"Indeed, the feeling is completely different from watching it on the shore." He patted the wet hands on his shoulders, and the neatly dressed blond young man took a step to the side and gave the bow of the boat to the visitor. "If there were less bumps,
That’s even better.”
The sound of retching came from behind, and a man in retinue uniform lay on the edge of the boat, feebly vomiting out a little bit of acid. The dry bread he had eaten in the morning was fed to the fish before it could be digested, and there was no more content in his stomach.
Already.
He wanted to wipe his mouth with his sleeve several times, but his scruples about brand-new clothes stopped him from doing so. A thick hemp rope was tied around his waist and tied to the mast to prevent any wave from making him disappear directly from the deck.
The sailors passed him indifferently, adjusting the sails, scrubbing the deck, and the ship moved in an orderly manner.
"Ha, this is not a bumpy situation." The bearded captain rolled up his sleeves, revealing his thick arms that were tempered by fighting in wind and waves. He inadvertently showed off the large sea wave tattoo from his wrist to his elbow. At first glance, he was a man with stories.
.
Most ordinary passengers will be attracted by tattoos, which leads to half-day chatting and bragging, to relieve the boring time at sea day after day, and to listen to more anecdotes from passengers of different statuses.
But this passenger did not turn his attention to the captain who was full of communication desire. Instead, he looked at the boundless sea. Covered by clouds, the sea surface showed a color mixed with dark blue and lead gray, and the gloomy and ominous colors merged into one at the end of the field of vision.
The remnants of the cold wind from the North Sea ice sheet were pushing them southward, but they could not escape the rain no matter what.
The captain has seen many passengers. No matter what their identity is, when they arrive at the unknown sea and face the approaching wind and rain, they will have doubts about the small sampan under their feet, and they will feel an inevitable sense of fear.
"No need to worry. It looks scary, but it's just rain." He pointed to the hidden sea level on the left side of the ship, as if he could see distant land. "Besides, we are not far from the coast. Even if there is any accident, I can do it with one hand."
Even a rowing boat can bring you ashore."
"This is so reassuring." The passenger combed his hair that was messed up by the sea breeze with his hands, pressed it back into place, and continued to look at the undulating sea. It was hard to tell whether he was being perfunctory.
The captain couldn't think of what he was looking at. It had been three days since he set off, and the monotonous scenery on the sea should have dampened the excitement of any young man. What's more, the scenery now was nothing to praise. It was nothing more than the cold and hard sea breeze shaving his face, and the water and the sky were not the same.
It is so gray that if you look at it for a long time, you will have the illusion that the ship is stuck in place and not moving.
A slender hand pointed to a small point in the distance, guiding the captain to follow its owner's field of vision, "What is that?"
"Huh?" The captain looked along his fingertips. There was indeed a small spot on the sea that was not easy to find, with a faint reflection. "It's probably an ice floe."
"Is there any ice floating here?"
"You're lucky. I haven't seen it for a while. It comes from the Ice Sea. There are only a few big ones there, and there are very few that can reach here without melting completely. We call it Lucky Star."
This statement aroused the passenger's interest. He took one last look at the ice floe hidden in the waves, and turned around as the captain wished, "How do you say it?"
"It was called by the sailors who took this route. I heard that a ship was hit by a storm and lost all its fresh water and beer." The captain licked his lips under his thick beard. This was a statement that made people feel thirsty.
A story that doesn’t work.
"Then the sharp-eyed among them, like you, spotted something shining like white crystal, or morning star, on the sea surface. In desperation, they regarded this as some kind of revelation and decided to take a gamble."
"Of course, it's not a white crystal, nor is it a star that fell into the sea, but it is far more precious than these things." The captain paused at the right moment, finding that the audience was listening attentively, and answered the riddle with satisfaction.
"A piece of fresh water ice, a whole two barrels of fresh water ice. It drifted from the Ice Sea, that is, the North Sea, to here, and maybe further south. It is simply incredible. So people who walk this road feel that they have seen floating ice.
Ice is a symbol of luck."
"I can imagine it." The passenger nodded. He had never heard of this story. He could add it to a collection of stories someday. Then, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "So you have been to the Ice Sea."
"Of course, I used to deal with those ice people over there. There were small ice floes like this everywhere, and I wasn't that lucky." The captain has always been willing to share his experiences. This is different from the other world.
There are striking similarities to the chatty driver on the other side of the soul.
Whether on a boat or in a tavern, this feeling of being noticed makes people want to stop. It’s not certain that your ticket price includes an unspecified story fee, at least you don’t have to treat him to a drink until he wants to, like in a tavern.
Open your mouth.
"Aren't there big icebergs or something like that?"
"No, it's just a lot of small ice floes. The tallest small iceberg can't be touched from the side of the ship. Calling it a 'mountain' is a bit too forced."
The passenger was a little disappointed. He didn't know what he was expecting, and what kind of plot was rehearsing in his mind. "Really? I haven't even seen one?"
