When I was twenty, I\u2019d finally grown out of the gawky, awkward and lanky stage of youth, and began filling out quite a bit.\u00a0 I\u2019d always been tall for my age, but to my chagrin, I tended toward being wiry (fellows around me teased me with the nickname \u2018Skinny\u2019), rather than looking robust.\u00a0 I was very strong but didn\u2019t look it. Between the ages of fifteen and nineteen I seemed to be all hands and feet, legs and nose. I was grateful that it didn\u2019t seem to stop the young ladies from casting their eyes my way, however.<\/p>\n
Not long after my birthday in January, Captain Stoddard took me by surprise when he named me as the replacement of Mr. Spriggett as First Mate. Spriggett had been badly hurt during a storm when one of the mains\u2019il\u2019s collapsed onto the deck.\u00a0 He\u2019d pushed a young ensign out of the way but took the weight of it himself, shattering his collarbone.\u00a0 A shame; Spriggett is a good man, and an able seaman.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, Mister, are ye turning down the promotion, then?\u201d demanded the Captain when I was so gob smacked I couldn\u2019t even reply to the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, sir!\u201d I sputtered, \u201cYou just\u2026 well, you surprised me is all.\u201d<\/p>\n
The old seadog chuckled and sniffed.\u00a0 \u201cSurprised me as well, but Spriggett insisted that you were the better candidate.\u00a0 Says you\u2019re able to keep your head in a crisis and you learn quickly.\u201d\u00a0 The old man\u2019s eyes tacked my hide to the main mast as he studied me for a reaction.<\/p>\n
I immediately straightened my spine slightly and nodded. \u201cAye, sir,\u201d I said, with just the right touch of pride tempered with gravity.<\/p>\n
Stoddard guffawed, then.\u00a0 \u201cBold as brass!\u201d he laughed. \u201cWell, then, Mister, take the helm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since that day, we neither of us had looked back.\u00a0 What mistakes I made as I learned my job weren\u2019t repeated; God knows I had no desire for the Captain to rip into me more than once about an error!<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the hurricane season, we had to put into Portsmouth, New Hampshire after Wanderer<\/em> suffered another mast mishap.\u00a0 It required a few days for repairs, and I got my first leave in months.<\/p>\n Sitting in a pothouse on the waterfront, sipping a beer \u2013 good and cold! \u2013 it amused me that the two barmaids, quite lovely girls, to be honest, circled around me like bees to a hive.\u00a0 The several men from Wanderer<\/em> who\u2019d also chosen this drinking spot were giving me a good bit of chaff for it.\u00a0 It increased even further later into the evening when a few \u2026 ahem\u2026 ladies slipped in and tried to peddle their \u2026wares.<\/p>\n \u201cGood looking fellow like you, drinking alone?\u201d cooed one, slipping onto a bench beside me.<\/p>\n I grinned at her.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re welcome to enjoy a drink with me, lass, but that\u2019s as far as it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n She pouted prettily and her compatriot, as blonde and fair as the first was dark and sultry, cuddled up onto the other side.\u00a0 \u201cPer\u2019aps yer lookin\u2019 for something a little younger,\u201d she offered, slyly.<\/p>\n I laughed.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I\u2019m afraid not.\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you what, though,\u201d I mused, smiling at them.\u00a0 \u201cI can promise you both drinks for a few hours.\u00a0 Will that do you?\u201d<\/p>\n The girls looked at each other and shrugged, smiling.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, honey, your average whore wants nothin\u2019 more than a good night\u2019s sleep without interruptions,\u201d said the dark woman airily.\u00a0 \u201cYou buying all evening makes that possible for both of us!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s your name, sailor?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBen,\u201d I responded, taking a sip of beer, then \u2013 after hesitating a moment \u2013 gesturing to the bartender for a bottle.\u00a0 \u201cBen Cartwright.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m Mary,\u201d the blonde said, settling in, \u201cand that\u2019s Bonnie.\u00a0 Where\u2019s your berth?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBoston,\u201d I replied.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve had to put in with a load of furs and coffee due to a mast collapse.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHark at that!\u201d the dark-haired girl said sympathetically.\u00a0 \u201cSo close to home and havin\u2019 to stop here.\u201d<\/p>\n The girls settled in, and my mouth twisted in a grin to see Wanderer\u2019s<\/em> men a bit disgruntled as they got nowhere with the ladies themselves.\u00a0 The fact that I\u2019d washed before leaving the ship had likely been helpful\u2026<\/p>\n We talked and drank, me likely spending more than I should have but enjoying the girls’ company. I shared stories about the ports we\u2019d visited, the adventures and dangers we\u2019d encountered, from storms to piracy, to cargo shifting dangerously in the swells. They in turn shared tales with me that could curl your hair!\u00a0 I’d had no idea what ladies forced into this profession sometimes had to deal with.<\/p>\n But at the end of the night \u2013 or rather quite early into the morning hours \u2013 I managed to weave a bit on my way back to the ship, hands in my pockets and whistling. It hadn\u2019t been hard for me to put aside the girls.<\/p>\n Because for me, the lighthouse of my port of call wasn\u2019t a structure.<\/p>\n It was a beautiful girl named Elizabeth, waiting for me to put into port and claim her as my own at last.\u00a0 No one and nothing<\/em> held a candle to her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SUMMARY: One of the Cartwrights reflects on his twentieth year.
\nWORD COUNT: 863
\nRATING: G<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12518,"featured_media":13811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1004,23,30,8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ben-cartwright","category-drama","category-prequels","category-short-stories","category-challenges","wpcat-1004-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-30-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Sans-titre-15.jpg?fit=500%2C385&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12518"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70101"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70104,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70101\/revisions\/70104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}