Limitless Seas, Chapter 24.

Chapter 24.

“What is going on with my ship!” Larson shouted as he boarded.

“Oh, hi Cap’in Larson, we’s renvating the ship to makeses it bettah,” Bartholomew said.

“Yes, I found something interesting captain, let me show you,” Bug said, waiving him over to where the ogre was currently pulling up part of the deck on the bow.

“Look here, the current deck is built up over an older, and much better constructed one. Based on the design I would say that our ship originally started life as an Imperium war galley. Sometime afterword it was modified and built up to add a third deck. From the original design we would have only a single lower deck and a small ballast area beneath it,” Bug said, pointing out the evidence to support his theory.

“Interesting, but what does that have to do with you tearing apart my ship?” Larson asked, still not happy with the level of destruction he was seeing.

“Let me ask you this, Captain, what do you envision our ship’s primary mission will be, given the task we have been assigned and the reward that has been offered?” Bug asked. It was a good question, it looked like they were more on the path of becoming privateers and hauling cargo would be secondary if done at all.

“We’ll be privateers,” Larson replied.

“Exactly, and what type of ship would like to be at the helm of if you need to pursue or engage another vessel in combat? Would you prefer to be at the helm of the current Gull Dropping, or at the helm of a faster, purpose-built warship?” Bug asked.

“A warship, of course. Do you really think there’s a warship underneath here, and if there is, can you revert the ship back to its original state?” Larson asked, excited over the possibilities.

“Yes, to both questions. The ‘upgrade’ to the ship that allowed it to move more cargo was sloppily done, but the bones of the war galley beneath are solid. I intend to strip down the new work and restore the ship to its original purpose. With all the extraneous material removed, we should gain a couple of knots of speed whether we are using the oars or the sail,” Bug replied.

“Do you have time? We need to sail in a few days if we are to make the rendezvous with the pirates,” Larson asked.

“It will be tight, and I’ll need most of the crew to assist me, but it isn’t very difficult work. I’ll be making a few modifications in order to improve upon the original design, and there are some things I would like to implement we’ll have to skip for the time being. Once we have more time and access to a dry dock, we can make our ship even better, but for now, I’ll concentrate on returning it to its original state,” Bug said.

“What other modifications are you thinking of?” Larson asked, excited about what his ship could become.

“Why, the entire rudder assembly needs a complete redesign. For now, I’ll just replace the rudder pin with a new one, that’s cheap enough a repair and we can do it without a drydock. The ship originally had a ram attached, but that was removed during the redesign, so I’d like to add it back. We have a dozen banks of oars on each side, but the ship originally had fourteen, which would help with ramming and overall speed in combat,” Bug advised. Larson wanted all the extra’s that Bug Bartholomew had suggested but would have to wait until he had more coin to play with. For now, he gave Bug half of the coin he had left, allowing the engineer to do what he needed to do with the Gull Dropping.

“Get with Tarley and Nogreb, have them send over any free hands they can spare. We should have some more crew aboard today once Tarley works his magic with recruiting. Shada’s gathering our provisions and once she’s done, her group can help as well,” Larson ordered. Bug Bartholomew waved him off, going back to work and arguing with himself over what to do first.

For the first time in a while, Larson didn’t have anything urgent to do. He jumped right into helping the ogre with the renovation of the Gull Dropping. Larson wanted to start drilling more with the crew, but he would get better results once they were at sea and had real sailing tasks to perform. For now, he would keep them working hard at getting the ship in order.

Being the best suited for the task, Larson volunteered to go over the side to replace the rudder post. It took several hours as the old one was warped and didn’t want to leave the housing. He eventually had to drill through and attach a line to the old post, having the ogre pull it out of the housing using his prodigious strength. Thankfully, the housing survived the stress placed on it and the new post went in smoothly, attaching to the old rudder without any further problems.

After he dried off, Larson helped with tearing up the new decking to expose the warship underneath. The sailor, Gilroy, even pitched in, returning early from gathering provisions at Lord Mox’s estate. Gilroy informed Larson that the others were still gathering supplies and might be there for a while. He brought back with him the small cart full of provision for their evening meal. While he worked on the meal, Gilroy would spend any free time he had removing nails, screws, and wood pins that could be salvaged for later use as he stirred the pot of stew that was now simmering away.

Larson made a note to keep watch on his bowl tonight for any stray bits of metal or wood that may have found their way into the meal. By late afternoon, Shada arrived with a trio of wagons that were laden with the food and supplies that had been provided by Lord Mox. Larson took a break from pulling up deck planking to see what his ship’s surgeon had scrounged up.

