Midwinter calling, day 27
Fishing in the mansion
It took some time, but just before noon we are back home, and Alith has again told the story several times, and we have shown the pictures to those initiated about cameras. Unn and the ships crew are very grateful for what they gets from the elk hunt, and Hrappr and Ida come back from having distributed to residents as well as Pedr and the best craftsmen, who thanks us very much, and apparently there were tears on a few of them, including Iselin's parents. Definitely a PR boost in several ways, but it just feels good to be able to give it away.
Bodil is in the workshop as she was quick to offer to make triple gun racks to hang the firearms above both my bedroom fireplace and in the guards day room. As far as I know, black powder is not dangerous to store loaded - well, more than the obvious - as long as there is no moisture which, along with residual sulphur in gunpowder, I assume can form some kind of sulphuric acid and corrode metal surfaces. So as long as it is kept dry it shouldn't be a problem to shoot the load many years later. I know weapons have been found where the charge can be fired even after a hundred years.
The reason that many people in the past - especially in the USA - kept weapons above the fireplace is that it was dry there and easy to access, because the weapon was for self-defense and loaded. It was also simply too expensive to waste black powder and bullets on firing a weapon empty every time. These weapons are meant for hunting, but it would be stupid to not have a couple of them loaded and available if shit hits the fan. In this case some of our weapons are already loaded since the hunt. After we carefully tried to clean the barrel a little, we have tied a small orange piece of cloth in the trigger guard as a reminder that the guns are loaded. Letting go of the flintlock hammer was a bit nervous the first time, but as long as it doesn't have steel to hit against, it's 'safe'. I'm thinking about a possible lock for the weapon rack in the future, but it feels quite unnecessary in a world where many people walk around everyday life with knives, axes or swords in their belts.
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One of my merchant ships is anchored and has been awaiting our return, and its combined Merchant, Captain and Navigator Ithuin have come ashore to speak with me and be introduced. This Cog's trade route is to England-Ireland-Scotland, but the ship will be in Borgarsandr for a couple more weeks. So I visit the ship together with my sambos plus Caecilia, Jane, Asta and the guards, and the crew is introduced, and we get a tour of the ship. The crew swear allegiance to me and I give standard orders that even orders from my three sambos are to be taken as they come from me. This ship doesn't have a real name either, so I name it 'Sulaco' and ask them to make signs like the other ships. Jane whispers questioningly:
"Sulaco?"
"In a spur of the moment thing, I named the first one going the longest route to Spain and Portugal to 'Nostromo'. They're the ships from the old movies 'Alien' and 'Aliens'. It might be a theme, because I have five merchant ships and I kind of like the names 'Narcissus' and 'Auriga' and the last will be 'The Betty'."
"The Betty? That really doesn't match."
"The others are Weyland-Yutani corporation or military crafts. The Betty are criminals and kidnappers. It is what it is, and I don't remember any other ship name from the Alien movies."
I speak to Merchant Ithuin and there are two large important slave markets over there, which account for a considerable proportion of the profit along with tin imports and copper exports, so I won't his trading in slaves, but I ask him to avoid buying the youngest slaves, which he is happy to do. He has never liked trading in children, and he has suspected things with the deliveries to Radgeirrson, but to get that trade route he had no choice when Radgeirrson was in charge. Unfortunately, from this voyage he has already delivered a young woman to the B-mansion, specifically what he call an 'untouched beautiful bed slave', who thankfully is a young adult and not a child, but also nine slaves to the Merchant Empire.
Merchant Ithuin receives information about sundials etc, and to spread the Academy's reputation and information. I can almost see the growing horns on his forehead and the greed in his eyes when he understands that in the future there can be very exclusive things to sell, and when I show him the monoculars and oil lamps, I can see that Ithuin immediately begins to fantasize about the gold he can sell such items for. He have heard about my sword, and I show that too, and from his touch and words it's clear that he just see gold if swords like that ever becomes available to sell. Just the fact that I let all the Captains and Navigators have a North Arrow is incredibly impressive, especially when it became known what they were sold for. He is the Navigator on the ship, but he will train the crewman that practically is his second in command, and let him have the second North Arrow. In the future I will probably upgrade all the merchant ships as well, but Asta will show him my ship 'The Millennium Eagle' today and give him some Sextant training, because we are going to Borgarsandr tomorrow.
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I take the opportunity to offer the merchant ships crew some elk meat and blood pancakes, which are hugely appreciated.
