Zhang Heng returned to the captain's cabin on the Jackdaw and wiped the rainwater off his head with a towel. Anne, on the other hand, had already changed.
Zhang Heng poured a glass of rum for the red-haired girl to warm her up. After that, he drank a glass himself. This kind of rum was the standard drink for sailors, but it didn't taste very good. Although it was brewed from sugarcane juice, it was a little bitter, far inferior to wine and brandy. Still, it was cheap and had a longer shelf life than freshwater.
Usually, the bottled water on a ship would become unpalatable after a month, and plankton would grow inside it. Rum, on the other hand, could be stored for a year or two. It was a must-have on a ship.
Zhang Heng's stomach immediately warmed up after a glass of rum. Just then, someone knocked on the door.
Billy entered the cabin with a young man who looked a little uneasy.
"This is Mr. Vincent," the helmsman introduced. "I've shown the notebook you gave me to all the crew members. We're in luck. Mr. Vincent can read the words in it."
Zhang Heng recognized him. He was the ship's doctor, recruited by Billy himself. However, he seemed to be more interested in botany. During his research, he was kidnapped by a group of pirates and forced to become the ship's doctor. A year later, the pirates disbanded and merged with another pirate group. Vincent regained his freedom, but he was afraid that people would find out about his past as a pirate.
He lived next door to Billy, and he earned his living by keeping accounts for taverns and brothels. After Billy persuaded him, he finally decided to sail with the Jackdaw again.
"This is a cargo list, but it's written in Dutch. It records the cargo that the ship carries on each voyage. It's pretty common stuff like cotton, wool, wood, and so on." This was the first time the young ship doctor spoke to the captain, and he seemed a little nervous. Worried that Zhang Heng wouldn't believe him, he explained, "My father is Scottish, but my mother is Dutch. I lived in Holland for a while when I was young, so I know some Dutch.
"What about these?" Zhang Heng handed the other two notebooks to Vincent.
Annie was about to leave, but she stopped. She was curious about the missing crew members and wanted to know what happened to them.
The young ship doctor took the notebook and opened one of the books. After reading two pages, he said uncertainly, "This should be … a poetry collection."
"Poetry collection?"
"Yes, and it's a love poem." Vincent flipped a few more pages. "Most of them are written about a woman named Betty, but they're not very good. This is the first time I've seen someone use the word 'storm' to describe their lover, and most of the descriptions are … quite explicit."
The young ship doctor blushed after saying that.
"Can you read one to us?"
"Oh, okay … okay, no problem." Vincent stole a glance at Annie, but the red-haired girl didn't seem to have any reaction.
The young ship doctor flipped through the pages and found a good one. He cleared his throat and said, "Betty, my lover, I praise you, I worship you, you are the storm, you are my master, your chest is like a fruit that bends the branches, your … uh, your legs are like a valley flowing with honey …" Vincent's forehead started to sweat when he read this. He couldn't help but loosen his collar and looked up at Zhang Heng. "Should I continue?"
"Since you've read this far …"
"Alright," the young ship's doctor touched his burning ears and continued, "You wrapped me in your body, you whispered in my ear, you let me fly, I love you so much, I'm willing to sacrifice everything, I'm more than my soul, I'm willing to be with you for the rest of my life … That's all," Vincent said. "If you like Dutch poetry, I can find something better than this."
After the young doctor finished speaking, he realized that the three people in the room were looking at him. So, he obediently picked up the third notebook. After a while, he said, "This one looks like a record of their replenishment at various ports. There are the names of the ports, dates, and the statistics of the supplies."
"So, there's no captain's log in here?"
"I don't think I've seen anything like that," Vincent shook his head.
"Could it be that you forgot to take it?" Annie asked.
"It's unlikely. I've checked everything in that room, including the books that fell on the floor. Except for these three, there's no handwriting. They're all printed."
Zhang Heng then asked the young ship doctor, "Are the handwriting in these three notebooks the same?"
"Two of them are similar. The cargo list and the supply record. The love poem is different." Vincent flipped through the notebook again and confirmed, "Yes, these three notebooks should be written by two people," Billy said.
"The first two are usually the bookkeeper's job. Unfortunately, we can't find the captain's log. It's hard to know what happened on that ship."
As soon as his voice trailed off, Vincent suddenly said, "Wait, something's wrong here."
The young ship doctor was still holding the last supply record in his hand, and a look of confusion appeared on his face. "I know these two ports. They are quite far away from each other. It took me almost a month to get there with my brother. How could the two resupply times be less than fifteen days apart? This speed should be over nine knots. Was there such a fast cargo ship in that era?"
"Judging by the condition of that ship, it should be able to reach that speed if it sailed at full sail," Billy said. "But in reality, it's impossible to do that. The wind was maintained at the same level for fifteen days. It wouldn't break the mast, and it was just enough to provide the maximum speed needed for sailing. The probability of this happening is the same as a thousand gold coins falling right in front of you."
"But it seems that the captain of that ship didn't think so."
Vincent pointed to a line of records. "They only replenished the fresh water and food they needed for a sixteen-day voyage at the first port. That's only a day and a half away from the last voyage."
"Ha, no wonder they got into an accident."
"But when we boarded the ship, they still had plenty of supplies. Obviously, that ship didn't get into an accident because of the captain's arrogance," Zhang Heng said to Billy. Zhang Heng then turned to Billy. "I remember there is a more complete nautical chart on the ship. Let's find it and ask Vincent to see if he can mark all the ports it has stopped at along the way. Then, we can calculate its average speed. That way, we will know if its previous sailing time was an accident."
Little Dumbo said.
Sorry, that's all for today.
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