Chapter 16

Jake called on the bank and met with his contact. They sorted out the financial aspects of the business, and established lines of credit. Having completed that he hailed a cab and gave the driver the number of the pier where the ‘Rigel’ was berthed. When he arrived he stood for a few minutes looking at the ship. She was rigged as a barquentine, having square sails on the foremast and gaff rigging on the main and mizzen. This would reduce the size of the crew required to sail her. Jake already knew she had a triple expansion steam engine driving a screw propeller. She looked trim and in good condition.

He made his way to the gangplank where there was a sailor carrying out some maintenance.

“Good day,” Jake greeted him. “Is the captain aboard?”

The man looked up and an expression of surprise appeared on his face.

“Capt’n Jake, sir! Sorry, Sir Jacob!”

“Indeed,” said Jake grinning, “But I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“‘Course not, sir, but any sailor out of Bristol knows who you are. I’m Jimmy Green, sir, an’ Capt’n Kirk is below, sir.”

“Thank you, Mr Green. I’m sure we shall meet again,” Jake replied, and went to find the captain.

Jake found the captain in the saloon poring over some papers. He was a tall man of middling age with a luxurious graying beard and sideburns, but little hair on his head. He looked up as Jake approached.

“Captain Kirk, I am Sir Jacob White,” Jake introduced himself. “You received my letter?”

“Aye, Sir Jacob, and many thanks for your intervention, we were having some difficulties.”

“What is the situation now, Captain? And what happened to Mr Norton?” Jake asked.

“I’ve been able to fill the bunkers, not the finest coal but good enough,” replied Captain Kirk, “and there is a cargo due that was arranged by Mr Norton, but the damnedest thing is that he and the woman he was travelling with have disappeared completely. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of them for near a couple of months. That is why I wrote to Mrs Norton, he left no money, and I was damned if I knew what I should do.”

“What is the cargo?” asked Jake.

“Railway equipment, rails and the like, bound for Charleston where we are to load cotton for Liverpool,” said the captain.

“Sounds fair enough,” said Jake, “and due shortly, you say. You’ve accommodation for myself and Mrs Norton?”

“She’s with you? Aye, there’s plenty, we’ve a half dozen cabins, and none occupied.”

“Excellent. Yes, she insisted she was coming” said Jake. “She’s at the hotel presently. If there’s time before you need to sail, I want to go to a place called Ansonia, Connecticut I believe, I want to buy some clocks. I had a shipment a year or so ago and made a good profit from them. I think it is on or near the railway to Boston, so it shouldn’t take too long.”

“Will they have a worthwhile load, Sir Jacob?”

“I wrote to them from England, and there was a reply waiting for me at my hotel, so yes. They tell me that there will be three wagon loads, but I’m afraid I don’t really know how much space that will require.”

“I’d think your timing will work, Sir Jacob. As to how much space you need, I don’t think there’ll be a problem, it doesn’t sound too much. It’ll take a few days to load the main cargo,” replied Captain Kirk. “Some of it will come by road, but the majority will come on barges. A lot of the cargoes seem to move like that, there’s no railways into New York, only sort of goods yards supplied by tugs with rail wagons, boxcars they call ‘em, on floats, sort of barges. It’ll take a while.”

“An interesting way of doing things. So much seems to be different here,” Jake commented.

“Aye, it is,” Kirk agreed.

Mrs Norton decided that she would remain in New York and take in the sights and attend theatre whilst Jake was away. It was ten days before Jake returned after a very successful trip. The only awkward question he had had to answer was how he had obtained his original shipment of clocks. He covered this by telling them that it had been seized by customs because of unpaid duty, and he had bought it from them. Not too far from the truth.

On his return to New York Jake checked to see how the loading was going. Captain Kirk told him that it was nearly complete, there were a few items plus his own cargo still to come, but that they could sail as soon as it was loaded. Jake went to see Amelia and told her that they would transfer to the ship as soon as she was packed.

“My damned maid has decided to leave me and stay here,” Amelia quite naturally expressed her exasperation. “She says she has a better future here than in England.”

“Can you manage without?” asked Jake.

“Of course, I’m not helpless. But travelling without a maid...”

“We’ve three days to Charleston, we’ll have to see if we can find you one there, we’ve no time to sort it out now,” Jake told her. “I’ll look after you meantime.”

Jake took her in his arms and kissed her.

“I’m sure you will,” Amelia smiled,” ... you certainly know how to undress a lady,” as Jake was busy doing just that, and kissing the exposed skin, “but do you know how to reverse the process? Oooh!”

“I’m sure we’ll manage,” said Jake. “Of course you could stay in your cabin, naked, and I’ll bring you your meals.”

“Oooh, goodness, you are a dreadful man...”

And after that there was little time or desire for further conversation.

