The Making of the Lamb (16 page)

The passage appeared safe for the moment. Several harbors offered safety as long as they avoided the rocks of the ragged coastline. Islands along the coast could provide at least some measure of protection if wind and sea should threaten. But any protection from the land would end in a matter of days when they sailed past the headland that lay 150 miles ahead. Beyond that, there stretched one hundred miles of open sea between the tip of Armorica—as the natives called this far northwest corner of Gaul—and Britain.

The wind died down as evening approached. Kendrick gave the helm and the watch to one of his crew, and he paced the deck. Joseph’s two boys were running all around the ship with their games, but he didn’t care. For the moment, he just leaned over the rail and gazed out with a forlorn look at a wide protected bay that stretched another ten miles further into the distance. He cursed the fickleness of the wind. “Of all the places, why does the wind stop and leave me here?” he muttered. The next thing he knew Jesus was standing next to him.

“Why does this place make you sad?” asked Jesus.

Kendrick sighed. “This is the place where Caesar vanquished my people, when my grandfather was a young man.”

“What happened?”

“For centuries the Veneti tribe controlled the Atlantic trade routes to Britain. Then Caesar came. Initially we submitted to Caesar, but soon we rebelled and slew his ambassadors. Caesar retaliated, destroying the Veneti fleet, killing all the men, and selling the women and children into slavery.”

Jesus looked across the water. “So this is where Caesar destroyed the fleet of your people?”

Kendrick nodded.

“If Caesar sold all the Veneti into slavery, how is it you are free? Did you purchase your freedom?”

“No, my family escaped Caesar’s wrath. My grandfather obtained shelter with relatives among the Namnetes tribe at Nantes. All around Armorica, survivors came out of hiding once Caesar left to wage his civil war with Pompey. Regional trade developed between Armorica and the Dumnonii area of Britain. The Romans left us alone—we were too insignificant for them. But the Atlantic trade route to the west of Britain is a shadow of what it once was. And every time I pass this wretched place, I think of my people’s bondage.”

The boy kept his silence for a few minutes. Finally, he said, “God will not allow your people to suffer forever.”

How could a child think of offering platitudes to comfort a stranger? “What do you know of suffering?” Kendrick asked. “When have your people known the yoke of slavery?”

Jesus responded with a story of how his God led the people of Israel out of bondage in Egypt to the Promised Land, and how they remembered the bitterness of that bondage every year at Passover. He talked about the laws God gave the people of Israel through Moses and how they wandered in the desert for forty years until they finally arrived in Canaan.

As the boy told his story, the sun lowered to the horizon, and the wind picked up. Kendrick was so entranced by the tale that he scarcely paid attention as the cursed bay slipped astern, out of view.

Soon night had fallen, and Jesus took his leave to go to sleep. Kendrick found his mood much improved. He dismissed the helmsman and took the next watch of the night himself to be alone with his thoughts. He hadn’t known much of Jews before; their concept of just one God seemed so strange. But Jesus’s sincerity and empathy impressed him. Late in the night the helmsman returned to take back the watch, and Kendrick retired to a restful sleep.

The next day a fresh westerly wind arose from the ocean. Under reefed sails, the ship tore ahead through building swells on its northwesterly course parallel to shore. The motion of the swaying ship made the passengers sick, even though none of them had eaten since the day before.

Kendrick watched the sea with a wary eye. As expected, the skies clouded over, confirming his suspicions. Something was brewing out in the ocean and coming closer. Late in the afternoon, he gave the command to gybe the sails and turn the ship into the entrance of a harbor. They headed for Brest, the final haven before the last headland of Armorica. After that, they would have been surrounded by open stormy sea.

Brest was a lonely outpost. Four fishing vessels sat at anchor. There was no sign of a harbor master as there had been in Nantes and hardly any sign of Roman authority. The small market also was closed. The only inn in the hamlet overlooked the well-protected harbor from the foot of the second of two small hills on the northern shore, separated by a small stream. The one road, actually more of a pathway through Armorica, came to an abrupt end at the very doorstep of the inn.

