by Smith, Skye
"I didn't mean the connection so much as the location and angle,” Anso replied. "We tried to mimic the fins that the Dutch shipwrights fitted to the Swift. Her fins are fixed to the hull where the bracing of the main mast strengthens the hull. The curve of the hull angles the fins slightly outward so that when she sits on the bottom they serve as braces.
Like I said, we tried to mimic the Swift, but the thing is, the Swift's original lateen rig meant that the main mast is a third back from the bow, which means that the fins are well back from the bow. The masts on these square rigged coastal ships are closer to the bow. I worry, umm, we worry that with the fins so far forward she will be a bitch to turn."
"I would have made the same choice,” Cleff replied. "The main reason for the fins is to keep her going straight forward even when the wind is blowing her sideways. Well you can't have it both ways can you? You can't have a ship that resists shying from the wind and at the same time is quick to turn."
"I agree with Cleff,” Daniel nodded. "Of all of us he would know best. I suppose the proof will be in the sea trial. How close is she to ready."
"Now"
"But the sewing?"
"Ahh, they are just using the new deck of this ship as a table to sew the sails of the other ship. Tomorrow we'll float her and take her out. Do you have any preference for names? We haven't painted one on yet."
"Don't saddle me with that responsibility,” Daniel pulled back in feigned horror. "I have two wives, and two daughters. Oh no you don't. I refuse. You choose."
"Everyone has the same problem,” Anso replied, and gave out a laugh that was deep and full. "That is why she ain't named yet. Every woman in the village wants a ship named after her, and the man who chooses that name will be shunned by all the rest."
"Freisburn,” Cleff suggested.
"Don't jest, we already have a Freisburn."
"So the original will be Freisburn One,” Cleff was not jesting. He waved his hand around at all of the new ships. "Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. Simple. Easy. They are all close enough in size to be mistaken for each other. Once they all fly the same Bermudan sails, no one but us will be able to tell them apart. The Freisburn has a good reputation all around the North Sea, so why shouldn't all our ships share in it. We in the village will know them by their numbers, but to everyone else each will be the Freisburn."
Anso and Daniel stared at each other and grinned. It was a brilliant idea for it solved many problems at once. Old Cleff was wise even beyond his years. Cleff misunderstood their smiles and thought they were making fun of him. "Right then. I'll go and ask the women to name them."
Anso and Daniel's smiles became looks of horror. "No not that,” Anso cried out, "anything but that. None of them will agree on any names and we will find out selves living in a village of bitches for months. The numbers are fine. More than fine. Good idea Cleff."
* * * * *
* * * * *
The Pistoleer - Pirates by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14
Chapter 15 - The Stowaway at Rochford in November 1641
The Freisburn Two had not just been converted from a square rig to a Bermudan rig, but from a plain and ordinary ship to a stylish one. The original ship had been an old fashioned open utility ship with one square sail and one tiny cabin aft under the steering castle. She had seen good use for some twenty years carrying bulky cargos along the North Sea coast.
Her design was traditional, a design that was trustworthy in fair weather and foul, deep water and shallow, and hadn't changed much for dozens of generations. The hull had been open not only to fit cargoes of any shape or size or mound, but also so that as many as ten pairs of oars could push her along.
The redesigned ship still had the steering castle above the small aft cabin, and still had an open space in front of the aft cabin, but now it had room for only three pairs of oars. In front of that began a raised deck that ran the rest of the length of the hull to the bow. This deck was the roof of one long hold-come-cabin that would now protected the hold, cargo, and any passengers from the weather and waves.
She still had but one mast, but it had been extended with a topmast, and the bow had been extended with a bowsprit, and a triangular sail hung from a line that ran from topmast to bowsprit. Aft of the mast there was another triangular sail, this one held down by a boom. This was the magic design of Jacob Jacobsen, the Dutch shipwright they had met in Bermuda. The same shipwright who had re-rigged the Swift from lateen to Bermudan.
