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by the volcanoes, I suppose, but what is this saltpeter?
Too, being wary by now, I questioned him closely as to how he would make such
a thing. Did he know just how to mix the powder? No, he admitted. What size
must the gun be? When he told me at least as long as a man I laughed and
asked him how a piece that size could be cast or bored, supposing we could
scrape together so much iron. This he did not know either.
You haven t the tools to make the tools to make the tools, he said. I don t
understand what he meant by that. God help me, I can t run through a thousand
years of history by myself.
He took out the last of his little smoke sticks and lit it. Helgi had tried a
puff earlier and gotten sick, though he remained a friend of Gerald s. Now my
son proposed to take a boat in the morning and go with him and me to Ice
Fjord, where I had some money outstanding I wanted to collect. Hjalmar and
Ketill said they would come along for the trip, and Thorgunna pleaded so hard
that I let her come too.
An ill thing, mumbled Sigurd. The land trolls like not a woman aboard a
vessel. It s unlucky.
How did your fathers bring women to this island? I grinned.
Now I wish I had listened to him. He was not a clever man, but he often knew
whereof he spoke.
At this time I owned a half-share in a ship that went to Norway, bartering
wadmal for timber. It was a profitable business until she ran afoul of vikings
during the uproar while Olaf Tryggvason was overthrowing Jarl Haakon there.
Some men will do anything to make a living thieves, cutthroats, they ought
to be hanged, the worthless robbers pouncing on honest merchantmen.
Had they any courage or honor they would go to Ireland, which is full of
plunder.
Well, anyhow, the ship was abroad, but we had three boats and took one of
these. Grim went with us others: myself, Helgi, Hjalmar, Ketill, Gerald, and
Thorgunna. I saw how the castaway winced at the cold water as we
launched her, yet afterward took off his shoes and stockings to let his feet
dry. He had been surprised to learn we had a bathhouse did he think us
savages? but still, he was dainty as a girl and soon moved upwind of our feet.
We had a favoring breeze, so raised mast and sail. Gerald tried to help, but
of course did not know one line from another and got them fouled. Grim snarled
at him and Ketill laughed nastily. But erelong we were under weigh, and he
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came and sat by me where I had the steering oar.
He must have lain long awake thinking, for now he ventured shyly: In my land
they have... will have... a rig and rudder which are better than these. With
them, you can sail so close to the wind that you can crisscross against it.
Ah, our wise sailor offers us redes, sneered Ketill.
Be still, said Thorgunna sharply. Let Gerald speak.
Gerald gave her a look of humble thanks, and I was not unwilling to listen.
This is something which could easily be made, he said. While not a
seaman, I ve been on such boats myself and know them well. First, then, the
sail should not be square and hung from a yardarm, but three-cornered, with
the two bottom corners lashed to a yard swiveling fore and aft from the
mast; and there should be one or two smaller headsails of the same shape.
Next, your steering oar is in the wrong place. You should have a rudder in the
stern, guided by a bar. He grew eager and traced the plan with his
fingernail on
Thorgunna s cloak. With these two things, and a deep keel, going down about
three feet for a boat this size, a ship can move across the wind...
thus.
Well, priest, I must say the idea has merits, and were it not for the fear of
bad luck for everything of his was unlucky I
might yet play with it. But the drawbacks were clear, and I pointed them out
in a reasonable way.
First and worst, I said, this rudder and deep keel would make it impossible
to beach the ship or go up a shallow river.
Maybe they have many harbors where you hail from, but here a craft must take
what landings she can find, and must be speedily launched if there
should be an attack.
The keel can be built to draw up into the hull, he said, with a box around
so that water can t follow.
How would you keep dry rot out of the box? I answered. No, your keel must
be fixed, and must be heavy if the ship is not to capsize under so much sail
as you have drawn. This means iron or lead, ruinously costly.
Besides, I said, this mast of yours would be hard to unstep when the wind
dropped and oars came out. Furthermore, the sails are the wrong shape to
stretch as an awning when one must sleep at sea.
The ship could lie out, and you go to land in a small boat, he said. Also,
you could build cabins aboard for shelter.
The cabins would get in the way of the oars, I said, unless the ship were
hopelessly broad-beamed or else the oarsmen sat below a deck; and while I hear
that galley slaves do this in the southlands, free men would never row in such
foulness.
Must you have oars? he asked like a very child.
Laughter barked along the hull. The gulls themselves, hovering to starboard
where the shore rose dark, cried their scorn.
Do they have tame winds in the place whence you came? snorted Hjalmar.
What happens if you re becalmed for days, maybe, with provisions running
out
You could build a ship big enough to carry many weeks provisions, said
Gerald.
If you had the wealth of a king, you might, said Helgi. And such a king s
ship, lying helpless on a flat sea, would be swarmed by every viking from here
to Jomsborg. As for leaving her out on the water while you make camp, what
would you have for shelter, or for defense if you should be trapped ashore?
Gerald slumped. Thorgunna said to him gently: Some folk have no heart to try
anything new. I think it s a grand idea.
He smiled at her, a weary smile, and plucked up the will to say something
about a means for finding north in cloudy weather; he said a kind of
stone always pointed north when hung from a string. I told him mildly that I
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would be most interested if he could find me some of this stone; or if he
knew where it was to be had, I could ask a trader to fetch me a piece. But
this he did not know, and fell silent. Ketill opened his mouth, but got such
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