User:JohnB/The Book and the stone 9B

Which Direction to Go:

The night before the scheduled launch, the captain had a cabin boy call the first mate into his quarters in the Great Hall. On the desk was a strange sphere. The first mate considered it for a moment then turned to the captain.

"It's a globe," the captain informed him. "While everyone was preoccupied with preparations to sail out, I had the carpenter turn this on his lathe and coat it with gesso. Look!"

The captain was clearly pleased with his globe, but the first mate was flummoxed.

"I've penciled in as carefully as I could the outline of all the landmasses on our map. This continent that we are on is here. And this line is the course we have taken thus far."

The first mate was glaring at the captain as if wondering if he was feverish, and the captain could tell he was not getting his ideas across very effectively.

"Look here!" he said turning the globe to the unknown ocean between Asantia and Tamriel. "My navigators have been taking careful measurements of longitude and latitude that, if I'm correct in my calculations, look how much ocean is between here and Tamriel to the east? It seems not as much as between here and Cyrodiil to the west."

The first mate's stern face softened.

"What is it you're suggesting, Sir?"

"Which would you rather do, slog all the way back the way we came, or continue on to the east? As for myself, I would like to explore more of the continent by coasting either the north shore or the south shore to the island's farthest eastern proximity before heading to Daggerfall in High Rock."

The distance didn't look so great because Tamriel is a far-flung land mass.

"If you are correct...," the first mate said repeating the captain's words. "Look," he added unrolling the Asantia map, "their meridian passes over Prester John's mountain while ours passes over the Imperial City. The longitudes don't correlate at all, so how can you point to your globe and say with any degree of certainty 'This is where we are'?"

"Well, I've done some calculations and made some educated guesses. You're right; I can't say because nobody has ever circumnavigated Nirn before. But if I'm correct and we've succeeded, imagine what posterity will say about us! They circumnavigated the world! And think, man, that if anyone ever wants to return to this place, maybe they should sail west instead!"

"And if something happens along the way?"

"How many Krakens are out there to the west?" the captain retorted.

That didn't by any means rule out Krakens to the east, so the first mate was unmoved.

"Call for Vaezbrub," the captain finally told Aldaril.

Vaezbrub entered, and as the captain explained the stand-off.

“So what do you think?” the captain finally asked Vaezbrub.

He reached into his pocket, pulled out a coin, and handed it to the captain.

"Toss," he said simply.

The captain and the first mate looked perturbed at each other.

"Vaezbrub, all this time I took you for a soothsayer, and now you're letting me down!"

"Heads--circumnavigate. Tails--back to the Krakens!" Vaezbrub spat back, annoyed that he was awakened from a slumber to do the captain's bidding.

There was an awkward silence.

"What do you think?" the captain asked the first mate.

"Sir, we've always had our differences, but I have never heard this s**tbag say anything that didn't make a ton of sense. I'm with the s**tbag!"

"Very well," the captain said feeling somehow vindicated.

He flipped--it was heads.

As it was now decided, the captain bid the first mate good night.

The Rogue Ship:

What should have been a departure date turned into a crisis when sentinels at the cleft entrance to the bay sounded the alarm. A galleon was approaching from the west and was making straight for the cleft. The crossbowmen were ordered to surround the bay, and those who clambered onto the rocks that formed the cleft were ordered to avoid showing themselves and allow the strangers to enter the bay. Then when the rogue ship anchored, they were each to come out of hiding and hit the ship with one exploding bolt, aiming at the sails and rigging. The natives were ordered not to take their canoes out to greet the ship as had happened on their first arrival in Bellehaven.

The captain of the rogue ship surveyed the bay and its surroundings, wondering at the strange lack of habitation (the stockade and village of Mount Royal were sufficiently distant so as not to be immediately visible from his vantage point). He ordered his crew to stand to. There was something very fishy about all this. He ordered the anchors dropped.