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Since Olafr and Bruinn is again enjoying working a bit down by the forge and we have firearms that have not been loaded after the hunt, we use them together with the guards own melee weapons and wooden training weapons, to do a small 'fighting in the mansion' exercise. There are many modern military terms for pretty much the same thing; urban combat; close quarters battle. Personally, I've always like the British humoristic version of calling it FISH - Fighting In Someone's House. Practice it was something Alith and I talked about a couple of days ago, and we all freely discuss what works, what doesn't, how they can sweep corners, where they can't shoot, and how they can use flashlights or oil lamps, etc. It's quite an interesting exercise they really like and all of us will try to figure out how we would attack the mansion from the outside and fight our way inside, both as the enemy and ourselves, with more or less information about the inside and weapons.
It will definitely be a different battle compared to longhouses and normal farms, and mostly because of the design of the house. Undoubtedly, the mezzanine is the most important defensive point in the main building if windows are forced open on the ground floor, which is not too difficult. The mezzanine controls movement between the sides of the main building, has the stairs as protection, and with a couple of shields against the railing or sofa that is moved, it becomes a simpler protective wall with a height advantage of one meter and it is a bottleneck. The mezzanine also provides a direct field of fire towards the main entrance and the doors there, and there are two swords on the wall behind which the guards and my sambos know how to remove.
The second floor balcony also give quick movement between the rooms on the second floor for shooting towards the courtyard, and the mezzanine provides an overview of the entire south side of the mansion and partly the road around the cliff. I decide to make a couple of special 'wooden railing shields' that can be hung and quickly attached to the railing, much like the walls of the pavilion. Three-four pieces are enough, and it don't sacrifice the guards own and less optimal round shields without attachment points. It is possible to make two or three hidden compartments under the mezzanine floor in the space above the ceiling of the secret room below, and use that opportunity to dampen the sound down to the secret room a little extra. The wooden shield will also function as a bit extra sound barrier. There is no real need for the sound damping but it is good if it is there. If the defenders gets a minute, they can open the hidden compartments and detach the railing shields. In a crisis situation, we won't bother to put the facade planks back. The guards can also get three wooden railing shields inside their bedroom, both as improvised riot shields or hung down here or up on the balcony railing which is exactly the same.
The guards like those ideas. If we throw caltrops on the floor, it will be extra unpleasant because almost everyone here has normal shoes with leather soles. Attacking when you have to slide your feet across the floor or use a spear shaft to sweep in front of you isn't exactly effective if the defenders have ranged weapons or firearms and can reload. Bows are bad enough, but rifles go through shields. Attackers won't be prepared for caltrops either. When I quickly improvise and show how a metal caltrop looks and works, and mention that I can get a couple of hundred made that they can throw out if needed, Bodil grimaces. Gunhild's evil grin gives her opinion loud and clear. So some blacksmith or Digraldi will probably be happy to get the job.
It's not that useful outside of the manor, but cheval de frise of spears or pointed wooden sticks would be useful in some outside cases. Bodil wonders if I couldn't install a row of spears that rise up diagonally from the floor. The floors are made of wooden, so the spears can lie just under the floorboards, and if we pull on a rope, they can be angled up and automatically locked in the raised position towards the entrance or in the corridor towards the wing door. Of course that would work, and could make a similar handle solution as the balcony in here have, but I don't mention the balcony's function. Having a barrier that delays the enemy from just charging in or quickly advancing through corridors is a nice idea, but I'll have to think about it. After all, there are many ways to make traps, but they have to be extremely safe and not accidentally hurt anyone, and that's a difficult problem. They also have to be properly installed and have a reliable mechanism, without calling attention to there is something weird there. By sambos - and everyone else - really like the good and pretty floor as it is.
If everything here hadn't been made of wood, I could probably have introduced some kind of Molotov cocktails, and I can order earthenware bottles for that or just try to use some of the empty wine bottles we have. I'll have to try if I can find a good high grade alcohol - what Unn uses for wounds might work - because rapeseed oil isn't volatile enough, but its stickiness can be unpleasant, and I can test combinations of high grade alcohol and rapeseed oil, with more stuff in it like tar, resin, fat etc. It need to burn really well, be sticky, and hard to put out.
Matches would be nice to be able to make, but I don't want to play with phosphorus, and while I know it's possible to make small amounts of phosphorus from bone or boiling urine, I'm not sure exactly how, although it shouldn't be that difficult considering when in history it was produced. Shit, that's like saying 'how hard can it be?' and basically guaranteeing that it will be damn hard for me. Oh well. Laboratory work with urine is not something I look forward to, especially not to create something unpleasant such as phosphorus. But it would be useful and along with saltpeter be an important product that both come from urine. Those future experiments will not take place here at the mansion. I need to make a proper chemistry lab next year. Away from everything.
However, returning to defensive works, it can be a good idea to make bayonets for the firearms so that they become spears and not bad clubs when the distance is short or the ammunition runs out. Reloading takes time. The guards like that idea and will practice with it. I suspect Olafr can be persuaded to forge it in steel.