Chapter 49. Waves are Not Fun

Steaming on, now at full speed, they would reach the shoals by evening.The weather was holding, boat performing beautifully, crew fantastic. “Thanks Min, I got that.”.Will was writing his log, bring helped by Minnie.“Yup.”, she laughed.Taking a sip of his ever present tea mug he got back to it.

There wasn’t really that much to put in the log. Nothing had really happened. Just the business of ore loading tomorrow. He recorded the weather, course and speed and the time! Hahah. He was ridiculously happy that he could do that now.

“Finished?”, asked Minnie.He nodded.It was Minnie’s shift at the wheel so she passed him back the watch.He held up a hand “How about you take a look and see if you can build one, take it apart and see.”.He didn’t tell her to be careful as he knew she would.Minnie took it, turned it over in her hands,.“Are you sure, that I can do this and not break it?”.Will patted her shoulder “I trust you, do you want to go get supplies and tools, I can keep watch while you work on that.”.

Minnie nodded, very happy she finally got to examine this fascinating thing. As she left Naomi arrived . “Min looks too happy, what is she up to?”, she asked. Will explained. “Ah I see, she must be over the moon.”, she replied. Taking a seat she looked at the lake ahead, still very clear, just the occasional heave. “Are we there yet?”.

“Yes, jump out and start shovelling,” he laughed. “Minnie told me to say that, I don’t know why it’s so funny though.”, she shook her head, “ so much to learn about you two still.”. He thought for a moment “Well if you turn out anything like we are, you will have many years to find out.”.

“What do you mean, no not now, I have left those kids too long. Tell me later.”, and she nearly ran out. “You never know what they will get up to.”, she called back.

A few minutes later Minnie arrived, with her tool pouch and a tray to work on. She had also put on a pair of goggles, from Newton, that magnified things a little bit. Setting the tray on the chart table, laying a soft towel down she began to work on the watch. She carefully pryed the back off and marvelled at the tiny workings. “That's a lot of little bits and pieces dad, we’re gonna have to make a bunch of each, bigger if you want a big watch thing,what’s it called again?” “A clock, but a clock doesn’t really need a second hand, just the hour and minute ones.”, Will replied

Minnie thought for a while, put the back on again.“I don’t want to ruin this, let’s do it when we’re docked back at Laketown.If we get a bad wave here bits will go everywhere.”.

“Okay, but that’s on your to-do list now.”, he said, “Write it down.”. Minnie just gave him a look. “Yeah, I know.”.

Time passed, as it usually does, Alexander brought a tray of sandwiches to them, but he hovered at the door, nervous about coming in. “It’s all right lad, come on in, just don’t touch”, said Will. “Yeah, Al, we don’t bite…much,” added Minnie. As the young man entered Will could see how fascinated he was with all the controls, the wheel, throttle and so on. He handed Alexander a long cord, “Pull on that.”, as the boy did a long screech sounded from above term. Al jumped a bit, then laughed, “It’s louder here, when I hear it on shore it’s different.”.

“Minnie has been trying to play tunes on the whistle, it’s fun.” Just then there was a whistle from the galley voice tube. When Will answered he could hear Naomi…‘Is Alexander still up there?” He answered that he was, Naomi asked to send him back down please, lots to do in the galley. “Off you go, thanks for the food.”, said Will. Minnie waved and off Al went. Will was happy to see he was wearing a life belt still.

After a sandwich or two, or three they saw a smudge of land off of the bow. The ore shoals. Time to get busy.

The few miles left to go were covered fairly quickly and they were anchored a hundred yards off shore.Will would move the Rose closer tomorrow to facilitate loading.But this evening was to relax, mostly.Will still had some things to do.

He pulled out the folding boats, made sure the ore bags were in good shape, packed them and shovels and picks into the dory.Just to get things ready for the morning.Minnie helped him load the boats onto the cranes to lower them tomorrow.

As they were heading to the gangway to go to dinner a tremendous wave hit the Rose. The folding boats swung madly on the davits and nearly flung themeselves onto the deck. The anchors pulled loose from the lake bottom and the boat careened for shore. Will was tossed off his feet and smashed hard into the railing, head bouncing off of the hard wood. His vision was greyed out when a second impact struck him, something softer.

Minnie had crashed up against him and by instinct he held her in his arms until the rocking subsided. His vision came back quickly thanks to his high vitality.. “Are you okay Min, nothing broken?”. He felt her shake her head, “No dad, just shaken up. That was really scary, what was it?”. He managed to stand, one hand on the railing for balance he could feel the Rose rocking as the anchors bit and let go again, then let go for good.

.

Will and Minnie scrambled madly to the wheelhouse to get control.Luckily they hadn’t damped the boiler so they had motive power right away.Minnie spun the wheel to keep away from shore and flung the throttle to full.

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The stern of the Rose was nearly scuppered as she got her stride and started churning away. Will hit the bow running to get the anchors in quick as he could. He hauled them both up and tied them off to prevent damage. Looking out from the bow he could see what looked like a wake leading straight to shore, that had narrowly missed them. But considering they were the only boat on the lake and all he could see was wake…no watercraft at all, well that was odd.

And the sheer size of it, ten times the size of their own wake, leading away from it.

