Kathleen Of The Outer Banks

by Capt. Gardner Martin Kelley

  Chapter 14

  Yachting

  The wind was straight out of the North with a bite of cold in it. Both donkey engines came to life. The yawl was bedded and secure. The “LIZZIE MAE” drifted clear of the old schooners while the sails were being raised and the jibs filled. The captain estimated the speed at eight knots at Ambrose Lightship. Two luxury liners outward bound passed to the windward side. The schooner crew, dressed in their light blues, waved to the passengers. The “LIZZIE MAE” with new paint and varnish could pass as a rich man’s pleasure yacht. The captain in a new uniform was close by the wheel as if watching over an apprentice sailor steering. The illusion was further advanced by the sun’s rays reflecting off a well-polished ship bell. Yes, Cappi decided this was his yacht and while he might not have the large amount of cash or possessions of Carnegie or Rockefeller, he was rich with his youth, his sweet pretty wife and rich with his loyal crew. He might not have a pay load both ways, but he did have the molasses load and that would suffice.

  Good time was made along offshore of the Jersey Coast. There was no need of a log line to count distance. The charts showed reference points and harbors past Cape May and off Delaware Bay. He set a course for well clear of Smith’s Reef and past Chesapeake Bay.

  Fair wind did not always favor the schooner. Two days later it was tack to port come about and tack to starboard. It seemed that sails were not enough to get past Chesapeake Bay. Steamships and motor party boats passed going in and out.

  Finally along toward evening the wind came out of the northeast with a strong bite of winter air. The sand bars off Hatteras Light were passed with the good wind. No fog or danger this trip. It was blowing too hard for Svenska to stand in the rigging and too cold. She was with Cappi at the wheel. She used the bulk of his body as a wind break.

  A large flock of geese that had been resting were disturbed and flew off. Cappi was not sure whether it was she or the cook that first exclaimed to him what a good meal a fat goose would make. This flock was flying high now but others would be around. Old Chips came to take over the wheel. He used any excuse to be near her. Cappi came with the shot gun. He showed her how to slip in the bird-shot shells to load it. “If you want a goose you do the shooting,” he said.

  It was her time to smile. She had learned to shoot a gun long ago. Her grandmother and she had to eat. With her father’s musket she had skulked along the salt marshes and shot one several times. The grandmother sold the gun when she no longer wanted her off alone. The memories of her traipses were with her as the schooner sailed along.

  Boom! The shot sounded before Cappi who was again steering saw the bird. It splashed over a wave and went down into the next one. Chips was at the bow with a grappling shaped hook on the fish line. Cappi luffed the sails to lose way on the schooner and steered close to the fallen goose. Chips first cast missed. He moved aft along the rail as he hauled the line for another cast. This time he pulled the big bird over the rail. The captain let the sails fill and bore off, back on course.

  The cook took over now and Chips replaced him at the sheets and backstays. After a day at aging, a fat goose was the main ingredient of a noon meal with leftovers for supper. By this time there were two others aging in the cool box. Svenska had showed her skill with the shot gun.

  The wind had dropped and the “LIZZIE MAE” was only making two knots on a long way toward the Outer Banks. “Would you like to continue on this course and you can visit your old home,” the Captain asked. “No only close enough that I can see land from my stand in the rigging. I will remember grandmother better this way. If we were to visit with her not there it would spoil my illusion. When she comes to my mind she is always there. I want it to stay that way.”

  The land was close enough for her to see but well inshore when the wind played out. Her looks and thoughts were toward land until the cook called, “Supper.”

  The closeness to home brought a feeling of nostalgia to her. Cappi sensed her mood. He said, “Judd this would be a good time for your fiddle and music.” It took little urging to get Judd started. Svenska perked up at the sound of the fiddle being tuned. She slipped off her leather soled pumps and tied her feet into her dancing slippers.