Everyone on board helped to secure the ship alongside the small quay, as storm clouds gathered in the west. The party made it to the inn just as the storm broke. It was a small establishment operated by a peasant farmer and his wife, with two rooms to rent off the main room of their home. Kendrick knew the landlord, so the rooms did not come too dearly—fortunately for Joseph. The wife prepared some fish chowder with warm bread that soon restored their spirits and sated their ravenous hunger.

With thunder and lightning crashing outside, they huddled together in the two rooms. There was barely enough space in the beds for all, but no one complained. Even those who slept on the earthen floor were happy to be sheltered from the raging storm.

There was no let-up the next day. There was nothing to do but eat more chowder and stay warm around the fire. Kendrick was surprised when Joseph and the two boys passed on another serving of dinner offered by the landlady late in the afternoon. He was even more surprised when he saw them gather up their cloaks. “Where are you going? The storm still rages,” he said to Joseph.

“Our Sabbath begins at Sundown, and we must keep it holy,” answered Joseph. “If we do not board the ship now, we will not be able to embark until the Sabbath ends, even if the weather clears tomorrow. We will spend the night on board the ship, and you and the crew can sail with us already on board as soon as the weather clears.”

“But why not wait to see if the weather clears in the morning, and then go aboard if it does?” Kendrick asked.

“Our people devote the Sabbath day to study and prayers,” Joseph replied. “In our own land we do not leave our home on the Sabbath except to go to our temples. If we again make our home here tonight, we must stay until the Sabbath ends. So, tonight we make your ship our home, so you will be free to sail.”

As the sun went down, Joseph, Jesus, and Daniel prayed on board the ship. The cabin was not watertight in the drenching wind and rain. They did not try to light a lamp, and they were not about to risk damaging the precious scrolls in the wetness, so they recited psalms from memory and devoted themselves to personal prayers.

In the morning, Joseph awoke cold, damp, and stiff, to the motion of the ship moving down the channel back to the harbor entrance. Kendrick poked his head into the cabin to offer them some hot porridge. As the three of them came up on deck to eat and dry themselves in the warm sun, Jesus remained silent and thoughtful. He kept looking at the sky and the waves, and then he closed his eyes. Meditating, perhaps.

Even on the Sabbath, Joseph was not used to the loquacious boy being so quiet. “Why don’t you say anything?” he asked.

“I’m not sure, but somehow I sense that this is just a short break in the weather, Uncle,” said Jesus. “I feel another storm approaching from the ocean.”

“That’s nonsense,” Joseph responded. “The day could not be finer for setting out to Britain. The sky is clearing, and the wind is fair. If the wind holds we may reach Ictus by this time tomorrow.”

“I know what the sky looks like now, Uncle. I just sense something else out there. Should I tell the captain?”

“Let us mind the Sabbath and leave the sailing to the gentiles today,” said Joseph. “Come, finish the porridge and let us get on with our Sabbath prayers and studies.” Joseph smiled. The admonition was gentle. He rarely had to remind Jesus of his Sabbath obligations.

“Very well, Uncle. God will protect us.”

Joseph and the boys recited their prayers and studied the scrolls as the ship sailed to the harbor entrance and turned northward. Every so often they took a break and got up to look around. They passed through a small chain of islands leading off to the west, and then they spotted the rose-colored rocky shore on the north side of Armorica. But by afternoon the land faded off in the distance, and nothing but blue water could be seen in any direction.

With the sunset, the Sabbath day came to an end. Joseph breathed in the fresh ocean air. He looked over to Jesus and said a special prayer of thanksgiving. They were finally beyond the authority of Rome. Jesus no longer posed a danger of trouble with the authorities. But he also well knew that while they sailed away from the yoke of Rome, so too did they leave behind the Empire’s protection.

To cross one hundred miles of sea, Kendrick could count on getting his initial bearings for many miles by taking transits from familiar points on land. But as the land faded behind the stern, he steered by the sea swell. The daytime sun bearing was a crude guide at best. The undulating wave sets always had a pattern and rhythm from one direction or another. Sometimes during the course of a day a distant storm or wind might create a new wave set, but Kendrick’s keen eye easily distinguished the different wave set patterns moving across the same patch of sea, as one waxed and the other waned, and thereby maintained a constant course through the day. The clear nighttime brought out the most precise beacons burning in the sky, and the captain reset his course by them.

