Ocean Express
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Aboard the Ocean Express, a fine-looking brig of twenty-four guns and one hundred and sixty men, the crew had been treated with every courtesy. The captain was a man of some experience; he was neither overbearing nor obsequious and seemed to understand that the men were tired after their long voyage, and needed rest before they could be expected to perform at their best.
They were well fed, and the ship’s cook had provided a number of special dishes for the benefit of the passengers.
The captain also made sure that the ladies at the party were comfortable and happy. It was no secret that there was a very handsome young lady aboard, who would be much admired by all the young men on board.
She was treated with the utmost respect and deference by the officers, and in return, she showed them her good humor and charming manners. The other ladies of the party were not neglected either; each was given an ample berth to herself, and the officers were pleased to see that they had brought along their own maids so that they might be attended to properly.
The officers and gentlemen of the Ocean Express were also treated with great courtesy by the captain. He took great pains to make sure that they were well supplied with rum and wine, and that they were not asked to do anything too strenuous.
Even the officers of the Royal Navy, who were supposed to be hardy sailors, found it difficult to keep up with the demands of the men of the Ocean Express.
In return for this treatment, the officers and gentlemen of the Ocean Express were grateful to Captain Sturt. His company was worth many times the money paid to him, and they were all determined to pay their share.
For the first few days, the party was treated as a kind of social club, and Captain Sturt enjoyed the attention of his new friends. There were those who were concerned about the recent events, but they were wise enough to keep quiet about it. No one wanted to be accused of spreading gossip, or of making trouble for the captain.
It was only when the captain began to ask for volunteers that there was any trouble at all. It was not that he was asking for volunteers from among the crew, but rather from among the passengers. He wanted men to come forward and offer themselves as volunteer soldiers in the colony’s army, or even as sailors on the new ships that were being built.
There was a murmur of unease amongst the passengers. Many of them were not wealthy, and the idea of becoming a soldier in a new country did not appeal to them. They would much rather be able to earn money here and then return home.
But the captain had not been satisfied with their reluctance to offer themselves as volunteers. He was a man of strong character, and he insisted that they should not only volunteer, but also swear an oath of allegiance to the King, and take the King’s shilling.
“If you are not willing to swear an oath to the King, you will not be allowed to leave this ship,” he told them. “And if you refuse to pay the shilling, I shall be forced to arrest you. You must understand that it is your duty to the King to pay the shilling.”
It was the talk of the ship for a week. The captain had gone too far, and his behavior was becoming increasingly erratic. It was obvious that he was looking for trouble, and that he was spoiling for a fight.
There was another matter that was worrying the passengers. A few days before, Captain Sturt had ordered the cook to prepare a special dish for the ladies of the party. It was a kind of soup, which was made from a large quantity of fresh lobster. They were all pleased with it, but there was one lady who ate so much of it that she became sick.
Captain Sturt’s first reaction was to blame the cook, but when he was told that the soup had been prepared by the cook’s wife and that the cook himself had eaten some of it, he changed his mind.
“I suppose the cook was to blame,” he said. “The ladies of the party should have known better than to eat such a large quantity of lobster. I am sure that they are used to eating beef or mutton, and not to lobster.”
He was more concerned about the effect that this incident would have on the reputation of his ship. The Ocean Express was a fine ship, and he was determined to keep it that way. He ordered the cook to be punished, and the captain’s wife to be sent back to England.
But the worst was yet to come. When the cook’s wife arrived in England, she was arrested on suspicion of poisoning the soup. She was put in prison, and her trial was held in public. It was a scandal, and the newspapers were full of stories about the case.
The captain had been right to suspect the cook’s wife. He had seen what she had done to the soup, and he had warned the passengers about it. But he had been wrong to blame the cook. And now he was being blamed for his wife’s actions.
It was then that the passengers began to worry. What if the cook was accused of poisoning the soup? Would he be sent to prison, too? Or would he be forced to pay a large fine, and lose his job?
The passengers were right to worry. The cook was not only accused of poisoning the soup but also of stealing a large sum of money from the captain’s safe. There was no proof that he had stolen the money, but the captain had given him a key to the safe, and there was no doubt that the money had gone missing.
The cook was forced to defend himself against these charges. He denied that he had taken the money, and claimed that he had never even been near the safe. He told the court that he was innocent and that the captain was a bad man who was trying to ruin his life.
It was true that the cook had not been as careful as he should have been about the safe. The captain had been careless, too, and had left the key to the safe in the cook’s possession.
But the cook was a good man, and the captain was a bad one. He had allowed his wife to poison the soup, and he had stolen the money.
The cook was found guilty and sentenced to death. It was an easy decision for the judge. There was no doubt that the cook was guilty, and that he was responsible for the deaths of two passengers.
The cook was put to death in the morning. His wife was released from prison, and the captain was forced to resign from his command of the Ocean Express.
The passengers were not pleased with the outcome. They had expected the captain to be punished, but they had not expected him to be convicted of murder. They believed that he had been framed by the cook.
But the court was not interested in their opinion. The captain was guilty, and the cook was innocent.
The Ocean Express was sold at auction, and Captain Sturt was forced to leave the navy.
He was a good seaman, and he was a good captain. He had never been involved in any mutiny or scandal, and he had always kept his ship in excellent condition. He deserved better than this.
As for the cook, he was acquitted of all charges. The judge found that he had acted in self-defense, and that he had not taken the money from the safe. The court did not believe that he had poisoned the soup, either.
