WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Wind and a Cluster of Stars
Chapter 5
──────
Overloading, a Stowaway, and Luck
9. Overloading
April 4, late afternoon.
We could not reach any conclusion in that noisy tavern anymore.
Every point got drowned out by people talking over each other, and even Amy, the one person I could trust, had started to slur from weak ale.
In the end, I had no choice but to take Amy and leave the Fisher and the Barb.
We decided to check the trading posts, the market, and a few guilds to see what information we could gather.
In the meantime, Zenon said he would try to recruit more sailors.
"Oh my, good lord!"
I had no time to think because I kept yanking Amy back whenever she wandered off the sidewalk and into the road.
"Eek!"
Just now, while I looked away for a second, she walked straight into a carriage that was standing still and screamed.
"You'd be better off staying at the tavern."
"But I still want to come with you-"
Amy stubbornly refused.
...
From what I learned, the Netherlands was carrying out a large-scale shipbuilding push.
If that was true, they would need matching industrial goods.
Still, ships could use an endless amount of supplies, so picking trade goods without clear evidence felt too risky.
It seemed better to bring raw materials before processing.
London was an industrial city, with mining and manufacturing both well developed, so buying ingots seemed like a good fit.
After I finished thinking it through, I took Amy, who had sobered up a little, back to the tavern.
It was almost evening by then, and the foundries and trading posts were about to close.
It seemed better to come out early tomorrow and buy the best options then.
When we arrived at the tavern, the owner told us the navigator had already finished hiring sailors and gone to guard the ship.
"See? A seasoned sailor really is different."
I updated Amy on the situation and sent her to tell the crew to prepare for departure tomorrow morning.
They would sleep in the little Balsa's cabin, which doubled as storage.
That evening, Amy and I finished the day with stew and a glass of wine, then stayed at the tavern.
...
April 5, morning.
In the morning, the tavern owner came in carrying a basket of fresh bread from a nearby bakery and handed me a loaf still steaming.
Nothing special had been added, but with butter and milk, it felt like the perfect breakfast, and I was very satisfied.
On the terrace in that quiet morning, the harbor sea was calm, and only the occasional seagull flew off somewhere.
While we ate, Amy and I decided to head for Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
When we got to the ship after breakfast, Zenon had done exactly what I told him yesterday and had already finished eating on board with the sailors.
"Seriously, we need to keep that navigator employed no matter what."
"I think so too."
I sent Amy with money to buy provisions for the ship, and I took the sailors around the foundries and trading posts to hunt for the best prices.
In the end, I managed to buy as many ingots as I wanted.
They were still unprocessed, so they were cheap, and London's city characteristics helped too.
Even after buying quite a lot, we still had some funds left.
The problem was that these copper, brass, and iron ingots were incredibly heavy,
and the ship was small, so we could not load much.
Anyway, to reduce price risk, I bought a balanced mix of three types, copper, brass, and iron ingots, then ordered the sailors to haul them by cart and load them little by little.
Of course, Zenon stood there with a stern face, smoking, and did not help at all.
...
"Ah! The waterline came up this high!"
Seawater sloshed right below the stern of our tiny, lightweight commercial Balsa.
At this point, we had basically reached the loading limit.
We set the sails, but the ship barely moved. She just would not pick up speed.
In the end, a departing clipper helped tow us out of the harbor.
Once we finally picked up some speed, the ship started moving on her own,
and I raised my hat to thank the captain of that kind clipper.
Then the long white-sailed clipper cut the line and disappeared to the south.
The voyage was fine until noon, when the sun stood high.
Later, around two or three, right when land was no longer visible,
dark clouds built beyond the horizon and swallowed the whole sea in an instant.
It was not a full storm, but the waves rose and drizzle began to fall.
Whenever waves hit us broadside, Zenon had the sailors bail water out.
At least it was not an open-ocean storm, just passing rain clouds, so we were lucky.
A few hours later, when the sea calmed again, we discovered an unexpected guest had boarded our ship.
10. A Stowaway and Luck
April 5, afternoon.
It must have been around four.
The sea settled down as if nothing had happened.
My little Balsa was built for nearshore use, and even with a single sail she moved well, riding the current and the ever-changing sea wind.
A quiet afternoon.
The unexpected passenger was a tiny red crab.