To allow for larger sails, the boom and the sails hung low over the long forward deck. True that meant that the crew would need to duck under them if they were on that deck, but that was not a problem because while sailing her in open water there was little reason to be on the fore deck. It was also true that with the new fore deck they could no longer carry bulk 'barge' cargos, but that was not a problem because they would be using this ship to carry light and costly cargoes which needed protection from the weather.
Daniel and Anso took four men with them on the trial, and those four rowed the Two passed the quays at Lynn and out of the mouth of the Great Ouse and into the chop of the Wash. Only when they were around the point and out of sight of Lynn did they raise one of the triangle sails, the head sail on the bow. The ship immediately leaped forwards.
With just the head sail pulling the Two along, Daniel taught Anso and the men the ins and outs of this wondrous rig. After two hours, the men felt comfortable with the one sail, and had learned the importance of quickly adjusting the trim of the sails should the ship ever heel too far over. Only then did they hoist the main sail.
Again and again, the men were warned to be careful when working around the boom. They even practiced calling out the warning whenever the boom was on the move. After a full morning of playing at sailing, they began to sail the Two for real and test what she could do. Never did any of them ever dream that this fat old hull could move so fast. With her square rig, her fastest course was running before the wind. With these triangular sails, her fastest course was across the wind. Fully twice as fast.
And they knew this because they sailed her at every imaginable angle to the wind and waves. They even tried sailing her directly into the wind. True, no ship could sail directly into the wind, but she never did sail backwards, which was all too common with a square sail. Instead she would shy from the wind to one side or the other, and then the sails would fill again and she would creep forward, which would give them rudder control again.
Big Anso was grinning ear to ear for the whole way back to Wellenhay. With his fin design proven, it could now be replicated on the other ships. Work had already begun on the rigging but now the carpentry could begin. The refits, however, must go forward without Daniel's help. Daniel had promises to keep and a cargo to deliver to Earl Warwick.
* * * * *
The next morning, Daniel set sail in the Two, with a crew made up of Warwick's four lifeguards and three Wellenhay men. Their destination was the muddy waters of the Essex coast, and then up the River Roach to Warwick's country manor at Rochford. A half a day out from Lynn, Daniel discovered that he had a stowaway aboard ... his step-daughter the huntress Teesa.
Daniel's immediate reaction was to turn about to take her home, but she argued long and hard against this. "Your mother won't know where you are,” Daniel pointed out, "she will be worried sick. The entire village will be sent into the marshes to search for you, and when they don't find you then the hue and cry would spread out to Lynn and Ely."
"I left her a note,” Teesa purred, "and I told Anso's daughter, but she is sworn not to mention it until Anso is finished work for the day."
He never could deny Teesa anything, so he needed a ploy to thwart her. "It's not my decision,” he told her. "Any two of the crew can veto a new man from joining the crew."
"Will you vote against me?" she asked as she gave him a puppy dog stare.
"No," Daniel finally admitted. "But I must still call the crew together for a vote."
The crew had
already heard all of her arguments when she had been caught out. They weighed the pros and cons. Since her mother would be told by sunset, and since the Two was already leaving the Wash, and since she was a good hand at manly things despite being a girl, only one of the men voted against her joining the crew. Even he withdrew his objection when no one else voted with him.
It was a two hundred mile sail around the bulge of Anglia to reach the River Roach in Essex, which was a day and a night's sail. The crew took turns on watch, but once on a heading it took just two men to sail the Bermudan ... one on the tiller, and one on the bow to watch for hazards. Anso's design included a ventilation hatch at the front of the main cabin, and if you popped your head out of it, you had an unobstructed view of the water ahead. The men blessed Anso, for it meant that they could stay warm and dry even on bow watch.
With so much cabin space there was plenty of room for everyone not on watch to stretch and sleep under a roof and out of the weather. Everyone was very thankful that this was no longer an open boat, for the wind was bitter and kicking up a sea spray. Teesa was so excited to be along on this adventure that she didn't notice the boredom on the faces of the men. "So where are we going?" she asked in a sprightly voice.
