The Forest - Edward Rutherfurd [132]
Seagull’s boat, although of similar construction, was only half its size. Besides the two boys, it had a hand-picked crew of ten, plus Seagull himself.
The cargo carried by each vessel was typical for the run across to the Isle of Wight: sacks of wool, fardels of finished cloth, casks of wine, some bales of silk. For extra ballast the Southampton boat also carried ten hundredweight of iron. Both boats had been inspected by the mayor and declared fully laden.
The terms of the race had been carefully worked out between the parties and it was the mayor who now called the two ship’s masters together on the quay and rehearsed them.
‘You cross to Yarmouth fully laden. You unload on to the quay there. You return unladen, but with the same crew. The first back is the winner.’ He looked at them both severely. Seagull he knew; the big, black-bearded master from Southampton he did not. ‘On my orders you will cast off and row out to midstream. When I wave the flag, you may hoist sail or row forward as you wish. But if you foul the other boat then or at any time during the race, you will be judged the loser. I will decide who is first back and my decision on all matters is final.’
The two-way crossings, laden and unladen, the unloading, the opportunity to use oar and sail and the changeability of the weather – all these had added enough uncertainty, the mayor had judged, to make the race worth watching; although personally he couldn’t see how the bigger boat could fail to win and had placed his own bet accordingly.
The Southampton man nodded, scowled at Seagull, but held out his hand nonetheless. Seagull took it briefly. But his eyes were hardly on the other mariner. He was still scanning the crowd.
And now he saw who he was looking for. As he turned back to his boat, he called Willie over to him. ‘You see Richard Albion, son?’ He pointed to the gentleman. ‘Run quickly and ask him if he still wants to bet five pounds against me winning the race.’
Willie did as he was told and a minute later returned. ‘He said yes, Dad.’
‘Good.’ Seagull nodded to himself. ‘Now just you run back to him and tell him I’ll take his bet, if he cares to lay it with a working man.’
‘You, Dad? You’re betting?’
‘That’s right, son.’
‘Five pounds? Have you got five pounds, Dad?’ The boy gazed at him in astonishment. ‘Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t.’
‘But Dad, you never bet!’
‘Are you arguing with me, boy?’
‘No, Dad. But …’
‘Off you go, then.’
So Willie ran back to Richard Albion who received the offer with almost as much surprise as the boy. Without hesitation, however, he came striding across to Seagull’s boat. ‘Do I hear you’ll really take a bet on this race?’ he enquired.
‘That’s right.’
‘Well.’ He smiled broadly. ‘I never thought I’d live to see the day that Alan Seagull took a bet. What’ll it be, then?’ His sparkling blue eyes gave just a hint of concern on the mariner’s behalf. ‘No one will take my five pounds, so name your figure and I’ll be honoured.’
‘Five pounds is all right with me.’
‘Are you sure?’ The rich gentlemen had no wish to ruin the mariner. ‘I’m getting a bit nervous about five pounds myself. Couldn’t we make it a mark? Two if you like.’
‘No. Five pounds you offered, five pounds I took.’
Albion hesitated only another second, then decided that to question the mariner any further would be to insult him. ‘Done, then,’ he cried and gave Alan his hand, before striding back to the watching crowd. ‘You’ll never guess,’ he announced to them, ‘what’s just happened.’
It only took a couple of minutes for the whole of Lymington to be buzzing with this unexpected news – and scarcely a couple more before there were theories about