From below Will could hear panicked cries and screams. Now that the Rose wasn’t in danger of sinking he headed below, yelling over his shoulder “Keep us in one piece Min, straight ahead slow. Watch for that damn wake again.”.

He found chaos. In the mess the kids were all huddled on one side, tables and chairs in a broken mess on the other. A quick head count showed all present but three, Rose, Larry and Naomi. Hoping they were in the galley he checked, there they were. A tangle of arms and legs but alive. Naomi was trying to stand and hold the kids at the same time. Luckily there were no burns, the oven was unlit, and the lanterns were off too.

Going back into the mess he could see a few bumps and bruises but nothing that looked broken. “Guys, we are ok, not sinking. Minnie is driving so we are safe as can be.”, his words were calming the kids. “Come on deck and I’ll have a look at you.”. The teens started moving out to the corridor and up the stairs to the deck. Naomi and her helpers staggered out of the galley.

“Will, what happened, did we hit something? We got flung around badly.”, Naomi asked shakily. “Something zoomed by us and the wake nearly capsized us.”, answered Will, “come up on deck and give me a hand.”. She nodded and started helping the kids out and up to the deck.

When Will got up top he found kids sitting along the railing. The Rose was going smoothly under Minnie’s steady hand. He could see her waving at him and then the door opened and she yelled out “Is everyone okay?”. Will called back “shut us down and join us.”. She nodded and Will felt the engine shut down and the Rose was drifting.

As Minnie joined them she started looking at the kids, checking them out.Again Will could see nothing was broken, Naomi had their first aid kit open and was wiping and wrapping bruises and bumps.Min was telling the kids what had happened with much arm waving and woohooing and high pitched screaming.

The evening came and found the Rose in better spirits, bandaged up and a bit battered but ok, ship and crew.Will still had no idea what really happened.It was as if a huge ship had blasted by them.And that couldn’t happen.

The crew had rallied and were getting better after having the stuffing scared out of them.Dinner had been scraped together and they were eating on deck, the mess was a mess.Chairs and tables were broken, some shattered.Lanterns broken, luckily no fuel had spilled.

The galley was worse. Cupboards broken open, contents strewn everywhere. The oven, iced box, burner top were bolted in place as was the counters and work areas so they were safe and sound, supplies everywhere. The pantry was in surprisingly good shape. It was so packed there wasn’t room for things to shift.

The engine room was a mess but boiler and engine intact, thank goodness.Workshop, store room, cabins were all awry but nothing broken, just everywhere.The holds were just big empty spaces that were still big empty spaces.On deck was a bit different though, the folding boats were on their davits but the ore bags had dumped out and many had been lost..

The dory was safe and sound.Very good news considering the stern had nearly been underwater.Best news of all, Wills brick bbq was in good shape.They had nearly lost an anchor, the chain had separated when being jerked on the lake bottom and was just barely holding.Will secured that one with rope until he could change the chain links that were broken.For now one anchor would have to do.

Their evening meal was kind of what breakfast was going to be. Eggs, bacon and potatoes. Easy and filling, along with tea and juice. It certainly cheered everyone up. The crew were ok, used to things going off the rails but the teens had been shaken. A couple of days work on shore would help settle them.

They worked until dark setting things right. Cabins were back to normal, bunks made up again. The mess was set with benches now along the long wooden slab tables. Pictures rehung, most everything back to the way it was.

It was a weary Will and Minnie that entered their cabin.What wasn’t done tonight would be finished tomorrow.A quick wash up, night clothes on and off to sleep.

Except…

Menu

William Harris

Age 35 (stabilized)

Intelligence 24/50

Strength 41/50

Vitality 37/50

Stamina 37/50

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

Captain of the heartboat Rose

Navigation 3

Mechanic 3

Mason 1

Outdoor Chef

Arborist 1

Labourer 1

Minnie

Best dog of all

Age 5 (will be adjusted for racial type)

Intelligence 16/25

Strength 21/25

Vitality 20/25

Stamina 20/25

Affinities for fishing, swimming, husbandry, mariner

First Mate of the heartboat Rose

Piloting 3

Mechanic 2

Crab Catcher

Shrimper

Joker

Arborist

Labourer 1

Naomi 0’Malley

Age 16

Intelligence 22/50

Strength 22/50

Vitality 23/50

Stamina 24/50

Affinities for cooking, fishing, gardening, swimming, mariner

Second Mate of the heartboat Rose

Management 2

Cooking 3

Homemaker 2

Arborist 1

Labourer 1

Interlude….

“What was that just then?”, Captain Jensen asked his navigator. “I don’t know sir, it was on the radar for a second then gone.”, was the answer. The ships collision alarm had also gone off, for about a second as well.

Things like this didn’t happen on a ship this technologically superior. “Did the computer get a reading at all?”, the captain asked his tech officer this time. The man typed for a few minutes, frowning at his monitor. “Well?”, asked the captain impatiently.

“We did get something but it’s impossible, must be an unknown glitch.It shows a steamship of an unknown type, about 25 yards long, no transponder, no electronic signature at all”. Captain Jensen scanned the horizon with a pair of high powered binoculars….nothing.

“Get the IT tech on it, it might be lost code fragments, programmers Easter egg maybe”, he suggested.“Aye aye sir.”, the navigator replied and started dialling.