"Generally speaking, there are no big icebergs." The captain didn't finish his sentence. How could a well-informed sailor not accept the content? Since there is "usually", there is also a "but".
Very cooperatively, the audience answered him: "As rare as ice floes in the south?"
"Yes, so rare that almost no one has seen it, and the meaning is exactly the opposite." The captain looked around at the deep sea with no end in sight, and left the edge of the ship. He seemed not to want to continue talking here, and extended an invitation to his passengers.
"It's a long story. You don't want to listen to the second half of it in the rain. Go have a drink in the cabin?"
"Sounds more interesting than beer." The passenger happily accepted the invitation.
"Water will do, but you have to drink something, right?"
…
…
Almost five years ago in the summer, a fairly mature ice-field trade line suddenly became vacant, and it was connected to an ice-field tribe with long-standing connections.
Normally this is impossible. An ice tribe that is willing to communicate with outsiders means an extremely stable and safe exchange relationship.
When the captain, who is rarely recognized by them, decides to leave the ocean, he will only introduce his closest heirs to the tribe, and they will continue it like passing down family wealth and become a constant source of wealth.
The middle-aged captain named Becker was willing to transfer this opportunity at a very favorable price. He also sold the intact empty ship and exchanged it for fixed property in Wendeng Port. There was also a generous sum of cash to distribute to the redundant crew members.
The preferential price has its price. Becker refused to personally introduce the product to the buyers, and was only willing to give some things as "tokens". He could not even send a crew member who was familiar with the icelanders to make another trip.
This makes people suspect that he had a conflict with the ice people, so he used this method to finally make a fortune.
But after privately swiping at the sailors who were so drunk in the tavern, the mover came to a negative conclusion, unless the sailors remembered to cover up the truth for the captain when their noses were full of alcohol.
During the brief waking hours during the day, they refused to discuss this issue. From ordinary sailors to the first mate, they all made it clear that they were unwilling to take this route even once again, no matter how much it cost.
From this, rumors spread that some ships were cursed, which could not stop several young second-generation sailors with an adventurous spirit and their own ships from competing for this opportunity.
After a fierce battle, one of them won all of Captain Becker's tokens, as well as secret communication tips and customs details.
He did not set sail immediately, but waited patiently and observed, until those in Becker's crew who had bad habits squandered the last penny in their pockets, even fell into debt, and had to accept sober interviews in exchange for a little reward.
Thus, from the mouth of a sailor whose fingers were threatened by a lender, in exchange for payment of part of his debt, came out a deranged description of the voyage.
Even at this point, the sailor would rather lose a finger than let go and go to the ice field with him again.
It wasn't until he was about to set off that he recorded the sailors' intermittent narratives one after another, roughly restoring the incomplete half of the face.
From the perspective of Sailor Seaman.
The return journey started like every time before, with Captain Becker returning with the men carrying furs and metal ore.
The companions stopped joking about the similar pronunciation of the names of Seaman and Saint-Simon, climbed up the mast and looked at the approaching black dot in the distance, which was the team returning to the ship.
Several ice people dragged a human-powered sled to help them deliver part of the goods. The leader had a good chat with the first mate. Before leaving, he gave each of the captain and first mate a piece of local raw gemstone, saying it was for hunting.
I picked it up by chance when I was there.
It’s rare for ice people to remember the preferences of visitors from North. Captain Becker laughed from the moment he boarded the ship to the time he lifted anchor. He and the first mate were playing with the beautiful crystal stones in their hands and talking about whether any of them could be used to make large pieces of jewelry.
material.
Seaman knew nothing about this, so he just looked at it with envy, and then went to work on moving the goods.
Sailors must allocate positions for cargo in the hold. The heaviest ore is evenly pressed into the bottom bin and placed together with the ballast.
The furs should be stored in as dry a place as possible, with plenty of space to spread them out. A few flaws may greatly reduce the value of a perfect fur. If it happened, the captain would be eager to skin them.
This work was very tiring, but fortunately, there was animal meat supplemented from the ice tribes. As usual, the captain generously provided these frozen meats as part of the extra meals. After appeasing his stomach that had been tortured by the diet of the voyage for more than two months, Seaman returned
Went to the cabin and fell into sleep while shaking.
Sleeping at sea was not very good. In the middle of the night, he vaguely heard footsteps and conversations on the deck. The companion who was woken up next to him cursed, turned over and covered his ears. A majestic voice stopped the commotion, probably
He's the bosun on the night watch.
Then the sound subsided, and he slept peacefully for the rest of the night, and went to pick up the man above him in the morning.
The atmosphere on the deck was a little strange. Just as Seaman was about to complain about the noise last night, he was interrupted by a look. He took the cable and looked over there. The bosun had a very ugly look on his face.
"Don't ask." The man whispered, "It's just an iceberg, it's not a big deal."