"River Roach. That's in Essex closer to London,” replied the man on the woven mat beside her. He was a cousin, sort of, and ten years her senior.
"Why?"
"Deliver cargo. Let me sleep."
She nudged him. "What cargo?"
"Pistols and muskets."
"Who are we selling them to?" She had to nudge him again.
"The Earl of Warwick. We're hoping he is still at his manor in Rochford, otherwise we will have to sail all the way to London."
Teesa's eyes went wide. "London, really. I've always dreamed of going to London. Oooh I do hope the Earl is not home."
"That's wicked to wish that on us. Now let me sleep."
"Is the Earl rich?"
"Aye, Robert Rich,” He began to chuckle and there were other chuckles from other sleeping mats.
"His name is Robert Rich, the Earl of Warwick,” Daniel told her so that the others would not mock her. The last time that men mocked her had been in Boston, and she had pulled her knife. "And yes he is wealthy, extremely wealthy."
"So why just sell him guns. Why not sell him fresh eels or some of our fine woolens." Her mind was waking up. "Why don't we go over to Holland and buy him some spices or some silk?"
Her cousin replied, "Because this is supposed to be just a short and simple trip to try out the new rig and the new keel of this ship."
"She's right you know,” Daniel cut him off before it led to more mockery. "The Earl wants us to supply him with guns, but he does have a wife and grown daughters and they will have fat purses for the running of all his households." An idea came to him as he said this, a very good idea, if he could get Teesa to agree to it.
Nay, she would never agree. Not her. Well it was worth a try. "The trouble is, that we are all rough men so we will never see the women's realm within such a large manor, so we have no chance of finding out what the women would pay top coin for. It's too bad that we didn't bring a woman like Sarah along. She would have talked her way into the women's company and found this all out for us."
"I'm a woman,” Teesa replied eagerly. There were guffaws from all around. "No, really, I mean I always dress as a man." More laughter. "Daniel, you saw me dressed all skirtly for my summons in Boston. I can do it. I can visit with these rich bitches and find out how to make a profit from them."
"Not with that attitude, or that alehouse talk, or those clothes,” her cousin told her as he pulled at her sheepskin jerkin. "Pew. She's more'n likely to insult the ladies and sour our gun deal."
"I can do it, honestly I can. At least let me try. I promise to be ever so polite."
"It's worth a try,” Daniel now pretended to be taking her side against her cousin. "Even if she only gets to mingle with the kitchen staff, at least she will see which spices they stock."
"Oh thank you,” Teesa said and crawled over to Daniel's mat to give him a hug.
Daniel felt a twinge of guilt for tricking his step-daughter-niece. Tricking her into playing a polite and proper woman when all her life she had wanted to be a huntress. The twinge did not last long. "How should I introduce you to the family. They are Christian so they don't have a tradition of a man taking on his brother's widow as a second family.
"I am too old to be your true daughter,” Teesa replied. "By blood I am your niece, so introduce me as your niece." The men all guffawed again, but they didn't tell her that the Earl probably had plenty of 'nieces' of his own, for that was how the nobility introduced their mistresses to polite company.
* * * * *
"Go on in, go in and get warm,” Warwick said as he held one of the doors of the stable open for them. He had seen the ship sailing up the River Roach while he had been out hunting geese, and even though he did not recognize the ship, he recognized the fore-aft rig of her. As soon as he was sure it was Daniel and his own lifeguard aboard, he had left his fouling musket in the punt with his gamekeep and had climbed aboard the Two to show them the channel that led to the manor.
"This is the warmest room on the estate because we never douse the coals on the farrier forge," Warwick told them and then noticed a wee lad holding back behind his lifeguard. He grabbed at the lad and pushed him forward into the warmth.
"Oy, you watch your hands,” Teesa was about to scold but then remembered her promise and instead said, "Oh my Lord. You mistake me for a boy. Completely my fault of course, and the fault of my seaman's attire. With your permission I will stand apart from the men."
