Gunpowder

Chapter II - Illicit Cargo

Kristoff Von Truanpago was no ordinary captain. It was said that for a suitable price he would sail to hell itself if need arose. For years, his "Thunder Led" eluded the pirate schooners, coastguard frigates, East Sea Trading Company's ships of the line and Ipionese Mandarinate's junks. Nimble, fast, and shallowly submerged ship, with a variable silhouette, was a perfect smuggling vessel.

The ship's silhouette was changeable, because the "Thunder Led" was not an ordinary ship, either. Kristoff designed her himself, taking advice from the treaty "On the mechanics of moving parts in shipbuilding and seafaring, or how to enable any ship to be sailed by a threesome party", which he had purchased in Ulhn, the capital of the afar Northern Kaesary, for two flasks of famous Karahamian rum. The author was an Arokanian perpetual student, whose name he no longer remembered, and who did not value this work enough to sign it. The treaty contained many useful insights into the flaws of popular hydro- and aerodynamic designs in shipbuilding topped up with countless comments on how to improve the ergonomics of the rigging.

Upon returning to the Karahams, sailor Kris Truanpago bought a lightning struck schooner with a lovely, slim line, decaying aground on the atoll of the smallest island of the archipelago, and thus became captain Kristoff Von Truanpago. He was especially proud of the "Von" bit, which he had also heard back in Ulhn. It made his name sound sophisticated.

He had decided the lightning strike was a good sign because his own name could be translated from the Karahamian language as "thunderflash". Both of these circumstances led him to the present name of his ship, which he had bestowed upon her before the first trial cruise.

The boat took two years of his work and all his savings. The result was a true masterpiece of the shipbuilding art. The slender hull was enriched at the front by two slanting fins ending with bent oblong runners. They were designed to raise the hull at high speeds, reducing water resistance, as well as to tighten the turns of the vessel. The keel was slim, and the sword fin was fitted with two horizontal plates bent at the same angle as the front runners. In the rear, on both sides of the stern, vertical stabilizing fins had been added.

All the new elements could be drawn up inside the hull, so the reduced submersion would allow approaching any shoreline. All three original masts were cut into parts, hollowed and equipped with a telescoping mechanism operated by winches located at their bases below the deck. Each top of the four parts of the mast was equipped with sockets ready for mounting yards or gaffs. Shrouds and stays had been fitted with pulleys allowing to adjust their lengths. Thanks to this, the "Thunder Led" could in just a few minutes change from a huge sloop rigged with a big gaff into a small and agile three-masted frigate.

Of course, there were also disadvantages. Retractable masts reduced the hold and the crew quarters. The cannon deck was non-existent, and the artillery on the open deck was also limited by the number of gunners. Lack of space and shortage of guns meant she was not fit for freight or trade cruises, and neither was she a warship. She was designed for smuggling, and when it came to smuggling, Kristoff was an artist. His latest masterpiece was talking a somewhat slow-witted zemna grower from the suburbs of Trogar into believing Von Truanpago was an agent of the Ipionese Families Syndicate. Thus, the ship had been loaded to the brim with zemna flowers packed in double-decked wine barrels.

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Left to himself, the smuggler took a deep breath and followed it with a solid sip of beer brought in by a smiling wench. Judging by her exposed breasts resting on a loosely tied bodice and her skirt ending a mere inch or two below the buttocks, the girl was not only a waitress. When she left, with a flirtatious wink at him, Kristoff rested his elbows on the table and buried his face in his hands. He needed a few hours of peace. He finished the beer, got up and went upstairs, greeting Anne on his way up and dismissing with a decisive gesture the advances of the wench, interested in a closer encounter.