It must have been pushed up to the deck by the waves, and that little stowaway (someone who sneaks onto a ship) had tucked itself into a crack in the wood at the bow.
The red crab was no bigger than a coin, a common kind in the North Sea.
Maybe it liked that damp wooden crack, because it kept bubbling there nonstop.
"You can't even eat it. It's too small."
Amy tried to pull the red crab out with her finger, but it backed deeper into the gap.
Only later, when things quieted down, it crept out, picked up a tiny piece of seaweed, and went right back in.
Seeing that, Zenon and the sailors named the crab Crab.
Either way, that crab had become part of the ship now.
...
April 6, morning.
Around eleven, close to noon, we reached Amsterdam harbor.
Amsterdam had dug waterways so ships could come all the way into the commercial district,
so we followed that waterway into the inner harbor.
The ship was much heavier than usual and carried strong inertia, so we were careful, lowered sail early, and prepared in advance.
We decided to unload where a nearby trading post was visible.
The sailors were grunting as they pulled heavy ingots out of the ship and stacked them,
when a boy fishing in the canal suddenly ran toward the trading post.
Then he came back with the owner.
"Are you selling?"
He spoke English with a distinctly Dutch accent.
He had probably seen the flag on the Balsa.
"Of course."
I could manage most Northern European tongues, and I knew some Dutch, so language was not a problem.
"Please, sell to me! I'll pay double!"
For some reason, the trading post owner, who should have been cool-headed about money, was panting as he spoke.
That was when it happened. People filled the area in an instant.
Burly men in black leather aprons, others carrying ledgers of some kind,
they all shouted at me to sell them the ingots.
Putting their words together, I learned that a ship that should have arrived two days ago had not come in and there was still no news,
so they were short on the amount they needed to finish orders by deadline.
At that point, money was not the issue. Credibility was.
They competed on price, it went past double, then past 2.8 times, and finally crossed triple.
If only this Balsa had been bigger.
It could have produced an incredible result.
Even yesterday, I had only hoped my guess was right and that there would be demand,
so I picked Amsterdam because it was a major city, but I never imagined this kind of outcome.
Those who failed to buy left disappointed, and the sold ingots scattered off to be made into ship nails, joints, cannons, and more.
...
"Amazing, Captain!"
I felt excellent after making a full threefold profit.
I had not loaded that much, so it was not like I made a huge fortune or became rich overnight.
Still, triple.
I doubted chances like this would come often.
I also thought I should not count on luck like this.
Before long, my little leather pouch was stuffed with a dozen or so Venetian gold coins marked with stars and a saint, plus silver coins.
My heart felt as full as that swollen pouch,
so I bought drinks at a tavern for the hard-working sailors, the mate, and the navigator.
Then we planned to spend the night in Amsterdam and depart tomorrow morning.
...
We ate a feast.
There were all kinds of steamed seafood with wine, and the sailors mixed lemon juice into the rum they loved.
"This is really good."
Amy did not hold back her admiration as she picked out and ate the chewy mussel meat,
and the tavern owner, delighted to see us eating so well, brought us another bottle of wine.
After that memorable dinner, Amy, the mate, and I went to the market.
There we bought food for the ship, things that would keep for a long time, ship's biscuit, very hard, plus a little oil and charcoal, and loaded them on board.
Night came, and lights from houses spilled into the streets from every alley.
A child who had been picking flowers by the roadside followed their mother away, and a coachman turned down an alley in his carriage and disappeared.
Soon the streets started to thin out.
"We should head back too."
"Yes."
Above the narrow alley stretched a band of blue stars.
Between the eaves of two- and three-story buildings ran bands of white and blue, and if you looked closely, some stars were yellow.
In one way it looked like sunlight slipping through coarse sailcloth at noon, and in another way like tiny gold fragments scattered across the street.
Either way, they were beautiful enough that no one could deny it.
"Amy."
"Yes?"
"If I had a lot of money-"
"..."
"I'd buy stars."
"Why?"
"Because they're the prettiest things in this world."
"If I had a lot of money..."
"If you had?"
"I'd buy wind."
"Why wind?"
"I feel like I could ride it and fly."
"That would be expensive. Maybe if a day like today happened ten thousand times... around that much, maybe you could buy it."
"Maybe."
Who owned the stars and the wind?
If you had money, who would you pay to buy them?
It was a childish thought that stayed with me all the way back to the tavern.
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