Chapter 51. Water Woes

The next few days were as busy as the first.Hauling ore into boats and dumped off into the cavernous hold of the Rose was hard dirty wet work but the teens had risen to the task.Slowly the level had risen, tons of copper ore, an occasional load of bituminous coal, not as good as anthracite but still very serviceable.

Their stores were getting low, so they had been fishing during the evening to supplement their larder. No one said no to fish and chips, even though they couldn’t get mayonnaise anymore. Out of eggs too so breakfasts were just a little sadder now too. Bacon and ham were still in good supply as were their root vegetables. Apple juice was good as was tea and coffee, no milk though. Their fresh water was getting low, a trip inland to find a stream was planned tomorrow, or perhaps a river dumping fresh into the lake….hmm thought Will, let’s do that one instead. Then they could sidle close and pump in fresh from the river.

Staples like flour, sugar and salt were ok so they had fresh bread.And at least they had honey still.A great superfood to have, even if that term was unknown here. Butter was in short supply but they did have lard.Now Will remembered his wife’s cookies made with lard and even cake icing so he might not have it on toast but for cooking…sure.Since oils were Laketowns specialty they had ample supplies on board.

Wills log was getting long and he had enough for a while. Time to do some fishing. Leaving his tiny office he passed the mess and heard some snoring from inside. He found Larry passed out, head on the table. Shaking the lad awake “Larry lad, better get to bed, gonna get a sore neck.”. The young man was bleary eyed but listened and stumbled off to bed, “ Thanks cap, just overtired.”. Will knew what he meant.

Sticking his head in the galley he found Naomi and Rose making bread for tomorrow.Buns too, they were going to try lobster rolls, without lobster, so fish rolls.“Evening, are you going to quit soon, or work on through the night?” asked Will.“Just getting a head start, we’ll bake up a few loaves now, they’ll be done in a couple of hours, then work on roll’s tomorrow.”, replied Naomi.Rose asked “Where’s Minnie captain, she usually comes down for a snack right about this time.”.Will checked his watch, the other two stared, Naomi had a rough idea of what it was but Rose had no clue.Will explained a bit but could see she didn’t see the point.“I guess Minnie’s on deck, probably fishing, that’s where I’m going, I’ll let her know your looking for her.”.

Saying good evening he headed on deck where he did find Minnie and the rest of the teens, fishing. They had not done so well, there was only a couple of fish in the bucket. “Wow, no luck tonight huh?”, he said, looking over. “Yup, nothing .”, replied Minnie, “Just nothing down there, maybe somethings getting them before we are.”. Hmmm, thought Will, could be a school of sharps in the area. Good news and bad news.

The fish in the lake were usually easy to catch because of no commercial, or even pleasure fishing.It was sad that such a source of revenue, of food was off limits to the people.Just the small amount they could get from shore, and what the Rose could bring.A poor catch like this was not normal for the crew.

Still he decided to try his luck too, put a spinner on and heaved a mighty cast off and away, reeling back in nice and slow to attract the nice fat floaters that lurked near the bottom. Nothing. Again he cast, reeling back in slightly faster this time but again nothing. “Third times the charm you know.”, he said to no one in particular. Minnie laughed beside him “ You always say that, then cast a million times more.”. Naomi had joined them and chimed in “She has you there Captain.”. “Well you’re both right but it’s just a fishing thing to say.” Will said. And there were many many more casts, but no fish, for the rest of the evening.

Morning came but today was not for gathering, today was a water day.Being only half full of ore they couldn’t go on without a replenishment.

Hauling in the anchors they were getting ready to go in search of a river.The boiler was fired up and ready to make steam, Minnie and Will had their heads together over the map desk.They had a chart of the area open and couldn’t decide to head north or south.“The river to the south is closer.”, said Minnie “We could be there in a couple of hours.”.Will nodded “Yeah it is, but the land it’s coming out of is farm land and the river could be wide and muddy, we need a fast cold stream, like this one,” he pointed to the map.“Let’s do that thing.”, said Minnie.Will raised an eyebrow “Thing?”.Minnie went on “That thing with the thingie.”.“Sorry kid, I got no clue.”, replied Will, he could see Minnie was getting …agitated.“That thing, you know, you always do it.” she squeaked.“I always do lots of things, do you mean brush my teeth maybe?”, he asked.“NO, that other thing, the flappy thing.”, she was getting higher pitched.“Do you mean when I fluff up my pillow so I can sleep better?”, Will mimed fluffing his pillow.Minnie stamped her foot, nearly all the way wound up “NO, the other flippy thing, to figure out things.”.Oh, that flippy thing thought Will.Reaching down under the map table, there was a small case.Opening it he pulled out a dollar coin, queens head on one side and a rose on the other.

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“This flippy thing?” he asked, flipping the coin.He had to dodge a map case as Minnie yelled “Yeah, that one, you rotten old monster you!”.Will laughed, “You want to flip?”.Minnie snickered “Yeah I do and I think you got me mad on purpose.”.“Well of course I did, keeps you young and feisty.”, said Will.He tossed the coin to Minnie and she flipped it, “Queen for the muddy and Rose for the colder one.”.

The Rose steamed away from the ore shoals heading for deeper water, to get water.“Too bad we don’t have a desalination plant on here”, said Will , knowing what was coming.A little while later after explaining what electricity was and why they couldn’t have it, they were brought tea and juice by Naomi.“Hey Minnie, cap.So which way we going for water?”.Minnie pointed proudly at the compass, firmly pointing south “I won.”.

