Juliet: A Seafaring Tale of the Early 1700's

Chapter Seven: Important Things to Consider

For a month and better, Juliet saw little of her guardian. He bunked in the doctor's cabin for several weeks until Dr. Marin pronounced his lungs clear. Once cleared by the doctor, Baronet Cooke removed himself to the fo'c'sle and slept with the men for a time.

He worked alongside the sailors, asking no preferential treatment as he learned the basics of sailing. Juliet noticed that although the men seemed rather standoffish of him at first, they overcame their own misgivings and accepted the earnest young nobleman as one of their own.

"What do you wish to do with your life, Maddy?" Juliet overheard the baronet ask one day as the pair scrubbed the deck together. From the quarterdeck, she listened in, curious of the conversation.

"Just this, I reckon," answered Maddy with some confusion. "I'm doin' it, ain't I?"

"No, I mean, is this what you dream of doing in your old age?" the baronet persisted. "Do you not dream of a home and a family one day?"

"Sailors dinna' have an 'old age'," Maddy returned shortly. "We mostly die young."

Sir Avery applied himself to scrubbing for a few moments before he spoke again. "So you intend to sail aboard this ship until you die?"

"Aye, I do; Cap'n Drake fetched me outta' a drain gutter when I was a bit o' a lad, an me w' no one else to look after me. He done raised me here. I got food, clothes an' a family. What else be lacking?"

"What about a wife?" The baronet's question brought no answer except a snort of a laugh from Maddy.

Juliet shook her head, grinning. If the baronet was hoping to convince any of these men that they'd all be better off on shore, he was wasting his breath. The salt sea was all most of them knew, all they cared to know. Many of them claimed the ship for a wife, sea as their mistress, wharf-side prostitutes for lovers.

Maddy's constant companion, Marduc joined the conversation, having come topside for some air and heard the last bit of conversation. "There be no wives fo' us, Baronet, save the sea. Some o' us was married once, still might be. Who knows? Me, I say the Sea Sprite be wench enough for any man to handle!"

"So you simply plan to sail until you die?" The baronet's voice was filled with disbelief.

"Aye, what else be there fo' the likes o' us? We got nothin', want nothin'. Sailin' w' Cap'n Jules be a good enough life, I reckon."

"What if she marries and stays ashore?" The question brought only gales of laughter. "She's a young, beautiful woman," persisted Sir Avery. "How can you find it so outlandish that she might fall in love and marry?"

"Marry, yes," allowed Marduc through his mirth. "But to a landlubber?" The idea brought only new laughter for the other sailors.

The baronet was still serious. "Surely she would not care to bear her children aboard ship? Or raise them apart from society?" But his protest fell on deaf ears where the sailors were concerned.

Far above the merry sailors, Juliet frowned in thought. She wondered what she herself wanted out of life. Was it to sail until she was dumped ceremoniously into the sea, wrapped in sailcloth with a cannonball at her feet?

She knew that marriage was only a matter of time, but Sir Avery's question nettled her. She pictured chasing toddlers around the ship, nursing them, weaning them- to what? Ship's food wasn't exactly suitable for growing children.

Would her daughters be able to settle down to married life, if raised aboard the Sea Sprite? How many of her children would she bury at sea- washed overboard during storms or killed by pirates, scurvy or other common shipboard diseases?