  Judd tired the captain with a waltz followed by a fast foxtrot. He would be ready now to sit and watch as the rest of the crew was watching her dancing. Svenska was free to dance to her heart’s content. Dance she did, first slowly then advancing to the wild tones of the far off lands. She removed her blouse after a look at Cappi for his acquiescence; again he nodded and smiled, “They love you too,” he said. She loosened her hair from its ribbons. Judd saw her movements in the glow of the moon and stars light. He played Blaze Starr’s music. Judd thought that Svenska was even better than the stage performer. Her white hair was showing in the dim light much better than the dark hair of Blaze had done even with the spotlight. The men rose to their feet to clap and shout as she whipped her hair around. She finished with a split and the white hair draped, covering all but two outstretched legs and arms.

  A crescendo came from the fiddle and then all was silent. The men seemed to be disappointed as they went quietly to their bunks. Cappi sat beside her to stand first watch.

  The first watch got longer and longer. The Captain did not wake his old men crew. A look now and then to see that all was well was all that was required. The coolness of the early morning stirred Svenska to go to her bunk. A slight breeze began from the southeast. Cappi tightened the backstays and shortened the sheets to a close hauled position.

  The schooner was making about four knots on a tight reach. Emery came on deck, having a good stretch he went to the galley. Smoke showed from the “Charlie Noble” to indicate fire in the shipmate stove. There would be a hot breakfast very soon.

  The captain had nodded and slept for minutes at a time on his long watch, but he had to fight to keep awake now. Judd came to relieve him at the wheel, his mug of coffee still in his hand. “Coarse is ninety degrees for Cape Fear,” Cappi said and went to his bunk. No breakfast this morning for him, sleep was what was important.

  The day had warmed with the sun. Svenska was at her stand. She spotted what she thought was a big sea turtle ahead close on the starboard bow. She shouted and pointed. Cappi came on deck. He reached into the locker to take out the brass telescope. With the glass still at his eye, he said, “That’s a man overboard, he is lying on something.”

  “I’m coming about,” the Captain took over the wheel and the crew ran to their stations. On the port tack and then luffed into the wind the Captain came close to the man. The man slid from the back of a big sea turtle and seized a line. The minute the swimming man seized the tossed line all aboard could see that it was not a white man that they had rescued. The long braided queue ruled that out.

  With helping hands he climbed over the rail. He opened his mouth as if to say he needed a drink. It was later figured that he had been three or four days without water. The China man, for that is what he turned out to be, had fallen overboard. He had been dumping garbage over the stern of a freighter coming out from Wilmington, N.C. He spoke only a few words of English.

  Emery and Svenska filled him with food and drink. He was in surprisingly good health and spirits for what he had gone through. It was much later that he explained with his few words and many gestures what had saved him. He had swum far away from the dumped garbage. He knew that sharks fed on the garbage from ships galleys. He had seen them many times. The next morning he was floating on his back when he saw the big turtle. His weight as he pulled himself up over the creature’s back kept it from diving.

  Svenska, thinking of turtles the men had caught for food, could see how this could happen. He had even been able to sleep with the weight distributed and a good grip at the neck.

  The Captain puzzled over what he should do to report the rescue of the man. Wind and weather made the decision for him. A squall out of the Northeast was upon th
e schooner. She made head way south under the double reefs and a storm jib. In the storm the old men crew had all they could do tending sails and rigging.

  Svenska showed the rescued man about the galley. He was soon making himself useful. The Captain could have used a spell from the steering. He saw his loyal crew doing their best though they had to be tired out in this storm. He decided that he must get at least two men to help them. The position of the wind and sailing brought the schooner off shore.

  The Gulf Stream with its northeast direction flow against the northeast wind, made more than a bad chop. The opposing forces formed waves higher than Cappi had seen before. The vessel being without a load and high out of water allowed the wind and waves to better batter her.

  The Captain called Chips and explained his plan to jibe. This tactic was dangerous in high wind as a jibe handled too slowly at the sheets and backstays especially could cause a mast to break. Chips let the others know of the maneuver and then started the donkey engines.

