As for my pay I was earning far more then I had ever expected to make when I was living on land. At first I saved my pay like my father, a thrifty man, had taught me. Unfortunately I soon set my behavior by the example of my companions and my savings disappeared. I took to gambling in my free time with the rest of the crew and several times did I lose the entirety of my pay in this way. When I didn’t lose all of my pay through bad luck with dice I lost it in taverns and brothels soon after we would put to shore. It didn’t matter where we landed, by the end of the week my money would be gone and even I couldn’t tell where. The only portion of my money that didn’t go this was the money that I set aside out of every pay to send to my brothers to assist in the support of my father. I couldn’t think of not helping them while I had money in my pockets and not even the prettiest girl in town could have pried that money from my hand. I might not consider my fathers house to be my home anymore but I still had my duty to him as his son.
I was in this destitute state one day and decided to take a walk down to the Sign of the Mermaid. It was one of those taverns that sits next to the harbor and thrives on the sea trade. Sailors found their way there when they were looking for work and captains found their way there when they we short on hands. It was also a good place to check and see that a captain you were considering sailing with treated his crew in a proper fashion. I had sailed with a bad captain once before and it was a mistake I never wanted to repeat if I had a choice. That night I heard that Captain Johansson was looking for an entire crew. He was a fresh new captain with a fresh new ship and no one really knew much about either of them but I needed the money so I went in search of the man at his lodgings.
I can’t say that I was impressed by Captain Johansson. He was too inexperienced and far too eager to prove himself. Such captains tend to be over eager to assert their authority as well. Had I been in a better position financially I would waited until I could find a better job but I was one meal away from starvation. Besides, who knew when there would be another ship, the industry was in a slump and people who had a job were holding on to them. I moved my sea chest on board that very night.
We sailed that very Friday which caused a bit of talk on board the ship. It is a well known fact that sailing on a Friday is bad luck but the captain dismissed our comments and declared he wasn’t going to fall behind schedule for a superstition. We raised our eyebrows at this but said nothing. It hadn’t got bad yet, it would and later people would say that we had all been punished for our foolish sailing day.
I had been right about the captain; he was a very overbearing man once we were at sea. The crew grew to hate him very quickly but there is very little that a crew can do at sea about their captain, or on land for that matter. The captain’s word is law and he reigns higher then God for most sailors, after all he can dictate that we work on Sundays and holds the power of life and death for those who disobey him. He is a man above the law and every sailor must acknowledge this. I just did my job and kept out of his way, I was lucky; my job meant that I rarely crossed his path. The only time that this wasn’t the case was when all hands was piped; it was then that I felt the lash across my back. I make a very poor sailor. My knowledge of ships continues to be only of their barrels and wood and when asked to assist in the working of one I made a very clumsy and slow hand. More then once did I feel the blows of the quarter master but I still got off better then most on that ship.
To be continued...
No comments:
Post a Comment