Day of Honor 01_ Ancient Blood - Diane Carey [25]
“Ready, sir,” the port side sailor acknowledged, and he and his crewmate looked up, then tugged or released the brace lines until the sail lay across the body of the ship without favoring either side.
As the wind changed, Picard heard a new voice carried to him, a slightly deeper voice, but quieter. “Wear ship,” the voice said.
Amidships, the officer called, “Helm alee!”
From the wheel, a third voice called back, “Helm’s alee!”
Lee … lee side … windward was where the wind was coming from, so lee was where it was going. Wear ship— turn so the breeze was at their stern. He knew that.
Sure enough, the ship bobbled on the surging water and began swinging about into the direction the breeze was blowing. The ship set into a troubled roll, not up, not down, not side to side, not fore and aft, but somehow all of those at the same time. Up, side, pitch, aft, roil, side, down, down more—ghastly! Why was there so much romance about this way of life?
The sails sagged, fluttered, whipped as if confused, then— whap, whap, SNAP—the air socked into them and the ship sluggishly moved toward the other vessel.
Only now did Picard notice they were just a kilometer or two from land! A vast stretch of green hills flickered under the warm sun. He wondered where they were. Coastal United States, likely, but where? Off Florida? Maine?
The brand-new United States, declared so by its defiant founders only a year before this. Now there was a war, a great test of resolve, because it was surely not one of resource.
He knew how the Revolutionary War would come out, but he still shivered with excitement at seeing this. The brilliant technology of his own time was allowing him and Alexander to see the technologies upon which it was built. And even more, the attitudes that built it.
“Adjust that sail to the new heading, gentlemen,” he said, trying to sound as if he knew what in hell he was talking about.
But they did it. One of them let out his line, and the other drew his line in. They watched the sail the whole time, and soon it matched the angle of the sail in the middle of the ship and the one on the third mast. Mizzen. Mizzenmast.
“Simple enough,” he said aloud. “Well, I’m recalling a few things at least.”
‘That’s well!” the officer amidships called. “Make fast, all hands. Starboard gun crews, stand by! Mr. Picard, the bedamned heads’ls, if you please! Captain Sobel wants the ship brought about some time today!”
“Oh—” Picard swung around and looked at the triangular sails running from the bowsprit, but hadn’t any idea what to do with them. Then, as he forced himself to think, he realized that the headsails were filled from the wind coming from the port side, but were still tied to pins on the starboard side of the ship. “Gentlemen, take care of these immediately.”
He tried to be noncommittal, because he wanted to see whether or not he had guessed right.
Sure enough, the men bounced to the lines holding the free corners of the sails, unfastened them from the pins, then ran to the same lines on the other side and drew them tight. So the headsails had to be shifted from one side to the other, depending upon where the wind came from.
Now the Justina had come all the way around and had her bow to the land. The Chincoteague now lay off the British ship’s starboard side, the side with the loaded and ready guns. Those marines who were still standing now picked their way across the wreckage-littered deck, through the blood and over the bodies of fallen men, and took up position on the starboard side.
All seemed to relax some and watch as the sailors and ship’s officers struggled to clear the decks of wreckage and bodies, and to find the wounded.
Picard looked at Alexander, but the boy was fascinated by the actions of the one marine sergeant who had impressed him before, by not letting that poor crushed gunner die alone.
“Are those men in red going to shoot those weapons again?” Alexander asked.
“I think they’re out of range,” Picard told him. “I don’t believe they had rifled muskets yet … but I’m not sure about