Chapter 16 Rocks and Shoals

A short nap recharged Will and Minnie. Upon waking they dressed in clean dry clothes, hats jammed firmly on heads, ready to meet the rest of the day. Leaving the cabin they could hear the children, some on deck, others in the mess. Very comforting to hear them, that and the lack of howling wind and crashing waves. Will headed to the galley while Minnie galloped up to the main deck. Searching for coffee Will was happy to see the pot warming on the stove, and a covered pan of milk for Minnie. Pouring a mug of the coffee Will sat in the mess listening to the chaos above his head. Feet galloping from one end of the boat to the other, Minnie must be having fun he thought. Draining his cup he climbed to the main deck.

The weather was still stormy, with heavy clouds still in the north but in their safe cove the water was near calm, and there was no wind to speak of. “A fine place to keep safe from the storm captain”. said Naomi behind him.“Thank you for keeping us safe.”. “You’re welcome and I am just glad things worked out well.” Will replied. “The Rose took a bit of a beating but she is a tough boat, ready for anything”. Looking around Will could see signs of the damage from the wind a high seas. One of the side windows of the wheelhouse was smashed in… wonder why I didn’t notice that before, he thought. Several of the bright pennants that flew along the guy wires of the smokestack were missing, as were one of the wires itself. A section of railing on the port side of the stern was missing and the crane on that side had a mess of ropes and chain wrapped around it.

Trying to figure out how the damage had happened was pointless he decided.Better to just start in on repairs.Then a thought occurred to him.“Before I start on getting us seaworthy, I just realized something”. Will said to Naomi, “I haven’t met all of the children yet, just you and Chuck.Let’s have a sit down and meet everyone meal…sound good?”.The two nodded, “leave it to us captain, couple of hours from now?” said Chuck.“Yup, let me or Min know, we will be busy but I am already working up an appetite.”. Will went below to the tool room to get supplies to repair the broken rails, he called for Minnie and a minute later she ran up, “Hey dad, what’s up?” “We have a few things to do, you want to help me with the railings or look for some new pennants?I am pretty sure we have some but not where they are.” .Minnie immediately started poking around through the tool room, “guess that takes care of that question.”, Will laughed. Picking up the tool bag and supplies he climbed the rear ladder to get to the stern easier.

The next hours passed quickly.Will had always enjoyed working with his hands and the rail was made better than new.He had also taken the time to use iron brackets to reinforce where it had broken.Hopefully it would prevent the same thing from happening.Minnie had dropped in on him from time to time, she didn’t like woodwork, the dust got into her fur. Packing up his tools he took them back to the store room.“Ding dong, ding dong”, the clang of the dinner bell reminded him how hungry he had become. He headed back to his cabin and washed up, then went to the mess hall.As he entered the room Minnie yelled “Hey dad, come sit by me.”.There she was at the head of a table, with a chair beside her, so Will ambled over and sat with her.

The other tables were full of teens, but so different from what he was used to, in the old world.Sitting and talking and laughing with each other, but no phone or tablets here thank goodness. As he sat beside Min the galley doors opened and Naomi came through with a tray, followed by two other kids, each carrying jugs of milk and one pot of coffee.

A simple meal of bread, cheeses and slices of meat, with tubs of fresh butter was set at each table, and when everyone had a full plate or two, or even three in one case, Naomi introduced the others. Going around her table the children were Rose, Daniel, Willow and Violet. These were the kids that had been helping in the galley and mess. Another table was presided over by Chuck and the others there were John, Alexander, Larry and Bree. As they started eating, Will picked up scraps of conversations between some of the others.

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

One lad was sure he could hold his breath the longest, Larry was his name, Alexander was going to load more coal than anyone else. Willow and Violet were going to catch floaters on the way back cause they tasted great but were afraid of the sharps. Bree was going to dig the deepest for copper ores for her fathers forge, he was training her to smelt her own copper. Daniel and John were looking forward to harpooning sharps and digging for the deeper ores. All in all they were a happy bunch and they were sure looking forward to the next days.

Will was happy to see that no one seemed worse off from the storm they had weathered, and that the lake effects were not bothering them.In fact he decided to check with them, now they were all here and happy.“If you could all listen for a second please”, he raised his voice.Everyone quieted and looked over at him.Standing up he raised his mug to them all “Thanks again for coming along on Minnie’s and my first trip, and I’m glad to meet you all.The next couple of days will be hard work, good food and hopefully some fun too.”. Min jumped up and stood on her chair…”yay fun”, she yelled. The children laughed and Will continued. “We are going to steam on today and should reach the ore shoals early this evening, anchor for the night and start work early tomorrow. So enjoy the rest of your day, listen to Chuck and Naomi, Minnie and I are going to get us moving”. Finishing his coffee and Minnie her milk, Will said “If anyone needs anything, anything at all, or if you think you need to be closer to us because of the lake, then come find Minnie or me.”. Heads were nodded, along with aye aye’s, yes captain’s. Leaving the mess and heading to the engine room Minnie said “I like them, nice all round, friendly and no meanies.”. “Me too Min” said Will. “They will probably come along with us for many voyages”. Min looked sad for a minute, “I miss our littles, they were lots of fun, chasing and stuff.” Will sighed “me too Min, me too”.

The engine room was warm with the smells of coal, woodsmoke, oil, salt. The boiler was ticking slightly from the heat, engine oily and ready. Refilling the auto feeder from the coal bunker, Will checked the boiler, topped up the water reserve and they were done in here. Minnie had checked all the seams earlier and they were tight and dry belowdecks. Will called out as they passed the galley to put out the wood stove and lanterns as they were about to get underway.

When they reached the main deck Will headed to the wheelhouse, Minnie had cleaned up the broken glass but had not been able to replace the window.“That’s ok Min, we can do that together when we get under way.” Will sad, seeing she was a bit glum.“We do what we can, right”. Using the bridge controls Will turned the boiler on full to start generating steam. Minnie was given the wheel and Will went on deck to pull the anchors in. The windlass moved pretty quickly, considering just a few days ago he wouldn’t even had been able to move it. Gesturing to Min the boat started moving dead slow back, to get the last anchor to give, as it seemed to be stuck in the lake bottom. That worked and Will cranked that one in too. In the mean time Minnie had guided the boat to the mouth of the cove.

Taking a spot on the bow as lookout Will waved and pointed ahead, the boat started moving forward slowly, out of the protected cove.The waves were nothing like they were and while the sky was still overcast, there was no threat of a storm. Will yelled up at Minnie “Point us west and go to ahead half.”.The toot of the whistle answered him and the boat surged forward. Three hours of steaming found the Rose nearing the shore where the ore deposits were.Grey fingers of stone, shale and sand reached into the lake, with anchoring between.This was the perfect place for them to get a full load.Operations would start in the morning but for now they anchored securely for the night, shut down the engine and boiler to minimum.

One final thing Will thought.

Menu

William Harris

Age 53

Intelligence 15/50

Strength 19/50

Vitality 19/50

Stamina 20/50

Affinities for gardening, cultivating, fishing, knitting, swimming, mariner ,

Captain of the heartboat Rose

Navigation 2

Mechanic 2

Minnie

Best dog of all

Age 5

Intelligence 5/25

Strength 8/25

Vitality 14/25

Stamina 14/25

First Mate of the heartboat Rose

Piloting 2

Mechanic