Long Island

Chapter 31: Captain

But Raka didn't care about that. Honestly, he would have been just as glad, if they didn't give him a house at all. Cause what he was truly interested in were the ships. The shipwrights built the fishing ships according to a standard model it seemed. They did change it according to people's requests but the major part of the ship/boat, that is the hull, was the same.

Raka couldn't have that. He wanted a larger one for himself. And most importantly he wanted a ship to sail the seas. Fishing boats are ocean going vessels. But by its nature, they are not designed for long journeys. For example, their cargo area is smaller so they cannot store much supplies for these journeys. Also it is not covered to protect from rain. Most of their work is catching fish and bringing them home after all. Their operating range does not need to be too big.

Raka decided to request his ship to be built different from the others. But how could life be so simple as that.

'Oh no! It's Salmon! Have all the shipwrights in the capital died and made Salmon their chief or something!' Raka sighed.

"Salmon, long time no see. How have you been?" Raka cheerfully approached.

"Hmmm...who are you?" Salmon asked.

"Ah you kidder...aren't I the one who worked for you before?" Raka said.

"Oh..so you're the pipsqueak who left my employ for bountiful pastures, or what did you call it, better work conditions?" Salmon quipped.

"Well, that was the past and this is the future you know. Anyways you are building ships right? I am willing to help for free, so please build my ship a little different. Please." Raka said.

"Oh...and why do I want a useless person like you working for me, even for free! Hmph! Why don't ya build your own ship, will ya...Now don't bother me. I am overworked as it is."

'Typical Salmon! Oh well, I have other measures too.'

But these measures would have to wait for a bit. Everyone was just too busy. The shipwrights were even more busy. A house could be built in 2-3 days but building ships required people with skill. Just 10 shipwrights could only manage to build a small boat in that time and a fishing ship required almost a week. The villagers were skillful, but they were also few. Most of the guards who came were like unskilled labourers. The could work well under direction and they were strong but building ships was out of their league.

Raka observed the buildings being put up and gave some opinions here and there but most of villagers were too capable. With just the design, they could understand a lot. So he mostly watched the shipwrights work. Even looking is learning as they say.

The work went on for a long time. Almost a week passed in real life, three weeks in game. For Raka, it felt that everything was done too fast. All the houses were ready and people started to move in them. Like it was ordained that it would finish this day, merchants arrived selling all sorts of stuff. In short, the people settled in their new homes quite comfortably.

The storm had almost become a memory.

But the ships were still being built. In the time, only 3 ships had been built alongwith some 4 boats. Oh you may ask, why people kept boats if they had ships? It is because not all fishing ships were moored near the shore. There were two reasons for it. One, it would occupy too much space on the beach. And two, the bottom of the boat would be constantly scratched by the sand and gravel in the low draft. It is made of wood after all. It was a common practice to actually anchor a ship in slightly deep water and then tie it up with ropes. This was also a reason why docks had piers and jetties which extended out to sea. But there was no dock in Fellon village, so this method was in use. The same was also used in real life as Raka had found out.