When they had recovered from their exertions, and Amelia was fully dressed, although with no assistance from Jake, Amelia feeling that it would take much longer with that ‘assistance’, Jake rang for a bell boy and they checked out. A short while later a cab brought them to the ship. Jimmy Green was on deck and Jake called him to take the luggage aboard.

Jake showed Amelia to the cabins and then went to find Captain Kirk.

“Your consignment just arrived, Sir Jacob,” the captain told him. “If you will follow me I’ll show you where it will go.”

They made their way below to part of the hold, where there were already some packing cases.

“They’re part of the main cargo,” Captain Kirk told Jake.

“Are there many more like those?” asked Jake

“Aye, but most are in the main hold.”

“I’ve seen packing cases like those before, and they didn’t contain anything to do with railways,” said Jake. “If you’ve a case opener we’ll take a look.”

“Don’t bother, you already know what’s inside,” came a slow southern drawl.

Jake and Kirk both turned at the same time to see who had spoken. There were two men, one older with neatly trimmed white moustache and a goatee beard dressed in a linen suit and wearing a wide stetson, and the other a younger man, with a dark saturnine appearance sporting a thin pencil moustache and dressed in black.

The older man, who had spoken, was clearly the leader.

“I don’t think we’ve been introduced,” said Jake.

The man laughed, “Colonel Sanders,” he said, “and this is my assistant Mr Butler, and I already know that you are Sir Jacob White. I’m surprised you recognise the cases, and I wonder why? Still, of no importance at present. The freight is ours, gentlemen, as arranged with Mr Norton, well, that is a slight stretch of the truth, but no matter. We will travel with it to make sure it arrives safely,” he stated with certainty.

“You are expecting us to run guns for you?” Jake was annoyed at the man’s attitude.

“Yes, that is exactly what you are going to do. I suggest we go and sit down, and I’ll tell you what is going to happen.”

Jake decided that there was little he could do at the present. He looked at the captain and shrugged a shoulder to indicate that they should comply. They followed the colonel to the saloon with Butler bring up the rear.

“We met Mr Norton when the ship first arrived and he was looking for a cargo,” Colonel Sanders began, when they were all seated excepting Butler, who was clearly a bodyguard, leaning negligently against a side board. “We offered him,” he went on, “this cargo to be taken to Charleston, and in return we would provide a cargo of cotton that he could take to England. He refused. I am not sure why he became involved with a criminal organisation, having turned us down it seemed very odd, but I suspect gambling. The woman he was with seemed to me to be a pretty high maintenance sort of girl. Either way he got himself rolled over in one of their casinos, illegal of course, and he was carrying a lot of cash. What happened to the girl I don’t know...” he trailed off as Amelia entered the saloon.

The three of them stood.

“Gentlemen, this is Mrs Norton,” said Jake. “And this...”

“Ah, the widow,” said Sanders.

They all looked at him, and Jake rushed to support Amelia and move her to a chair as she took in the last words.

“I am sorry, ma’am, that was unforgivable, but nevertheless, the truth,” Colonel Sanders looked genuinely sorry.

Amelia sat up. “I heard the last part. What happened after that?”

“He simply disappeared, but it is almost certain that they disposed of him,” said the colonel.

“And the girl?”

“Umm ... I hate to say this to a lady but...”

“She’s now a whore! Well she was no better than that anyway,” averred Amelia. “Now, what is going on?”

The colonel looked perplexed for a moment and Jake filled in the details of their relationship, but only the business part of course.

“This is Colonel Sanders, and his ... associate Mr Butler,” Jake informed Amelia. “The ship is loaded with his cargo, largely railway equipment but with a fair number of rifles and I imagine ammunition...” Sanders nodded, “we take them to Charleston, about a three day passage, and he will load us with cotton. I take it that the cotton is payment for the rest, Colonel?”

Sanders nodded confirmation.

“Did you know about this Jake?” she asked.

Jake shook his head.

“Captain Kirk?”

“I did not Mrs Norton. But it seems we are rather stuck with it. The cargo is on board, and if I’m not mistaken Colonel the two new hands are your men?”

The colonel nodded.

“Then I’d suggest that we should get underway and get this done as soon as we can. The tide’ll be full in two hours, and we can have steam up by then. Do you agree?” Captain Kirk looked at the others.

“Do we have a choice?” asked Amelia, a largely rhetorical question.

Two hours later, harbour dues settled and a full head of steam, Captain Kirk backed the ‘Rigel’ away from the pier, turned her stern to the setting sun steamed out of the harbour. The papers lodged with the harbour authorities said she was bound for England, although what anyone examining them would think Jake wondered. Railway equipment going to England? Coals to Newcastle he thought.

Once the ship was out of sight of land they turned south for Charleston.