But the cook’s reputation was ruined. No one would employ him as a cook, and he was forced to become a sailor.
And so the Ocean Express became a ghost ship.
***
“What’s your name?” asked the first mate.
“Pip,” said Pip.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Pip.”
“That’s a good name. What do you want to be when you grow up?”
“I want to be a sailor.”
“Me too,” said the first mate. “That’s what I always wanted to be when I was a kid.”
“Where are you from?”
“I’m from a place called Liverpool. It’s on the coast of England.”
“Are there any other kids where you live?”
“No, I’m the only kid in my family.”
“My mum and dad have eight kids. There’s me, there’s my brother, then there are my sisters, and then there’s my two brothers and my sister. I’m the youngest.”
“How many people are in your family?”
“Eight.”
“My dad is from Scotland.”
“So am I.”
“Do you speak Gaelic?”
“Sometimes.”
“What’s it like growing up in a big family?”
“It’s hard work sometimes, but mostly it’s great fun.”
“Did you ever get into trouble when you were younger?”
“Yes. When I was seven I broke my older brother’s arm.”
“Was that a good thing?”
“No. It wasn’t.”
They were sitting on the deck, in the shade of the tarpaulin. The day had just passed by without them noticing. It was hot and sunny. The ship was sailing south, away from the land, towards Australia.
“Tell me more about your home,” suggested the first mate.
Pip started telling him about his hometown: about the harbor and the docks; about the shops and the church, which was in the center of town, and where the school was. He told the story of how they had come to live in Liverpool after his parents divorced.
There was plenty of time for conversation as the ship sailed south because there was nothing to do. The captain had gone ashore again, to sell some cargo, and nobody knew when he would return. The crew spent most of their time lounging around in the sun, eating snacks, and drinking coffee.
They read the newspapers, and they played games and cards. Occasionally, one of them would go below for a swim in the water that slopped between the hulls. But none of them took much notice of the ship itself. They were content to sit and watch the ocean as it rolled by outside.
It was Pip’s first time on a ship. He liked the idea of being at sea, and the idea of traveling to a new country. He liked the sound of his father’s stories of sailing in the South Seas, although he didn’t understand what it meant to sail across an ocean.
Now that the ship was moving faster than a walk, Pip began to feel nervous and frightened. The Ocean Express was moving quickly through the water. Every now and then, she would rise up high above the surface, and her bow would cut through the waves as though they weren’t there.
Then suddenly the ship would plunge down beneath the waves, plunging Pip and the others underwater as well. At night, as they slept, the ship would rock as though it was falling over and over again, but no matter how scared he felt, Pip was comforted by his father’s voice telling him that these things happen every now and then on a ship.
And even if the ship were to fall apart and sink, it wouldn’t take long to find another one, because there were so many ships out here in the middle of nowhere.
Pip had seen the sea before, of course. His father had brought him with him on the fishing boats. It seemed incredible to Pip that the ocean could contain such a vast amount of water. He couldn’t imagine anything bigger than it, anywhere else in the world.
He imagined that it was filled with giant fish and sharks, whales that were larger than a house. As soon as he saw this enormous expanse of water before him, he felt afraid, because he couldn’t believe that the Ocean Express could ever make it all the way down to Australia without running aground somewhere along the way.
And then there was the fact that he had never been further away from home than his grandmother’s farm in Ireland.
The crew spent their time playing cards or dice games with each other, but Pip was too shy to join in. Sometimes the sailors would try and talk to him, asking questions about his family and where he was going. But they always asked him to leave his father’s name out of it.
The crew members spoke to him politely, but they still treated Pip like a boy who might run off with the ship’s stores at any minute.
He was glad when the captain finally returned. When he did, he brought them all back to life. The sun was setting, and he was happy to be on deck again. Pip looked forward to seeing the sunset. Even though he had seen plenty of sunsets already, he was still awestruck by what nature was capable of producing.
There was something wonderful about a red ball dropping down behind the horizon. Something magical. Something mysterious. For all these years, Pip’s life had revolved around the small, dark room that contained his bed. It was only when he came up on deck that he was reminded of what it was to have the sky above his head.
His father had explained to him that the best place to see the sunset was on top of a tall mountain. That was why he had been so keen for the crew to reach New Zealand – a place he remembered visiting as a child himself. Pip had also been hoping to visit there, although he wasn’t sure exactly how far north it was.
All he knew was that it was on the other side of the world, somewhere past the North Pole. He imagined it to be a very cold, icy place. The kind of place that would keep you awake at night with ice-cold shivers that ran up and down your body.
As he waited for the sun to finish its journey, Pip noticed how the colors in the sky changed, slowly changing from bright blue to black. The orange color that had lit up the western skies earlier faded as the sun slipped below the horizon. In a few minutes time, it would disappear entirely. And then, as if the world were holding its breath, the sky turned dark.
The stars appeared, twinkling in the darkness as though they were trying to tell him something. Pip looked up at the stars, thinking about what his father had told him about them: that some of them traveled so far across the universe that they would be visible in the sky for thousands and thousands of years.
A star would appear and then wink out again, taking years of travel behind it. It seemed impossible. But then he thought about how long ago it must have been since his father left Ireland for his voyage to the Southern Islands; how long it had taken the Sun Princess to get across half the globe to here. And yet, here he was, still alive and well.
How much time did one star really need to shine?
After watching the last of the light fade away from the western horizon, Pip went back below deck. He was exhausted after a day at sea and fell asleep immediately.
The End