The Stormy Sea

The ship creaked and groaned as it tried to fight against the waves crashing at its hull. It had been like that for a week, the ship fighting against the waves and winds to carry its cargo home. The crew did everything they could to stay on course and not to get lost in that storm but they had grown weak. No man could’ve slept in a storm like that. The ship going up and down, left and right, wood groaning and stuff falling and rolling everywhere.

“Jack!” the captain yelled at me, trying the make his voice heard over the sound of the wind. “Where are you? Jack!” He was standing on the upper deck, near a wildly spinning wheel of the helm that shouldn’t be spinning like that.

I ran through the lower deck and up the stairs, tumbling and almost falling a couple of times, and reached him. I saw the wheel turning madly. “We are losing control.” I said to myself and then turned to the captain. “Yes, sir?”

“How’s the crew?” he asked me.

“They are holding on for now Captain.” I answered. “Morale is low and there is talk of being cursed but they trust you Captain.” By then me, captain and the helmsman were trying to fix the wheel to stabilize the ship.

“Just tell them to stay away from seagulls.” Joked the Captain but his laugh was short as a giant wave crashed over the ship. “Well at least it’s not raining anymore.” He said “We need to find land soon, boy. My ship survived so many wars but this storm is something else” he said to me.

I had never seen the Captain like that before. He looked like even he was starting to abandon hope of survival. Three of us managed to take control of the wheel again and tried to adjust course but failed as the dark waves continued to throw the ship in different ways.

I wanted to say something comforting, try to raise moral, but nothing came to my mind. I was really scared too. We already had lost four men to the storm. One of them had fallen from the mast, the other three, off the deck in to the sea, lost in the darkness. Even I almost fell off the deck but the Captain had saved me. “Captain, maybe we …” I started but a shout cut me off.

“A ship! On the horizon. Not far!” the yell came from above. Someone was actually mad enough to climb the mast in this storm. “Port side!”

We rushed that way, trying to see. For a while all I could see was black waves with white foam on them and the dark bluish grey sky. “There!” the Captain pointed somewhere. I followed his finger and saw it.

Like ours, that ship was fighting too. Its white sails full with wind, trying to find a way through the waves. I was trying to see more and I noticed something else. “Wait! Look behind it. Even farther away. Another one!” I shouted.

It was harder to see among the waves but I could make out its outline and sails. “We are not the only ones trying to survive this ungodly storm.” The Captain said. “Let’s concentrate on saving ourselves first. Come, Jack!” he said trying to walk back to the helm without falling to the wooden deck but then he froze and said “Look! Another one!”

Another ship was close by going in a different direction but it was mostly in the same condition with ours. “So many ships. Captain, we must be close to land!” I screamed and tried to look for a silhouette of land somewhere in the horizon.

“Jack, go up a little, get a better view, report everything.” He said to me and then turned to the rest of the crew who were either working or praying to their gods or just trying to see the struggle of the other ships, even betting on which one would go to the depths first. “Keep the sails steady! Secure the cargo!” he started barking orders at the crew.

“Aye Aye Captain!” They obeyed, never questioning his orders.

I made my way through the lower deck and started climbing the main mast. I didn’t intended to go all the way up, scared that the wind would blow me away to the sea. The climb was hard as the ship was constantly getting swayed by the waves, I could still faintly hear the Captain yelling orders on the deck. I made my way to the observation post and tried to see the horizon while holding on for my life.

The ships were still struggling with the waves on the port side. I saw barrels and a part of a ship mast on the sea surface moving freely among the waves and then saw that the ship closest to us was losing the fight. The wind was too strong for her sails.

I turned my gaze towards starboard side and saw it. Among the clouds and the sea, something else. “Land!” I tried to yell but nothing came out as wooden floor of the post suddenly moved beneath my feet and I fell down. I got up and tried to regain my balance and saw the land more clearly. Down on the deck, the Captain and the crew were too busy to notice it.

I gathered my breath and wanted to yell again but saw something else and yelled “Boat! Crash! Starboard!” I saw that the Captain heard me and looked that way. There was a fishing boat that the waves tossed around and it was coming right at us. We hadn’t noticed it before because of our distraction with the other, bigger ships.

If this was a calm sea it wouldn’t do any damage to a ship as big as ours but with the power of the waves behind it, who knew. Captain Rabec was trying to steer the ship away from it and as it got closer I saw the man in the fishing boat was trying to adjust his course, fighting madly with the rudder of the boat. While they tried to do something, all I could do was to hang on to the mast and watch, helpless.

For a moment I thought we were saved as both the fishing boat and our galleon turned their bows to different directions. The Captain was still struggling at the helm but it was hopeless as two giant waves lifted both of our vessels and crashed them at each other.

The deafening boom filled my ears as the whole ship shook. I heard screams of men down on the deck and the creaking of wood just seem to go on forever. The fishing boat was nearly on our deck, destroying and crushing men, cannons and other tools alike. I tried to look for the Captain but couldn’t see anything clearly in the chaos of the crash.

Suddenly the waves that have thrown the two vessels at each other lost their power and the boat slid off the ship in to the sea. While it was sliding off, its bow hit the mast and it shook wildly, so wildly that I lost my grip on it and tumbled over the observation post down to the chaos of the deck.

As I went over, in that one moment I saw everything clearly; I saw our ship and the fishing boat going their separate ways and far away other ships still struggling and on the starboard side, the grey storm clouds starting to disappear, leaving their place to a clear blue sky that showed everyone the green cliffs that I had seen before but never able to let the crew know.

“Jack! Son!” I heard Captain Rabec yell on the deck among the cheers of the crew who have seen the land.

“He is alive.” I said to myself, smiling, just before I hit the deck with full speed, suddenly feeling immense pain and then blacking out.