Colomel Sanders now came up with another idea

“The only problem we may have,” he drawled, “will be if we are stopped on passage. I have all the paperwork to make this ship American, and we can fly the Stars and Stripes, though I’d prefer it was the Confederate flag naturally, but that’s not to be for the present. It’ll make it easier when we get to Charleston too.”

“Are the papers in the name of ‘Rigel’, Colonel,” asked Captain Kirk.

“No, Captain Kirk, we’re now the ‘SS Enterprise’. Just a little jest of mine since this is my enterprise,” said the colonel.

It took just three days to reach Charleston. During the trip every time another sail was sighted the tension on board was palpable, until they turned out to be either merchantmen or fishing boats. Amelia spent most of the passage in her cabin, although not in the state of undress that Jake had suggested. On arrival they were met by a pilot cutter, and Colonel Sanders greeted the pilot who came on board as a friend. The pilot took them to an out of the way pier where they could unload. The main part of the cargo, rails and ready made switches and cases of spikes and bolts were unloaded by teams of black workers who were clearly slaves, much to Jake’s disgust. The Colonel had left the ship when they docked but he left Mr Butler behind to ensure that there were no problems. The other part of the cargo was unloaded at night into a number of covered wagons, taking several nights to complete.

And then came bales of cotton, again loaded by the black slaves. Again, it took several days, but eventually they were loaded and all the paperwork was in order, and, much to Jake’s and the captain’s relief, they showed the ship as the British registered ‘Rigel’. Once the ship was loaded they moved to a coaling dock to top up the bunkers ready for the long trip back to England.

It was at the coaling dock that Colonel Sanders found them. He approached the ship with Mr Butler and behind them were four black slaves, two men and two women, all with irons on their wrist and linked into a coffle.

“I wanted to thank you gentlemen,” he told Jake and Captain Kirk, “for what you have done. I appreciate that it wasn’t what you wanted but there, I trust there’ll be no hard feelin’s. I’ve brought you a gift. You lost two of your crew who were my men, and these nigras is a might uppity, so they’ll probably do better with you, and the girls, well, Mrs Norton can’t go for much longer without a maid, and these are pretty good, well trained and shouldn’t be any bother. I shouldn’t let them loose until you’re at sea.”

The Colonel handed Jake a key.

The four slaves stood on the deck looking down.

Kirk had an unreadable expression on his face and Jake was simply stunned. It took him a few seconds to recover.

“Thank you Colonel,” he said. “We’ll take good care of them.”

The colonel turned. “Come along Rhett, we’ve work to do.”

Jake looked at Captain Kirk.

“Let’s get under way Captain, sooner we’re at sea the sooner we can strike the damned Stars and Stripes and get back to being ourselves.”

Captain Kirk gave the order to single up the lines, and the engine to standby. Fifteen minutes later they were free of the land and on their way back to England, a journey of fifteen to sixteen days.

The four slaves were sitting on a hatch cover waiting, and no doubt wondering what would happen to them. They were all dressed in what were little better than rags. Jake went over to them.

“Do you all speak English?” he asked.

He received a chorus of ‘yes sir’.

“Right,” he started. “You are going to be free, d’you understand?”

“Really?” asked one of the men. “What do we have to do?”

“You’ll have to work, and you’ll get paid for it, same as anyone. Now,” Jake took the key the colonel had given him from his pocket. “The first thing we’ll do is get rid of these.”

He unlocked the shackles, gathered them all up, went to the rail and threw them over.

“We’re still close to land,” he went on, “so if you want to jump over the side and go back you can. Other than that there’s work for you to do, there’s food to be eaten and a bed to sleep in and pay to be counted. Understand?”

They looked at each other.

“What work will we do?” asked the same man. The others nodded their heads.

“Let’s start with names, I’m Sir Jacob. And you?” he asked the spokesman, a large well muscled man with a scar on his face.

“Zeke, sir.”

“And you?” he asked the other man, slightly shorter than the other, but with an equally impressive physique.

“Jonathon, sir.”

“And you,” he asked the first girl, a pretty, curvy girl who obviously had a lot of white blood in her.

“Mary, sir,” she said with a curtsey.

The other girl was quite startling, tall and skinny with a fine boned face, she was very dark. She looked Jake in the eye.

“I am Josephine,” she told him, without being asked. All of them had broad southern accents.

Jake smiled. “Excellent. Now, ladies first,” the girls looked at each other, “what work have you done?”

“Housemaids, sir. Mary was a ladies maid, but the lady had a terrible temper and said she was no good, but that’s not true.” said Josephine. “I am also a seamstress.”

Mary nodded.

It was opportune that Amelia came on deck at that moment, and Jake called her over, introducing her as Mrs Norton.

