User:JohnB/The Book and the stone 4

Outward Bound:

The day of their voyage couldn't come soon enough for Asantus as he waited impatiently. Master Cyreril finally took him to the Cyrodiil dock, and his breast swelled as the trio of three-masted ships came into view. They were the 100-ton Ermine (flagship), the 60-ton Curlew, and the 40-ton Sparrowhawk, which was actually a pinnace-class ship for shallow water.

Wives and sweethearts were lined up on the dock, but Asantus knew there would be nobody from the Ahemmusa camp to see him off. Then shouldering his duffel bag, he gripped Master Cyreril's hand, and the old master, overcome with emotion, threw his other arm around his shoulders.

"You come back alive, boy!" he demanded jovially and clapped him on the back.

"The gods willing," Asantus responded almost with trepidation at what was in store for him.

When the entire crew was on board, the gangplank hit the dock with a bang of finality. There was no backing out now.

The first mate conveyed the captain's order, "Anchor a-weigh!"

Sailors who had taken their places around the anchor capstan stuck handspikes into the slots. Trudging in a circle, they put their weight against the handspikes, and the anchor chain wound itself around the capstan. A fiddler played a merry tune as the call-and-response chanty filled the air:

(Manning the capstan. From The Quid: or Tales of my Messmates by a Steerage Passenger, London, 1832, page 222. Image taken from Wikipedia.)

Veyra, veyra, veyra, veyra!

Wind I see him!

Pourbassa, pourbassa!

Haul and one!

Haul him up to us!

The anchor was made fast so as not to clash against the hull in heavy seas.

"Unfurl the foresail!" came the second order.

Ho, ho, ho!

Pull a', pull a'!

Bowline a', bowline a'!

Darta, darta!

Hard out stiff

before the wind!

Gods send, gods send

fair weather, fair weather,

many prizes, many prizes!

Gods, fair wind send!

Stow, stow,

make fast and belay!

(Chanty from Morison, p. 128.)

"Hoist the main yard!" came yet a third order.

The main yard had a sliding ring around the mainmast, and a rope followed the mast upward to a pulley near where the yard was to stay and back down to the deck where a second pulley was attached. The men, standing on either side of the rope laid out along the deck, picked up the rope and put their backs into heaving with all their might. This was a hard one because the main yard was almost as wide as the ship was long, so every "YAH!" was the signal to put a lot of oomph into that pull.

To me, Way-ay-ay YAH!

We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

To me, Way-ay-ay YAH!

We'll all drink brandy and flin!

To me, Way-ay-ay YAH!

We'll all shave under the chin!

To me, Way-ay-ay YAH!

We'll all throw muck at the cook!

The main yard gradually jerked upward again and again until it reached the slings that were to hold it in place on the mast. And so it went on as the ship slowly entered the river current.

Women ran along the river banks waving kercheifs and shawls as the ship picked up speed and began gliding past. The fiddler launched into a hornpipe and a bright tenor voice sang out the song of farewell:

At the Cyr'diil docks we bid adieu

to Kate and Polly and Sal and Sue.

Our anchor's weighed and the sail's unfurled.

We're bound half-way around the world!"

The other voices joined in chorus:

To sea we're outward bound!

Hurrah, we're outward bound!

Asantus's heart swelled and his spine tingled at the thought--half way around the world!

Aldaril, for his part, was strangely ambivalent to the plight of the mariner. Nothing seemed to faze him. His ability to keep the watches and swab decks improved with constant practice, and he was one of very few who never complained--and this is saying a lot because there was plenty for rookie sailors to complain about.

If you fished all the maggots out of your porridge, there'd be nothing left to eat. If sleep could only be found on sacks of charcoal, so be it. If rats and cockroaches disturbed your sleep, you shoo them away or smack them hard. There were cyclones and mountainous waves that were scarcely to be believed in the mere telling, but Aldaril only sat in quiet contemplation of the forces of nature.

The scholar proved to be the model sailor, and the brass treated him with the utmost respect. Even seasoned sailors found his aloof ambivalence unnerving and questioned him. His response was that this was the equivalent for him of suicide, so they were in effect speaking with a dead man.  No one questioned him after that. Of course, he didn't really mean it, but the Aldaril mystique had to be maintained for the sake of his commission.

Asantus, for his part, sat idle as assistant-navigator because they were still within sight of land. He sat on the poop deck and watched languidly as the sun sank slowly. It was a calm sea, and the water lapped on the sides of the ship. He thought of his homeland on the north shore of the Grazelands, and a song began to form in his head:

Foam rolls in breakers on the beach,

and the tide pours with a splash

into each pool lined up in the liquid sand.

Fishing boats glide silhouetted on a golden sea

that sparkles under a canary sun

as dunes blaze yellow luciferous.

Foam sparkles on the tide with a splash

and each pool blazes with liquid sand

into fishing boats lined up in a golden sea.

Canary sun silhouettes roll on the dunes

that pour under the breakers

as beaches glide by yellow luciferous.

Foam dunes glide from pool to pool

and pour liquid boats in a sandy tide

that breaks the sun with a splash of gold

lining beaches with blazing fish silhouettes

and sparkling canaries that roll

under a sea yellow luciferous.

Foam pours sand into liquid canaries

as beaches break on a sunny tide

that glides over pools of silhouettes

that sparkle like fish in splashy dunes,

and a liquid golden sun lines the sea

and boats blaze yellow luciferous.

Foam lines dunes with seas of splashes

as Lucifer fishes silhouettes from pools

and pours back liquid sun in tides

of blazing canaries… Blazing canaries?!

Asantus woke with a start and nodded off again.