"My heavens, it's a girl,” Warwick chuckled, "he's a she. Now Danny, how do you come to have such a sweet young thing on your ship." The men all laughed so he knew it must be a good story. How was he to know that the real reason the men were laughing was that he had just called their tomboy huntress a sweet young thing.
"She's my niece, the child of my poor drowned brother," Daniel explained, "and she is a stowaway. She disguised herself to get near to the ship, and then she hid aboard until we were at sea. What she wears is all the clothes she has with her, so you must excuse her lack of skirts."
"Not a problem,” Warwick replied as he held out his cold hands towards the forge. He called out a name over and over. A stable boy finally came running into the farrier shop from an inside door and then stood still and bowed just his head as if he were looking for something on the hard mud floor. "Go to the house and tell the cook that there are nine more for luncheon, and tell her that one of them is a lady in distress and in need of some clothes, so she should send a maid here to attend her at once." The stable boy said a few 'yes sirs' and then turned and ran back through the inside door.
* * * * *
"This way,” the kitchen girl again called to Miss Teesa. Getting her all the way to the kitchen was taking forever because she kept stopping and gawking at everything. The call allowed them ten more feet before the Miss was gawking again. Eventually they reached the kitchen, which was a buzz of busy women.
"Nine more,” the cook complained, "and on short notice."
"Oh," Teesa suddenly remembered. "The earl asked me to tell you that the hunters will not be back for at least two hours, and that they will eat later."
"That's 'his grace' to you girl,” Cook scolded as she looked the girl up and down and up again. "Well I assume that there is a girl hiding in there somewhere."
"Has my husband returned?" came a call from beyond the kitchen. "May I intrude?"
Suddenly there was a new flurry of activity in the kitchen as the women set down what they were carrying or doing and brushed their clothes and their hair with their hands. The countess always gave them a minute's warning before she entered the kitchen. The women faced the door, and stood still and straight and silent. An elder woman dressed in an embroidered gown of blue silk brocade entered, and all but Cook and Teesa did a and shallow curtsey
and held the pose.
"Oh, hello, I'm Teesa,” she said with a wide smile and held out her hand for shaking. "You must be Countess Susannah. The earl, I mean, his grace, sent me here to see about borrowing some clothes. Mine ugh, ah, never made it aboard the ship." She felt silly holding out her hand without it being taken. The Lady must have been too shocked at her men's clothes to take it.
The kitchen staff sucked in their breaths in shock. Many questions immediately went through Susannah's mind but she could ask only one at a time and so the first was, "What ship?"
"The Freisburn Two. Oh, of course, you wouldn't know about it for it is new to us. Captain Daniel's ship. He is my uncle."
"Captain Daniel, the tall fair haired man with startling eyes?" Susannah asked. "That Captain Daniel?"
"That's him. He and the crew are with the, er, his grace in the stable. They are drying off and getting warm in front of the forge. They sent me here so they could strip down a bit. Umm, the other hunters are still out blasting gooses."
"Geese,” Susannah corrected absent mindedly while she reached forward and combed the girls yellow hair out of her eyes with two fingers. At least her skin was mostly clean even if her clothes were not. Were those bloodstains on her buckskin pants?
"Gaes, ganzen, whatever," Teesa rattled the word off in Frisian and Dutch, "they've only bagged a dozen and they are going to stay out until they bag a dozen more. The trouble is that their guns keep scaring the birds away. They'd bag more if they snuck up on them with birding bows and light arrows." Why did these kitchen women keep sucking in their breaths?
"Ma’m, if I may,” the Cook's bow was nothing more than a tiny nod, "luncheon will be served as planned, at the time planned, but with nine from the ship in place of the ten hunters."
"Good, well make sure that they remove their muddy boots at the door, and send for me when they are ready to sit at the table."
Teesa looked down at her muddy boots and suddenly realized why the kitchen women were so disapproving of her. There was a boot tray beside the back door of the kitchen so she tiptoed over to it and left her boots on it, hoping that no one would steal them. They were her good rawhide hunting boots.