“Do you think you could take these two young ladies on as maids, Amelia? I’ve a feeling that we’ve a job with Victoria for Josephine when we get back to Bristol. But meantime she needs to do something.”

“I don’t see why not.” Amelia replied. “I take it from what you say that Josephine is good with a needle.” Jake nodded. “Come along girls, first thing we’ll have to find something better for you to wear. A bath too, I wouldn’t wonder.”

“Right gentlemen,” Jake addressed the two men, “we’ll go and see the captain, he’s the man who’s in charge of this ship on the high seas and he’ll know what needs doing.”

Captain Kirk took charge of the two men and called the first mate over.

“Extra crew Mister Rees, sign ‘em on and pair ‘em with one of the crew, so they’ll learn something.”

The captain turned to Jake.

“That’s a fine thing you’ve done, Sir Jacob. Makes some recompense for what we’ve just done.”

They arrived back in England in fifteen days, not to Bristol, but Liverpool, from where the cotton would make it’s way to the mills in Lancashire. And would get a better price than it would in Bristol. They had enjoyed good weather all the way back with favourable winds to assist them. Both the men fitted in well with the rest of the crew and proved to be intelligent and quickly learnt to be useful members of the crew, always cheerful and smiling.

Amelia was pleased with the girls, Mary proved to be a willing and capable ladies maid. Amelia had sorted out a couple of her older dresses and Josephine very quickly made them into something suitable for them to wear. They also discovered some old items of clothing that had been abandoned by crew members and she used these to make them some more clothing which, whilst not stylish did in fact look remarkably good. Neither of the girls were overburdened with work, but both were smiling and applied themselves willingly to whatever was asked of them.

On arrival at Liverpool Jake and Amelia left the ship and took the train for London accompanied by the two girls, whilst the men remained with ‘Rigel’ until she too returned to Bristol. In the event there was a cargo destined for Bombay and the ship stopped at Avonmouth to drop off Jake’s clocks and Jonathon. Zeke had decided he liked life at sea and would remain with the ship.

Amelia took the two girls home with her, Josephine would work for Victoria’s Secrets, whilst Mary would remain as her maid.

Jake was delighted to get home to a rapturous welcome from the entire extended family. He had worried that the children would have forgotten him, but this was not the case and they delighted in crawling all over him and listening to his stories, although Millie did have to tell him that he would have to tone them down as they got older and actually understood what he was saying. At dinner that first evening he had to recount his adventures in some detail, the less savoury parts included, to another enraptured audience.

He received a particularly warm welcome from Millie later that evening.

“How were those black girls in bed?” she asked him whilst she was riding on top.

“I didn’t touch them.”

“Really, you expect me to believe that?” she giggled.

“It’s true, I was completely celibate on the journey home, Amelia kept the girls with her all the time. Honestly, she treats them like new daughters.”

“Oh my poor darling, still, two weeks, no nearly three, hmmm ... oooh ... well when I have this baby you’ll have to go without for at least that time. Unless you have someone else,” she giggled again. “Better make the most of it, thenooooh...”

And make the most of it they did.

The next morning Jake was at work early. He visited each department, to ‘show the flag’ as it were. Later he was sitting in his office as Dennis was going through various things that needed his attention.

“Dennis,” he said. “It occurs to me that you are rather more than my assistant now.”

“I suppose so, Sir, yes, I am,” Dennis replied.

“I think perhaps we should raise you to General Manager. It’s the job you are doing anyway with me away a lot of the time.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Dennis grinned. “That will make things easier for me. Sometimes people do query my authority to tell them what to do, or whether I should be ordering things. It’ll sound better to Nerissa’s mother too, Sir.”

“Oh I wouldn’t worry too much about Mrs Norton, she’s two new daughters to keep her occupied.”

“Sir?”

The door opened and a tall figure in black entered. As soon as Dennis saw who it was he stood.

“I’ll get along, sir,” he said to Jake. “Good morning Mr Hatherley,” he addressed the visitor, and left.

“Mr Hatherley! I’ve only been back in Bristol since yesterday,” said Jake.

“Indeed Sir Jacob and not a moment too soon. The business of which I spoke would have been best dealt with a fortnight back, but unfortunately you were not available. Now...” and he went on to explain what on the face of it appeared to be no particular problem, but since Jake had been involved with Mr Hatherley before he knew that the problems were understated. “ ... so it would be helpful if you could leave on the next trip to Dublin.”

“I’ll get things arranged,” said Jake, with a heavenward glance.

Hatherley smiled. “How did the trip to New York go?”

“In short, we sorted out the ‘Rigel’, ran guns to Charleston, and brought a load of cotton back. The ship is unloading in Liverpool at present. Oh yes, and we were given four slaves.”

“Guns, you say? You’ll write me a report with all the information, I hope. It would be of great interest to the government.”

“I’ll do that,” Jake agreed.