The Historically Unhistorical Work of Historical Fiction

Chapter 4-August 16th, 1495

August 16th, 1495

I had just finished my supply check for the week and was standing on the deck, thinking with the salty ocean breeze blowing though my short hair. Yesterday, the captain had introduced me to the navigator, a short, wide man who went by the name of Greggs. His appearance came off as suspicious, and he had a missing leg along with an eye-patch over his left eye. Greggs was very skilled at reading maps, although his old age took away some of his edge. He told me yesterday that we were sailing west and were on course.

The captain had also introduced me to our boatswain, the guy in charge of the crew. His name was Peter Sherwinson and was about 20 years old, which would make him 5 years older than I was. Peter was a happy guy, always going about things with a smile on his face. He was also very persuasive, with a smooth talking voice; he could get you to agree with almost anything. Even now, I could hear him talking with one of the crew members somewhere behind me.

A few hours later, after helping on deck, I noticed that there wasn’t any more wind blowing. I looked up at the sails and they were almost still. Other people seemed to notice it and I saw the helmsman go over to the captain’s cabin. Striker disappeared inside and Peter ended up standing next to me to look up at the sails. Peter bumped into me and I fell down hard onto my butt. I groaned in pain and stood back up while Peter hadn’t even noticed my fall. I sighed out of irritation, I was used to people saying sorry when accidents happen so when Peter didn’t even turn around, I had to reason with myself that he was an adult and maybe hadn’t known that I’d fallen.

Captain Nyle exited his cabin with Striker following close behind. Every crew members’ eyes were on the both of them. Striker looked nervous under the observance of so many people, but the captain walked towards where I was standing with pride. The captain stopped in front of people and I heard the conversation that went on between them.

“As you can see, we have a little dilemma.” Captain Nyle whispered in Peter’s ear.

Peter nodded and replied, “What do you want me to do about it?”

“I’ve heard about your smooth-talking voice from all around. That’s the main reason I wanted you on our ship.” The captain laid a hand on Peter’s shoulder, “I know that you are the only one who could persuade these sailors to tow the boat along. We can’t just wait until the wind picks up.”

Peter scratched the stubble on his chin and thought about it for a while before saying, “Alright, I’ll do it.”

The captain and Peter broke away from their huddled discussion and Peter got to work immediately. I saw him weaving in and out of the crowd of crew members, whispering things into ears and building up a line of people. Not even 10 minutes had passed before he returned to the captain with fifteen volunteers to tow the ship along. You could see how impressed the captain was by Peter’s swiftness in work.

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 It turned out to be hopeless. Five hours of rowing and the wind still hadn’t picked up. The crew members who had volunteered came back on board looking defeated. Everyone was downhearted and even the captain had lost his usual smile. I had to do another supply check because we didn’t know how long we would be stuck out here. Everything was good and when I came out of the supply room, the sky was cloudy. I hoped that meant there was more wind coming, but I was in for something different.