Will had asked Naomi if she wanted to learn to pilot.The answer had been no, for now.She said she enjoyed her duties and didn’t feel comfortable steering yet.And after that wave a couple of weeks ago she was still worried.“Okay, but let us know when you want to learn, you’re not just the wonderful skilled cook who makes our days happy.” Will said.Minnie nodded, mouth full of biscuits.Giving a wave she left the wheelhouse.

Leaving the Rose in Minnie’s hands Will went to ready for water loading. The casks were lifted to the deck, the pump was readied and several lengths of hose were connected. They weren’t sure how far up the river they could go. The Rose was a fairly deep draft vessel so they had to be careful not to get grounded. He had never done this before, but knew the ship, he knew what he needed to do, and captains had done this before so he was confident they were up to the task.

Steaming south at full speed he could tell they were well loaded.No fancy steering was possible because they were wallowing around a bit.Lots of weight, lots of mass moving along.Hopefully no sudden stops.Cargo shifting was a dangerous business.Luckily they had a huge damp lump, no bits and pieces to fling around.

Two hours later they hit the rivers mouth, wide and slow moving.The water was cloudy with silt but filtering and boiling would help with that.It cleared when the fresh water hit the salt of the lake so they had to find the right spot to start pumping.

Thank goodness that pollution was unknown on this world. A very small amount from the coal plants, when coking the coal. Gas, coal tar were by-products of the process, and very useful by products indeed. The coked coal was a much need fuel for forges, and for heating as well.

The only pollution in this was was going to be …poop. When Minnie heard that she nearly laughed herself sick. She was very happy though, when she heard the water was being purified.

Will on the port bow, Naomi on the starboard, they were sounding constantly, Minnie on the helm as usual.Deep so far but getting shallow rapidly.Will hoped they could pump from the boat but was ready to start loading casks to the dory if they had to.

“60 feet on the port.”, called out Naomi.“50 on starboard.”, called Will.Minnie slowed the Rose to a crawl, barely making headway against the rivers flow, she turned the boat to angle close to shore.Hoping to find a close anchor point and start watering.The teens lining the rails were transfixed by boat operations.Living on the boat and seeing the crew working fascinated them all.

“30 feet on the port, getting shallow fast captain.”, called Naomi. “25 on the starboard.”, shouted out Will. Edging closer and closer to shore and their sweet spot. Minnie adjusted accordingly, the boat nearing where they needed to be. “20 feet on port”, called Naomi , sounding quite worried, “20 on starboard, let’s end it here”, Will called up to Minnie, “We’re going to anchor here Min, hold us.”.She tooted the whistle to acknowledge. Will ran out the anchors, first port then starboard and hoped they bit hard and fast.

He waved at Minnie and felt the engine shut down, the Rose swung, swung, then stabilized. Held securely near the rivers mouth, close to the east shore.It looked as though they would have enough hose to hit fresh water,but times would tell.The trick would be setting the inflow hose, it had a large bail on it to stop too much debris being sucked in.That would help seat it, but someone would need to stay with it.

Will figured to be that person, he could easily haul the hose over and hold it in the fresh water , while Minnie and Naomi pumped and filled. “Let’s get to it crew.”, called Will. They lowered the dory and loaded it with hose, the intake valve and two brave souls to go along with Will. Larry and Alexander volunteered, as he rowed away from the Rose they payed out hose after them.

Minnie and Naomi prepared to get water, they had opened the casks and sterilized them with boiling water. Now they just waited for the signal to prime the pump and start moving.

Will reached shore about 30 yards from the Rose. Barely enough hose to reach, and it was quite heavy now, when it was full of water it might be a bit of a task to hold it. Inlet and debris filter on and sunk in the river. Will tested the water and it was indeed fresh, little bit cloudy but he had seen worse. Telling Alexander to give a shout he could see Minnie started pumping.

On the Rose water was spewing out of the hose at a great rate. They had two water sources to fill, casks of drinking water, and tanks on the boat. Those were for flushing, washing up, laundry and so on. The casks were filling fast. Minnie was replacing the full for an empty, Naomi would take over pumping while Minnie swapped casks. It took a while til they were full. As soon as the pump stopped Will heard Minnie yelling “We’re full dad.”. They rowed back to the boat, lads rolling the hose as it came onto the dory. Full tanks was a good thing, hopefully they would last until the voyage was done. But for now it was back to the shoals for a few more days.

Again it was an early morning. Oatmeal and bacon with toasted bread today, tea and juice on the menu too. The teens still ate like starving wolves but at least wolves with manners. The nearly two weeks away, and hard work, had brought the kids together like school or casual meetups in town couldn’t. They had become a team and one that Will would be happy to use every time they went out from Laketown. “So hey guys, if you want to pay attention for a couple of minutes.”, he knocked on the table, Minnie and Naomi as well. This got the kids ears after a couple of secs.

“So today is last day, our holds are very nearly full. Just a few more boats and we will be sailing out tonight.”. Cheers and happy shouts rang out, the kids were very happy to be heading home. Holding his hand up for a bit of quiet Will continued “You guys did a fantastic job and, just well done, well done. I know Minnie feels the same, even if she doesn’t talk too much.”. The children erupted in laughter. Will continued “Many thanks to Naomi and her crew, for feeding us day and night, enjoy breakfast guys. A light workday and then homeward bound.”. He sat down as the kids clapped and whistled.

They finished off breakfast, cleaned up the mess and headed for deck and the boats.