sung along, laughing while they sang. It kindled a warm
glow that went to Ian’s core to hear his men having such a good
time. They sang several more, and then Tom put the Mandolin away
and all turned in excepting for Li who had first watch.

***

Alandra and Celita walked the decks in
the sunshine. It felt so good to be sailing normally. They and the
crew had eaten after the galley was cleaned up. Things had returned
to normal aboard Elsie. Armando had confirmed that they were fifty
miles off course three days ago. He had been taking readings three
times daily since and one nightly as well. Several times a day he
took out his violin and had played music on the main deck. At
night, he would play and the crewmen not sleeping would often sing
along. They often sang lively tunes and paired off, dancing with
one another. Alandra had never seen such a thing before. She and
Celita were delighted by it. Angus finally asked her for a dance,
and taught her the steps of a dance he knew. It was more of a
sailor’s jig than a dance, but it looked fun to the girls. Soon
they were laughing and dancing. It was good to be alive. She
thought often of Ian, but gradually became more convinced than ever
that they had survived the storm and that they were making for
Marseille.

There was plenty of hot food and all
ate on deck informally, having had enough time below deck during
the storm.

The days had passed in this general
fashion and they had sailed past the indigo mass of the Balearic
Isles already. Everyone’s spirits were high. Not long after they
had passed the Isles, a Spanish man of war approached and fired a
warning shot and hailed them to prepare to be boarded.

After the boarding party came aboard,
Captain McCloud through Armando introduced the two ladies to them.
After hearing that Alandra was the daughter of the Spanish
ambassador to France and her account of the piracy and their
rescue, he had then turned to Captain McCloud and saluted him
smartly. They shook hands, and the officer bid them
Godspeed.

Late that afternoon, Alandra heard the
lookout cry “Land Ho!” Within half an hour, she could see the coast
of Spain. They would sleep in their home this night. She and Celita
knelt and prayed, thanking God for their safety.

***

Three more days and nights passed with
three other sightings, all northbound like they were. The crew was
in good spirits for which Ian was glad. A natural leader, he was
instinctively sensitive to the mood of his shipmates and knew how
important that was, learning it from his uncle Angus by
observation.

It was typical beautiful Mediterranean
weather and good sailing conditions. The wind had gradually become
westerly, then southwesterly and their progress improved. That
night, Ian took readings, then corrected their course to
three-two-zero, and said “We should make landfall tomorrow and as
best I can tell, it’ll be Marseille.” The night passed without
incident.

The next day dawned and soon
after, Ian saw two fishing craft within one hour. They were
generally on the same course as
Tico
was. About noon, came a cry from
the crow’s nest “Land ho! Dead ahead! Land ho!” They had seen three
fishing vessels since sighting the other two earlier that morning,
all headed a bit to the west of
Tico’s
course. Ian thought that he
might have missed Marseille by a few miles. They kept their heading
and as they came closer, they didn’t yet see a city. He altered
course to the west and they continued on, parallel to shore until
the lookout cried out “Port of Marseille to starboard, Port
Marseille to starboard.” Within the hour
Tico
dropped anchor in the port of
Marseille.

Ian shouted “Lads, we all need a
bath.” He was answered with a chorus of “Aye!” as the men began to
strip off their clothing. Soon the cargo net was lowered and the
men were all swimming and cavorting, diving off of the bowsprit. Li
and Ian took their clean clothes off of the line they had rigged
and went to kindle a fire in the galley to roast a sea bass they
had caught.

After they had all eaten Ian said “We
need to find the harbormaster and present the documents Cap’n
McCloud gave me. He can help us find what we need, and God willing,
maybe even a vessel bound for Barcelona. We could send word to the
Cap’n that we made it in one piece.”

“
Aye, Ian, and maybe tell
that bonny lassie that you’re still alive too?” At this everyone
had a good laugh including Ian.

“
It seems you’ve found me
out after all” he replied laughing with them, as Li and Tom slapped
him on his back. Then he said “No need of you laughing too hard
Tom. We’ve all seen you making calf’s eyes at Celita.” There
followed a chorus of ‘Ooooo’s from the rest. Tom blushed red as a
beet, as all the rest of the men bellowed with laughter.

Ian flagged a passing
fishing boat and got a ride to shore, taking Tom and Lorn with him
as translators. By the time the day had ended, he had made
arrangements for a sail maker to come to take measurements for a
new set of sails for the foremast, and had contracted with a marine
salvage and construction firm to begin repairs on
Tico
.

Visiting the Harbormaster,
he had presented the documents that Angus had sealed in wax and
oilcloth, allowing the Harbormaster himself to open them. A brief
explanation followed and the Harbormaster recognized the chain of
title and cleared them for anchorage, declaring that he would enter
all of the information in his log book. He also intended to tell
his brother who owned the local newspaper to interview them because
of their saving the Spanish ambassador’s daughter and surviving the
storm. Ian bought a small dory so they could get to and from
Tico
and set watches for
the coming night.

***

Elsie’s Cloud
rode at anchor in the harbor at Barcelona. Her
longboat had carried Angus and the ladies to the main pier,
adjacent to the harbormaster’s office. Armando had accompanied them
as interpreter. They were accorded royal treatment by customs and
the harbormasters office once the facts of their arrival became
known.

That night as they sat to
dine at the Vasquez home, Alandra’s mother stood and announced a
toast to the brave men of
Elsie’s
Cloud
for their part in returning her
daughter and Celita safely. She announced that every member of
Elsie’s crew would receive a golden doubloon, a new white shirt
with each crewman’s name, and a dark blue pair of long seaman’s
pants. She told Angus that his gift would arrive with the others
before they left port. They all drank a toast to the safety of the
crew of
Tico
and
that all would go well for them in Marseille. Alandra was smiling
and talking courteously, but Angus could see that she was
distracted with worry about Ian’s fate. Sitting next to her, he
reached out his hand and warmly clasped hers. Their eyes met, and
he said “I worry too Alandra, but know this; Ian is among the
finest sailors I know. In my heart of hearts, I know that he’s
already in Marseille.”