  With the sheets passed to the drums of the engines, the sheets could be brought in quicker than with the strength of the old arms. Svenska and Chips would loosen the backstays to leeward then hurry to take up the slack to windward as the booms came across the deck. A successful jibe was accomplished.

  Chapter 15

  Tragedy Strikes

  The wind was still strong. Now, with the successful jibe completed, the direction was more westerly and away from the Gulf Stream. Two hours later it had lost its punch and the reefs were shaken out. The schooner was scooting over eight knots as the first of the Bahamas, Abaco’s were sighted.

  With the Abaco’s passed, the islands made a lee. Nearing the Florida shore another jibe was performed and later another. The fair wind continued all the way to Cuba and molasses harbor as Svenska called it.

  The sails were lowered and furled. The yawl boat alongside pulled the schooner inside. The loading began at once. Montoya had his family of workers and mill to maintain. The siestas would have to wait at loading time.

  The rescued China man showed no inclination to go ashore. He kept busy preparing the meals. The Captain entered him in the log book as cook. He showed the new cook the log and five silver dollars. The China man wrote what Cappi assumed to be his name. That was the end of that, it was official.

  After so much wind it was ridiculous. The loading was finished and the schooner was just outside of the harbor when the wind dropped completely. No one complained all were tired from the work of loading. They rested all afternoon and through the night.

  The day was hot, everyone must have been hoping for a breeze. Svenska climbed to her stand in the rigging, even high over the deck there was no breeze at all. The yawl boat was still alongside. If the schooner drifted too close to the coral bar it would be necessary to use her to move off shore. She looked near and far across the smooth as glass blue water, not a ripple stirred.

  Chips heard her pumps bounce on the deck. He knew at once how she was coming down from aloft. He got to his feet. The shriek that came chilled his heart. He heard the thud. Cappi and the others came running. They were in time to see the old man clear the rail in a jump. Cappi followed in a deep dive. In his heart he knew what had happened. Chips came up sputtering, surface dove to meet Cappi coming up with her. She was gasping for breath but was alive. There was blood in the water, they must get her out before a shark or sharks came for a feeding frenzy.

  Judd and Emery slid down into the yawl to take the small body from Cappi and Chips. She screamed in pain and the combined effort was halted. Just keep her head up Chips said. He was out and into the boat as quick as a boy. Cappi saw him disappear over the rail to the deck. He had gone for something to support her broken body for lifting.

  That her beautiful body was broken there was no doubt. Cappi had glimpsed a bone through the skin at her back when the attempt to lift her was tried. It seemed ages but was only a few minutes. Judd was now in the water helping Cappi to support her. Chips lowered Svenska’s heavy mirror to the yawl boat and then into the water. It was tied off at both ends with nine thread heaving lines, strong enough to lift it back aboard or into the boat.

  The cook came from the galley, Chips had him hold the two heaving lines and then he jumped overboard with sail stops. It took some doing but the small body was finally tied to the mirror. She had to be tied there, lying face down. It had to be this way for two reasons. Some of the water that she had swallowed was being coughed up. With every cough a moan from pain followed. The broken bone protruding through the flesh allowed for no other way. Judd was back in the yawl with Emery, they pulled while Cappi and Chips lifted. The big mirror with the now unconscious girl was at last aboard the yawl boat.

  The Captain said, “Judd, you and Emery will have to keep ship, I will need the cook to help Chips and I to get her to a hospital.” The yawl boat was soon headed for the harbor as fast as the engine could go.

  Ashore there was no waiting for an ambulance. They loaded her onto a truck bed. Montoya showed the way in his ford. There had been no time spent on explaining what had happened. Cappi braced against the truck cab and was holding the head of the improvised stretcher, the cook and Chips supported the rest. This helped to ease the pain Cappi hoped when the truck hit holes and bumps. The truck hit the brakes. We were at the hospital at last.