The first sign of trouble to Kendrick that night was the obstruction of the stars. One by one they seemed to turn themselves off. Kendrick still expected to reach Britain in time, but then he looked up and distinguished the gathering storm clouds in the light of the half moon. They were coming in and descending on his vessel fast and furious from the upper sky. Meanwhile, the wind at the surface began to die, killing off his last hope of outrunning the approaching storm. Kendrick sounded the alarm and set his crew about taking down the regular sails and hoisting the sturdy storm sail.

The storm arrived at midnight with a huge gust of cold wind and rain slamming them from the west. Kendrick tried to maintain his northerly course. With the small storm sail, the wind was not too much of a problem. But then the seas began to build at an alarming rate. The ship rolled with the waves. Kendrick had no choice. A big wave could cause the vessel to founder if it caught him broadside, and the quickly building wind and waves forced Kendrick to run with the wind into the
Oceanus Britannicus
. The vessel was not in any immediate danger, since they had hundreds of miles to run with the wind before crashing on a lee shore; but they were now in the middle of the sea with no means of getting back to the course they had steered by attempting to sail in a constant direction from the northwest tip of Gaul.

All through the next day, there was little rest for the crew. With every gybe, Kendrick called on the passengers to shift the cargo to keep the vessel balanced, but he was not about to entrust them with the sails or the steering oar. At first Jesus huddled with Joseph and Daniel in the hold. It seemed like the sensible thing to do. But one-by-one, seasickness in the cramped space forced them on deck to vomit.

Joseph and Daniel had quickly returned to the hold, but Jesus felt better in the open air, despite the frequent drenching.

The sea looked even more frightening than it had in that storm off Cyprus. The windborne rolling swells came in like moving mountains from the west, each one threatening to swallow the ship. Jesus had not seen swells nearly as tall in the other storm. He began to appreciate the sturdier construction of the Celtic vessel. The sails were made of hides rather than cloth to better withstand the chafing of the spars. The wood did not creak from the strain nearly as much. He remembered overhearing Kendrick tell Uncle Joseph that the wood was something called
oak
.

The vessel seemed to overtake the swells. Struggling at first against gravity, it slowly climbed the backside to the crest. After breaking through, the vessel raced down the wave face with a rush of speed into the looming trough. The crash of the forecastle into the next wave sent up a mountain of spray that drenched them all as the cycle repeated.

Jesus prayed at first for deliverance, but then he changed. Kendrick was weaving the course of the ship to take it across the wave some as they raced down each time. Despite the crazy speed, the captain looked like he had the ship under control, picking his way through the waves to minimize the crashes and strains on the boat while keeping it upright. Jesus prayed in thanksgiving for the stoutness of the vessel and the skill of the crew.

Before long Jesus went below to fetch the others. Uncle Joseph would not move. Jesus turned to Daniel and grabbed his hand. “Come on, you’ll feel better above.” He almost dragged the older boy topside. He suspected that it was only the reek of vomit in the cramped hold that caused his cousin to give in.

It took a while for Daniel to gain his balance on deck as the boat rolled rhythmically, but Jesus was now able to anticipate its movements. As Daniel continued to clutch the railing, Jesus braced himself at the foot of the mast. One of the hands shouted something to him and pointed to a safety line. Jesus saw how the crewman was secured and tied the line around his waist the same way. As the ship broke through the next crest, Jesus spread his arms. He held that position racing down the wave face and took the drenching from the next wave full force.

Before long, Daniel was standing beside him. The two of them began laughing and shouting. It was the wildest ride of their lives, and they were loving it.

The winds finally abated. They were able to open the hatches to air out the hold and then clean it up with sea water. Bone weary now, Jesus found a small space covered with straw between some casks of wine. Disturbed by the noise of the crew, he moved one of the casks to close the passage behind him and drifted off into a deep sleep.