“How’d things go, Shada?” Larson asked.

“Well enough, I don’t think they were expecting the number of crew we had to supply,” Shada told him.

“What do you mean? We’re down to seventeen of us,” Larson asked.

“Sure, that’s how many we have right now, but Lord Mox didn’t know that. I told him our ships complement was fifty sailors, ten marines, and six officers. Oh, I also let him know one of our crew was an ogre that ate as much as ten humans,” Shada said with a sly smile on her face.

“Well done, what was his reaction?” Larson asked.

“Lord Mox wasn’t there, of course, he had some jumped up servant that controlled the estate dealing with us. The little man protested before finally emptying out their larders and lending us the wagons. I’ll go back tomorrow to gather the rest,” Shada said.

“Good work, I’ll need you to keep everything parked near the ship, at least until we finish tearing things down,” Larson said. He spent time explaining to her what Bug Bartholomew had found, and what they were doing to improve the ship. It would be some time before the deck was rebuilt and the storage area was ready for the provisions.

“Hey, you lot can’t leave that here, there’s no storage of cargo on the docks. This area is for loading and unloading, not storing,” A pair of town guard ordered, pointing toward the wagons, which were obviously not getting unloaded anytime soon.

“No! You not messes with my food!” Bartholomew shouted, pounding his way across the ship, causing Larson to worry he would crash through to the deck below.

“Stay back,” the guard said, his hand on his sword.

“Woah, everyone hold on here. Stand down Bartholomew, Bug, get your brother under control. Now, as for you, this is just a temporary situation until tomorrow, surely, we can make an exception and keep the angry ogre happy, can’t we?” Larson asked. Normally he was used to his own appearance intimidating others, but this time the guards were totally focused on the ogre.

“I, I don’t know, we have rules,” the guard stammered.

“Why don’t I go ahead and pay the storage fee now, I trust you lads will keep an eye on our belongings tonight and make sure nothing happens to them?” Larson offered, pulling a handful of copper from his storage, and handing them to the guards.

“Well, I suppose we can make an exception. This is only for one night, though, if that stuff is still here tomorrow evening, I won’t have any choice but to haul it off,” the guard said.

“Agreed, thank you for your efforts, gentlemen,” Larson said, glad to have cheaply smoothed over the situation. Shada’s group got to work helping with the Gull Dropping’s rebuild. Larson was strong, easily able to pry up a deck plank without any tools. He was feeling impressed with himself until he spotted the ogre pulling up three or four at a time with each hand. When it was time for chow, the entire ship had been stripped down, the ogre promising they would be able to rebuild what was needed the next day.

Just before they ate their meal, a hearty pork stew with various root vegetables and fresh baked bread, Tarley and Creech arrived with the new recruits. Larson was a bit disappointed to see only six new recruits had been found, what he thought was a poor result for the pair recruiting all day. To his credit, the four humans and two orcs he had recruited all seemed to know what they were doing when Larson put them through their paces. He was also glad they all understood what the goal was and that the Gull Droppingwould become a privateer.

Tarley said that the need to find sailors that weren’t afraid to get stuck into a fight was hampering his efforts. Most of the available crew in port were purely looking for a berth on a cargo or fishing vessel of some sort. Tarley would try again tomorrow, this time looking into the seedier bars and taverns. The rougher clientele just might be a better fit for what they wanted to accomplish but would require more vetting.

The meal was excellent and most of the sailors opted for a second bowl, Gilroy complained that he would need a bigger pot, a purchase that Larson quickly approved. Bug Bartholomew ate several platters of food and even talked the cook into letting him lick the pot clean. Larson made sure that Gilroy knew that he expected the pot to be thoroughly cleaned after each meal, he didn’t want ogre spit seasoning their food.

Like before, Larson slept only for a moment, this time on the deck as his cabin was also torn apart in the demolition. He spent the remainder of the night on watch, allowing at least a few of the crew some extra sleep, and using the time to get to know the other sailors on watch with him. They all seemed eager enough, and despite the bustling nature of the port, finding good work on a ship wasn’t always easy. Crews on the better ships were reluctant to leave and new openings were usually filled by someone referred by another crewman.

Once morning arrived, Larson sent Shada out to gather the rest of their supplies while most of the crew began reconstruction of the Gull Dropping. Tarley and Creech took Ibn and a pair of his marines to recruit more crew. The other pair of marines accompanied Shada. Bug Bartholomew, Larson, Nogreb and all but four of the crew that accompanied Shada got to work right after a quick breakfast of pastries and fruit from their new supply of food.