Then all of a sudden, the sails and rigging exploded in flames, and the shocked and panicking crew dove into the bay. They were met on the shore by the captain and his crew armed with crossbows, longbows, and swords. Aldaril had made himself scarce so as not to have to witness the botched take-over he was not innocent of having brought about. To make it known to the imperial administration would have unpleasant consequences for himself.

The rogue captain was brought before Captain Delamer and forced onto his knees.

“I demand to know how and why you have been shadowing us since our departure from Tamriel. Who sent you and why?”

“I am sworn to secrecy in this matter,” came the response. “I will take what I know to the grave.”

“Thank you for sparing me your odious sentencing. You know what to do,” he added turning to the men who held him.

They held his arms back and pulled his hair down to expose his neck. A sharp blade came down on it.

“String up the rest.”

A makeshift gallows was quickly erected, and they were strung up mercilessly one after another.

The rogue ship was still afloat, so the crew boarded it to prevent the fire from spreading below. Stores were salvaged, and the captain’s quarters were searched for the captain’s log and charts. They were brought to Captain Delamer, and at first glance he could tell they were exact replicas of his own. Their course was penciled in, and it appeared that the rogue captain was following a course very much like his own, except that the rogue captain knew well enough to steer clear of the ice.

The captain’s log betrayed no interest in Captain Delamer and his expedition. It was infuriating to him that their charts and course were almost identical to his own without any mention of what they were doing and why.

“Damn!” he finally burst out. “If I could only find out what they were up to!”

“Begging your pardon, sir,” the first mate responded languidly. “Since when has entering a harbor been a hanging offense?”

“Damn it all!" the captain yelled back. "Don’t give me that ‘ask questions first, hang them later’ bilge! There’s no telling what they were going to do! And there’s no end to the grief of taking prisoners.”

"Still, you would have found some willing talkers. But as it is, there is a murmuring among many of your crew because the rogues were like themselves, some of them pressed into service on an expedition that they knew nothing at all about."

"Okay, Mr. Big-Talker. All I ever hear from you is contrarian talk. So, what are you going to do about it?"

"You'll find out soon enough," came the half-heard response.

The captain came to the end of the written part of the log and riffed through the blank pages until he came to an envelope attached to the back cover and sealed with red wax. The seal was blank to disguise the sender. The captain broke the seal and removed a parchment, which he unfolded and read aloud:

“’Upon entering Bellehaven Bay, seize Captain Maurice Delamer and his crew, and bring them back in chains to face charges of insurrection and…’” His voice trailed off in acute astonishment.

“You see!” the first mate exclaimed in triumph. “Those are secret orders: they didn’t even know why they were here!”

“No, no, no! You still don’t get it!" the captain answered befuddled. "How did they know we named this place Bellehaven?”

The first mate’s jaw wagged up and down as the incongruity of it all finally sank in and he didn’t know what to say.

“Call Master Vaezbrub,” the captain ordered to Aldaril, who was standing nearby.

Aldaril returned with Vaezbrub, and Vaezbrub asked that he and the captain speak alone.

“Sir, watch out for that fellow!”

“Which one?!” the captain blurted taken aback.

“The High Elf. I may stink of shite, but he stinks of fraud.”

“How so?”

“Well, what with your having shared all the expedition materials with him, I wouldn't put it past him to have gathered intelligence for a third party.”

“But who?!”

“Who besides the Guild of Merchants would take a deep interest in this voyage?”

“The...the imperial administration?”

“Maybe.”

“Why?”

“Did the Guild of Merchants apply to the emperor for a letter of patent?”

“I wouldn't know. That's not my responsibility.”

“Well, maybe they should have.”

The captain guffawed.

“Vaezbrub, you're imagining things, aren't you?”

“No, sir. I observe things, and there's something fishy about that High Elf.”

“He's going to remain here in Mount Royal to set up shop for us. What could he possibly do now when he's as far away as he can ever be from Tamriel?”

“Sir, today’s events have shown that the damage is already done. I'm not sure how he did it, but a lot of data must have been telecommunicated to the imperial administration.”

For the first time, the captain looked really worried.

“Vaezbrub, tell me! What must I do?!”