  Svenska was rushed to emergency surgery. She was lifted, mirror and all to the wheeled stretcher. The Captain knew that Chips wanted to stay, but a Captain has his ship to care for. “You and the cook ride back in the truck. The yawl boat may be needed. There is nothing we can do for Svenska now. It’s all up to the doctors. I will be back as soon as I see that all is done for her that is possible.”

  It was four hours later that a nurse brought Cappi to a conference with one of the doctor’s team. “All that is possible has been done. We have sewed and fastened a brace to keep the fracture from moving to irritate the nerves. The spinal cord was stretched almost to the point of breaking. I am afraid, almost positive, that it will not heal enough to ever let her walk again,” the doctor said. “Can I see her now?” Cappi asked. “We have her heavily sedated she will not come awake till morning, but you may sit with her.”

  Cappi called Montoya. He hated to call as the mill owner would be anxious to see the schooner away with its cargo. There was no mention of the Captain getting back to his ship and sailing. His total interest was in how well the little senorita was doing. Cappi could give no assurance, only that she has been operated on and was still alive.

  Cappi stood over the bed looking down at the small body. It made hardly a rise in the beds cover. So little and yet this was his world, his love. The nurse brought a chair. He sat and held one of her little hands. He squeezed it and spoke softly to the sleeping beauty. The nurse taking some readings asked,” Are you going to stay?” “Unless you kick me out,” he said. She brought in a wood recliner. Cappi placed his tired bones into it. Two hours later the nurse saw that he was asleep still holding the little hand. The noise of stainless dishes being moved as breakfast was being served brought him awake.

  Svenska was moaning softly as if hurting in her sleep. The nurse woke her and after a short exchange of greetings Cappi left the room, Svenska needed tending. “You’ll come back she asked?” almost shouting. “Of course I won’t leave you,” he said. That brought to mind what would he do? She would probably never be able to tend herself. He would have to leave her here in the hospital to deliver his cargo. That was his living and the old men’s too. Up to now it included her. After her stay here he could see no other way than for her to come back aboard. He knew old Chips loved her. He would help Cappi to tend her.

  He went back to her side. The day passed slowly. The Montoya’s came to wish her well. They brought flowers and fruit. Doctors came and examined and then were gone. Nurses with needles kept down her pain.

  In the hurry to get her to the hospital Cappi had not thought to br
ing anything. A nurse found a comb and brush. Knowing how well she liked to have it done Cappi was brushing her hair. The nurse would soon be in to give her breakfast and the normal morning attention.

  He bent and kissed her awake. She grasped his hand in a grip that was surprisingly strong.

  There was an unusual hustle and bustle all around as he ate a light breakfast. He finally heard the news. A hurricane had formed in the Caribbean and was heading toward Cuba. The Captain’s first thought was of his ship, he must get back aboard.

  He explained to Svenska that he must leave because of the coming storm. “I will get back from New York as soon as possible, by that time it should be alright to move you,” he said. Cappi was not prepared for her answer. She grabbed his arm with both hands. Her eyes were not of the pretty blue that he loved to look into. They were glazed and wild. “Don’t leave me, take me with you,” she shouted. A doctor and nurses came to see about the commotion.

  Svenska held tightly to his sleeve as the doctor examined her back. “It has no sign of infection, she will probably be better off in familiar surroundings. I will sign her out,” he said. Cappi supervised the loading into the ambulance that was to return them to Montoya’s molasses harbor. The mirror was on the stretcher with two pillows to cushion her back. Svenska was dressed in her laundered blue sailor suit. For the first time Cappi saw what had caused her to fail her swan dive. There was just a little stain of tar left on one leg of the bell bottom trousers. The leg had evidently been held by the tar on the rigging just enough to make the dive short.

  Svenska moaned aloud as they lifted her to the stretcher. The nurse used a hypodermic needle to put Svenska to sleep for the trip. She explained to Cappi the use and care to be taken with the medicines in the bag she handed him. Cappi, before receiving his Captain’s license had to pass a first aid course, but the nurse did not know that.