Work went quickly since most of the framing was already in place and they had to do only minor modifications. The ogre saw to it that the passages and ladders for the ship were all improved, allowing larger creatures like himself enough room to move, which also made it easier for Larson to use the stairs. With there only being a single deck below the main one, headroom and cargo space there were increased. His ship’s officers had small cabins in the bow, some below decks while Bug and Ibn were in the forecastle. Sailors and marines had hammocks struck throughout the main galley above the rowing benches. The aft section held the ship’s stores and a small area for cargo.

On the main deck, the raised forecastle where Bug and Ibn’s cabins were, also housed their armory. With more crew coming aboard, Larson would likely have to use up the last of his dwindling coin reserves to make sure the crew had decent armaments. They had gathered some from their raid on the Shining Tower warehouse, but the quality of the weapons the thugs had used was poor and not anywhere near as good as the items he had taken from the shipwreck.

Above the forecastle was a raised fighting deck, with enough room for a siege engine and several archers. The raised quarterdeck still held Larson’s cabin, now much expanded. He didn’t need the room so Larson had the ogre separate it into two compartments, the empty one could be used for more cargo space or perhaps as separate marine quarters when they had more crew. Above the quarterdeck was the ships wheel and more space for ranged combatants. Larson thought the deck area looked a bit too open, so he had the crew fashion crenelations along the railings to provide cover from return fire. They had more than enough lumber for this after tearing apart the ship the day before.

At midday, the new mast and rigging arrived. Bug Bartholomew took charge of getting the mast installed, a task requiring every hand still aboard. Once the mast was set and secured, they installed the rigging and sail. Nogreb had found a deal on the new sail, it had been ordered by another ship that never returned to pick it up. That seemed to be a real risk for the businesses in a port town like Rockwell Wharf, with ships coming and going, some went missing or never returned to port for one reason or another. Instead of a normal white or off-white color, the new sail for his ship was a dark green. Larson found he rather liked the look and was glad to see his order included plenty of spare sailcloth to effect repairs or replace the sail if damaged.

The ogre set about adding much more robust bracing to the mainmast than the ship had used prior. This would help them keep at least some sail up in foul weather without the risk of the mainmast breaking. As the crew completed the rigging, Bug Bartholomew had a small crow’s nest constructed near the top of the mast. They would now have a better view of the sea around them, hopefully spotting threats, or targets, before they themselves were spotted. New oars arrived that Nogreb had negotiated into the mast deal. They were used, but in much better shape than the ones they currently had, the old oars would be kept as replacements. It wasn’t uncommon to lose some when maneuvering closely with an enemy.

From the old mainmast, Larson had a smaller bowsprit made. It gave a bit more sail and would help the ship’s top speed and reduce their dependence on rowing, which was good thing considering the current lack of crew. It was late afternoon by the time Shada returned; the wagons refilled with victuals for our voyage. With the buildout mostly complete, she had the crew begin transferring the supplies onto the ship, much to the relief of the port guards that were getting nervous over having to confront the ogre again over cluttering up the dock.

With most of the reconstruction complete, and the remaining work well in hand, Bug Bartholomew left for a bit to meet with the smith, Felicia, about some components for a siege engine. We had plenty of lumber and tools, he claimed he was only missing a few steel parts to build us a complete scorpion that he would mount on a swivel at the bow of the ship. Shada, oddly enough, decided to accompany him, adding that she had a few ideas that might improve the ogre’s final design.

As the exhausted crew ate their evening meal, Tarley retuned with a new batch of crew. This batch was a bit different from the others that they had recruited and consisted of a group of eight halflings. His first mate motioned Larson over to meet the potential new crewmembers.

“Captain, sir, these lads wish to sign on with the Gull Dropping. They’re off a ship called the Dunwallow that was attacked by pirates earlier this month. Casualties were high and the damage to their vessel left the captain no choice but to sell their ship for scrap,” Tarley explained.

“Gentlemen, I’m sure Tarley already told you about our plans. We expect to see action against pirates once we sail. In addition, we’ll soon earn our letter of marque and become privateers for the Free Isles. Are you all fine with this?” Larson asked, wanting to make sure they knew what they were signing on for.

“Aye, sir, you give us a crack at some pirates, and we’ll serve you well. I can speak for the lot of us when I say we want some payback. We’ll work and fight hard, sir, don’t you worry,” the halfling, who was named Jacil, had a look of determination on his face, one mirrored by the other diminutive sailors.

“Welcome aboard, get yourselves some chow and find a spot to hang your hammock. Tarley will see that you’re placed on the watch roster,” Larson said, happy to have more hands aboard. Time was running out and tomorrow was the last day he could spare to spend in port before they needed to set sail.