“You have to find a new secretary. And when we're back in Cyrodiil, meet with the guild of merchants and formulate a good strategy against the imperial administration. Oh, and Captain?”

“Yes?”

“I have said nothing to you at all about this,” Vaezbrub winked.

Mutiny!

That night, the captain was startled awake when the door to his quarters in the Great Hall burst open.

"Captain! It's gone--the Ermine!" somebody shouted.

"What do you mean it's gone?" he asked groggily.

"The Glory of Asantia is now the only ship left in the harbor!"

"My ship! Gone?!" the captain muttered in disbelief.

"This note was pinned to your door."

It read: "Going back the way we came. Will no longer be a burden to you, but didn't want to take the ship you worked so hard to build. Bon voyage!" It was signed by the first mate.

There was a moment of silence as the captain's sleepy brain took all of this in.

"Did they take anything with them?"

"Just the stores that had been loaded into the Ermine for the voyage back."

"No charts, astrolabes, needles?"

"Only those that were meant for the Ermine."

"Men?"

"Hard to say how many. A majority of those who were healthy when we arrived in Asantia absconded with him."

"C'est la vie!" the captain shrugged as he placed the note in the ship's log. "But let me tell you," he continued sharply, "this is Exhibit A that will make him swing from a gibbet. All I need now is a first mate--you will make an excellent one. Oh, and please inform Asantus that he is our new navigator."

It could be said that the Ermine now had a surplus of crew, which was probably not as pronounced as when she was overcrowded on her arrival in Asantia, but still it left the Glory of Asantia with a marked deficit. However, ship stores are estimated at 100% crew capacity (where anywhere from 85% to 95% is the norm) for the estimated duration of the voyage. That "plus-alpha" helps create a sense of relative security even when everything is crawling with maggots. However, when there is 120% capacity on board, those stores should be rationed from the very start.

As fate would have it, the Ermine never reached Tamriel. One of the consortium vessels spotted it drifting aimlessly on the high sea some years later, its sails in tatters. It was approached and boarded, and the scene of carnage was horrifying. As the stores were being thoroughly spent, the Bosmeri sailors had taken to barbecuing the weak and dying and then each other till there was nothing left but heaps of gnawed bones and decayed entrails. Explosive satchels were used to send the Ermine to the bottom as it was no longer fit for use. Seamen are notoriously superstitious and will refuse to board a "haunted" ship even if it's been thoroughly scrubbed down.

The Second Ship:

The launching day was postponed in order to repair the rigging and sails of the rogue ship, which was to be returned to sender. Any Asantian who was eager to visit Tamriel as a trade representative or otherwise was welcome to help man the new ship. Asantus was still new to the science of navigation, but he was able to train the Asantians in what little he knew, which was enough since the second ship would be tailing The Glory of Asantia and try not to be separated and get lost. The captain also recruited as many of the abandoned women who were able-bodied and robust to make up the deficit of crew. This wasn't difficult as the natives reviled and shunned them as "tainted cast-offs", and the promise of a new life in Tamriel was irresistible. They only had to show gumption when ordered to do something unpleasant and a willingness to bust heads whenever the ship was being attacked.

("The complete accounts of fitting-out the two ships have survived and give an interesting picture... [T]here were big bills from the butcher, the baker, the cooper and the brewer... The men needed heat and light as well as food and drink, and so we find the accounts of tallow-chandler, oilman and coal-merchant, all these bills together coming to about half of the cost of fitting-out a ship. ...The six men with one-eighth shares had to pay out L400 and the Duke of Albemarle L800, a lot of money in 1686..." Peter Earle,The Treasure of the Concepcion: The Wreck of the Almiranta [New York: The Viking Press, 1980] p. 165-166)

The captain's accountant had to brief the Asantians on the meaning of money and credit because, to them, one sow equaled 20 hatchets.

When both ships were well-stocked and well-manned, they raised the anchors and readied the foresails to maneuver out of Bellehaven Harbor. Asantians lined the harbor bidding them farewell and a swift voyage.