Wet Wonders
A Novel - and other Tales of the Sea
by
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Chips was sitting at the work bench in his shop. He was sanding down the hull of a ten inch long model of a two-masted schooner. The vessel was of the type that had fished and hauled freight along American coastal waters in ages gone by. On the walls of his shop, mounted with metal clamps, were dozens of other models he had crafted. Amongst them were frigates, Yankee Clippers, privateers. There were whalers and ocean going square rigged sailing ships, in addition to schooners with three to six masts. There was a replica of a gundelo, which had fought battles with British ships during the Revolutionary War. There was also a Mississippi paddle wheel steamboat, one of the first ever built with distributed engine weight to decrease the draught. On the bench top near the schooner model he was working on, was a sailing boat with three masts, recently completed. The ships carpenter did not notice Bosun O'Brien standing behind him in the doorway. The bosun coughed to get attention. "Jeze, Chips--I've been here five minutes watching you and never once you looked up." Frowning, Chips swung around on his stool. "What the hell you want?" "The Old Man says for you to take a look at the locker door where he stows his charts." "What's wrong with it?" "Won't shut right." O'Brien moved into the shop. He picked up the model from the bench that was wedged between two nailed-down wood blocks to hold it secure. He held it at eye level admiringly. "I ain't seen this square rigger before. Looks new." "I just finished it," Chips said. "But it's no square rigger--it's a bark." "A bark?" Chips leaned forward on his stool and touched the model in O'Brien's hands. "You see there? Both the foremast and the mainmast are square rigged but the sail astern is rigged fore and aft." "Oh yeah." "They called that aft mast the mizzenmast," Chips explained. "The way they rig the sail makes the boat a bark." O'Brien nodded. "You sure did a nice job." Suddenly the Annabel Lee rolled heavily to starboard, then lurched back to port. To steady himself the bosun put one hand on the work bench. At that moment the ship rolled in the opposite direction. He reached out with his other hand for more support. As he did so the model he held struck the bench. The mizzinmast snapped in half. The bosun stumbled back from the bench, trying to keep his balance as the ship rolled again. "You damned clumsy ox!" Chips yelled. He jumped up and yanked the broken model from the O'Brien's hand. "Jeze, I didn't mean to---" "Get the hell out of here!" the carpenter shouted. "Go on, get lost!" The bosun backed towards the door. "Look, Chips, for Christ's sake, I'm sorry--" "Beat it! F--- off!" "O.K., O.K." Bill O'Brien backed up and started to go out the door. He paused, added: "Don't forget what I told you about the Old Man wanting you to fix the door of his chart locker." He turned and disappeared down the companionway.
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About the Book
Wet Wonders...a Novel and other Tales of the Sea
About the Author
Born at Dewey Flat, Montana, Bob A. Ellison spent much of his youth in British Columbia. After his father’s construction company failed, young Ellison worked on coast steamships; then drifted to California, New York, and Florida. He shipped out of New Orleans on a freighter and was returning from South America when World War II was declared. During the war he sailed on merchant ships and was in the Army. After the war he made his living in engineering. He’s been married 35 years to his second wife, Ann. They live in Southern California.