From Robert:
The Victual Brothers
The new cabin boy is cleaning the deck. It is hard work, and he is tired, but he is not allowed to stop cleaning. He has to clean all of the deck, that’s his work for now. Later he will have to help the cook to prepare the meal for the men, and after meal he will have to wash up the dishes and clean the galley.
Now Geoff/Götz looks like a real cabin boy. He wears long trousers . The trousers were among the plunder from a former naval raid, but they fit him well. He also wears a linen shirt and a woolen waistcoat, or he goes shirtless. On his head he wears a woolen knitted cap. All of his clothing was found among the plunder. Everything except his boardshorts. He wears them under his trousers. What he doesn’t wear are shoes. Like all the others he goes barefoot.
Life on board a ship is not easy, and Götz has to work hard as a cabin boy. He cleans the deck and the galley, he helps the cook, he brings the meal to the captain and the sailors, he brings information to the helmsman and other sailors, he runs from one end of the ship to the other, that is to say from stem to stern. He is also learning what to do as a sailor. He is learning when to call a rope a “rope” and when to call it a “line” and when to call it something else, and what to do with it. He is learning to climb up into the rigging and to trim the sails. He is learning to make real sailors’ knots. He is learning to ‘read’ the weather.
But Götz is not an ordinary cabin boy, he can read and write. Since he can read and write, he has also other jobs. He learns to read maps and helps the captain with keeping the ship’s logbook. After a few days Götz has his sea legs and begins to feel at home. After a week he already knows many things, he is able to help and he no longer stands in everyone’s way.
Life on board a ship is different from what Götz (that is to say Geoff) had thought. Work is indeed hard and tiring, but there is time to play and relax. Often Götz can sit on the bow and look at the sea. This is what he loves. He can sit on the bow for a long time and watch the sea. In these moments he thinks of his life in California. He is happy but a little homesick.
The sailors like jokes, and Götz often laughs when he hears them. They also like singing and they sing during work. But singing is not just a diversion; it also helps them with their work, like on the first day when the men pulled “Geoff” out of the water.
Götz likes to sing along and is learning the sailors’ songs. He learns that certain songs are for certain jobs, for the beat and rhythm help the men to work together. A song with a regular beat is for steady work like weighing anchor. A song with heavy stress on certain words is for jobs like furling and reefing sails, and also for pulling cabin boys out of the water.
Other songs are for diversion or for dancing. Of course Götz has a favorite song. Somehow he likes the “Kaperfahrt” (naval raid) song best. He loves to sing this verse:
Alle, die Tod und Teufel nicht fürchten,
Müssen Männer mit Bärten sein.
Alle, die Tod und Teufel nicht fürchten,
Müssen Männer mit Bärten sein.
Jan und Hein und Klaus und Pitt,
Die haben Bärte,
Die haben Bärte.
Jan und Hein und Klaus und Pitt,
Die haben Bärte,
Die haben Bärte.
All those who don’t fear death or devil
Have to be men with beards.
All those who don’t fear death or devil
Have to be men with beards.
Jan and Hein and Klaus and Pitt
They have beards,
They have beards.
Jan and Hein and Klaus and Pitt
They have beards,
They have beards.
There is just one thing Götz regrets: he doesn’t have a beard.
The sailors like to tell stories. One evening Götz begs the sailors to tell him their story. The ship is sailing on a smooth sea, the mast is shining like gold in the late evening light, and the ship is sailing fast with a good following wind. The men are happy and would like to talk about their lives. The quartermaster, an old man with grey hair, a long beard, and a golden ring in his ear rises and begins:
We have not always been “Likedeeler”, that is to say privateers or pirates. We used to be fishermen and lightermen, proper sailors, or even farmers. Some years ago there was a war between Denmark and the Duke of Mecklenburg who was also King of Sweden. The Danish ships and the Danish army had isolated Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. There was nothing to eat.
Then the Duke of Mecklenburg asked for our help. We were supposed to bring food to Stockholm and sneak past the Danish fleet. And that’s what we did. For a long time we brought food through the Danish blockade to Stockholm. That’s why they called us “Victual Brothers”. It was a good time. We had a good job, the Hanseatic League gave us a lot of money for our work and letters of marque so that we could board and seize the Danish ships. Shiver me timbers! Those were the days!
The other men say: “By death and the devil!” “Shiver me timbers!” “That’s true!” “Oh yeah!” “You are right, Jan!” The sailor continues:
Then everything ended five years ago. The war came to an end, Denmark had won, and we were all supposed to simply go back home. We were no longer allowed to do naval raids. But what could we do? Many of us didn’t have a house anymore. The Hanse towns didn’t have anything for us either. We had helped them, but they didn’t want to help us. We had no other choice but to continue privateering. From this moment we officially were no longer privateers but pirates. We did what we had been doing for years in the name of the Hanseatic League, but now it was piracy, and they set a bounty on our heads.
Now everybody was against us, and we were against everybody. No Hanse town was open to us, but for some years we had already had the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. It was our base of operations and our headquarters.
It was our base of operations! But it isn’t any more now. The Hanseatic League wanted to get rid of us. They brought the Order of Teutonic Knights from the East to fight against us. May God send them to the fish. Now they have Gotland, and we had to come here to the Western Sea.
Western Sea? Götz asks himself. Where is the Western Sea? Wait! The Eastern Sea is the “Baltic Sea” in English. Of course! The North Sea! Götz chuckles a bit to himself. To the West of the Eastern Sea is the North Sea. Very logical! And you go East to get to the West Goths, the Visigoths. The latter Götz had learned from “Asterix and Obelix”.
For two years we have been living in Frisia, in Marienhafen. The Frisians fight against the Hanseatic League. They appreciate our living among them and fighting with them. The captain has a companion by the name of Gödeke Michels. Michels and his men live on the island of Helgoland, but we live in Marienhafen on the continent. We live quite well there. The captain has a house and a wife. His wife is the daughter of the Frisian chief Keno ten Brooke. Yes, we have a good time in Marienhafen, by death and the devil!
“But now I have a question”, says Götz. “If life in Marienhafen is so good, why aren’t we sailing there? Why are we sailing in the other direction?”