City of Sinister Angles

The Custom Of The Sea

"See that whiteness over the horizon?" asked Captain Langschwert "We're coming upon the White Cape."

He carefully collapsed his expensive spyglass.

"Begging your pardon, Captain," said Chauncy, the first mate "But I think you'll find those are clouds."

"Nonsense," said Captain Langschwert "That's the whiteness of the White Cape. Steady on, Mr. Chauncy. We maintain course and we'll be sipping mint flavored cocktails in Zerzura by morning. What do they call those mint cocktails Mr. Chauncy?"

"I'm not certain the ones you mean, Captain," said Chauncy "I would still reccomend you take another look at those clouds."

"My spyglass is collapsed, Mr. Chauncy," said the Captain "If I took a second look I would appear weak in front of my men. Those motherless dogs don't trust me yet, Mr. Chauncy, they act I don't know what I'm doing."

The crew did, in fact, think that Captain Langschwert didn't know what he was doing. This was owing to the fact that he didn't. Peyton Langschwert had never so much as set foot in a large creek prior to his mother purchasing The Silver Tongued Maid and appointing him captain. This information didn't become known until long after the three year voyage was underway and it had a deleterious effect on morale.

Gradually, the grumblings became so loud that they even penetrated Langschwert's bubble of obliviousness, and he was keen to prove himself. This rendered him completely immune to good advice.

Every sign began to point to The Silver Tongued Maid having entered shallow waters, but Captain Langshwert stalwartly ignored them all and thereby maintained his sense of dignity in front of his men.

Chauncy finally cracked when the navigator reported that depth soundings indicated that the water was less than 20 fathoms deep.

"Captain," he said "The navigator reports that we've entered dangerously shallow waters. The, uh, men are clearly in over there heads here, it's time you take control and, uh, lead us out of these shallows."

"You know something, Mr. Chauncy?" said the Captain "You're right. This is my golden opportunity."

Captain Langschwert started yelling confusing orders, but it was too late and the Silver Tongued Maid ran aground.

* * *

The Silver Tongued Maid was still 50 leagues or so from the shore, half sunk at the bottom of the relatively shallow waters.

"We could jettison some of the cargo," suggested Chauncy, while all around him men bailed water "If we lighten our load we might be able to refloat the ship."

"Suggest that again, Mr. Chauncy, " said the Captain "And I'll shoot you myself for mutiny."

"The ship will start breaking apart before long, Captain," Chauncy explained "When that happens we lose the cargo no matter what we do. We don't even have enough life boats for the entire crew. If we can't refloat the Maid we're all dead men."

"We must begin construction of a raft," said the Captain.

"That might actually work," said Chauncy "We could load the remaining men on it and tug it to the shore with the ship's boats."

"The raft isn't for those useless bilge rats, who wrecked my lovely ship, it's for the cargo," said the Captain "Mark my words, Mr. Chauncy, I swear to all the pagan gods of the sea that I will no lose a single barrel of this ship's cargo, if I have to sacrifice every sailor under my command to do it!"

After some shouting the men went to work on the raft. They tore down masts, cut rigging, used anything that could float or be tied. The raft was a vile thing, hastily lashed together from the dismembered corpse of The Silver Tongued Maid. The beautiful ship had to die to birth to this rough beast, half-submerged in water..