A Captain Sinks With The Ship

Chapter One: Set Sail

"Are you really going to spend your life floating in a sinking boat on an ocean on a world you believe is flat, while the sun revolves around you?"

I know what she had meant, of course. But gazing up at the looming hunk of metal towering above me, I suddenly felt like a coward. With knees slightly shaking, I approach the ship. My breath catches in my throat as the ship rocks slightly. A woman, the captain I presume, steps away from the stairs leading up to the ship and approaches me. I steel my nerves and stand a little straighter as she reaches out a hand. I grasp it firmly, reminding myself that she is one like me who chose to jump out of our metaphorical sinking boats.
"Memo? Memo Dozzier?" she asks, shaking hands.
I cringe a little. Of course she would know to call me 'Memo' instead of my full name. She did go to school with my aunt.
"I'm Captain Sybil Gyfford. It's a pleasure to have you aboard, and at such a young age." She smiled. It was true. I had attended the most prestigious schools I could and gotten the best grades, just to prepare for this very moment.
The smoke from the ship's engines filled the air and passengers and crew members alike scurried about, some with handkerchiefs across their noses. I took a breath of the thick, smoky air. Captain Gyfford wasn't dressed like the other women on board, who I bet would never dare to be seen in trousers. She stood proudly beside me on the deck, watching the ship like a protective lioness. The Captain was already a startling person, different from the other women, even without being dressed like any other crew member. She was far taller than me and I couldn't help notice that she even stood like a boy, feet slightly apart, shoulders squared. I could see how she and my aunt were friends.
"Come along, Memo. We set sail soon and there is much to be done on the sea!"
She nimbly navigated through the throngs of people, the black hair under her blue cap standing out against pale straw bonnets. I followed after her, clumsy from too much book work and not enough rough housing and unsteady on my land legs.
The ship was like a complicated ecosystem and right now I felt lower than a worm despite my earlier bravado. My downfall would forever be my over zealous attitude.
Captain Gyfford strode easily across the ship, commanding the crewmen and wishing a good voyage to the passengers. She's every where at once; the sign of a good captain. I could already tell I would learn a lot working aboard the Sunsette.
The Captain showed me around every inch of her ship. Into each nook, cranny, and secret path. It was one of the newer, steam powered ships, spitting out dark clouds of smoke into the air. I couldn't help but wonder how that would effect my lungs. But the large interior of the ship was quite beautiful to me, not even in the passenger's luxury quarters. The shining metal and gleaming wrought iron catwalks were like the pen to the poet. Already, I felt at home on the sea although I had never once boarded a boat in my life. But, as we walked along the deck again, every creak and pull of the ship's sails resonated throughout my body.
Once we stood on the deck again, swaying slightly with the motion of the ship, Captain Gyfford took a deep breath.
"Smell that salty air!"
I mimicked her stance, breathing in a mix of sea water and ash. I coughed and she slapped me on the back.
"Melchior!" She bellowed so loud my ears rang.
A boy suspended from the rigging of the ship deftly swung around, shifting his weight from rope to rope. His hair was dark and curly, his brown skin tanned from the sun. He slid down one using his left hand and I cringed, figuring it must have hurt. When he finally landed on the deck, he bowed to the Captain and tipped his hat to me.
"Melchior Reinhold Spence, at your disposal captain," he said.
"Show Memo here to the sleeping quarters."
"Aye, Ma'am." He bowed once more and motioned for me to follow.

"How did you swing through the rigging like that?" I asked, struggling to keep up. Did everyone on this ship's crew walk fast?
Melchior held up his hands which were covered in the chick leather gloves. "These grip the ropes. My Pa calls it friction. All I know is that I don't slip."
"Is your father a scientist?" I peered down at his expensive looking and hand stitched gloves.
"Aye. He works on land."
In the crew's quarters it was dark but lived in. Like the homes of a dozens people merged as one. Melchior wove between hammocks and cots and trunks and people with as much ease as he had done in the ship's rigging.
"This is my corner and it seems like your trunks were brought aboard earlier." He jerked his chin at an empty cot where my trunks sat. "Everything okay, Memo?"
"Yes, thank you." I unpacked some if my things: a jar of marbles, a fountain pen, and a pad of paper.
"Aye." Melchior hopped into his hammock, it rocked unsteadily but he didn't flinch. "We've got time before supper so take a moment to get settled."
"Sure thing."
I set a picture of my aunt and little sister beside my cot and looked out a porthole, peering out just above the sea. The ocean spray pattered lightly against the thick pane of glass. Sunset glinted off the surface of the sea like spilled tea from a yellow tea cup. It seemed all too soon when Melchior rose from his hammock and stretched, rocking back on the balls of his feet.
"Let's get on now. I'll show you the way." He grabbed his cap and on their way out of the emptying quarters, grabbed another cap and tossed it to me. I fumbled to catch it before eventually pulling it on my head. I felt like a real crew member and not just some book worm with connections to the captain.