This choice: It's a destroyed ship they might be able to salvage! • Go Back...Chapter #6It's a destroyed ship they might be able to... by: Aurthor   The ship was wedged between two spires of rock at the bottom of the cliff, her stern jammed tight into the face of the mountains maybe 25 meters above the cresting waves. She didn’t look like she’d been there too long. Her gas bag still contained just enough helium2 that it still had buoyancy, although it was hanging limply above the tilted deck.
Eianne hove to about 500 meters off the mountain face and studied the ship with her spyglass. It certainly looked like a wreck. Not in too bad a shape though. She handed the spyglass to Mark “So what d'ya think?
Mark studied the wreck for a good minute and a half before answering. “She's a good possibility." he said finally. “She's been in a fight, that's for sure. I can see splintered planks along the starboard that is obvious cannon damage, and there's at least one body and the remains of another against the aft cabin. Another on the rocks at the waterline. The bag blocks most of the deck, so I can't tell how the port side looks. We won't know if there is anything useful onboard until we get over there. The question is how.”
The captain nodded. The wreck was on the lee side of the island, and the winds coming over the top of and down the cliff would drive their ship into the ocean if they got too close. There was no beach nearby to land on, and a water landing was out of the question. In spite its shape, their ship wasn’t designed to land on water, even if the hull had been intact. In any case, the water swirling at the base of the cliff was too rough to land in, even if they wanted to try. Whoever had wrecked the ship in front of them had managed to do it in the most inaccessible spot they could find. Some people just had no consideration for others.
“I’m going to circle the island” Eianne decided. “Maybe there's a spot we can land on around the other side”
The terrain on the windward side was equally mountainous, but they managed to spot a surprisingly gentle valley that lead to a sheltered cove with a level tree free meadow that Eianna declared to be big enough to land in. Now, with a promising landing spot located, they circled the island once more, this time looking for a clear path to their objective.
“I hate to say it,” Cappa said finally. “But it looks like the only way to get to the wreck is to climb down to her from the top.”
“Do we have enough rope for that?” Eianna asked, feeling fairly sure she hadn’t seen any on board.
“Not that I'd trust to hold my weight.” Cappa said. “Not to worry, Tina and I have had plenty of free climbing experience. This will be a piece of cake.”
“All my climbing has been done with rope.” Eianna said “I don’t know how good I’d be on bare rock.
“So the captain stays with the ship.” Mark grinned. “That’s tradition, anyhow. Don’t worry. We’ll tell you all about it when we get back.”
The meadow was a little tight for their ship to fit properly into, but Eianna declared that any landing was a good landing if you could use the ship again afterwards. Besides, the trees wedged against the prow made it a lot easier to moor their ship. A soon as the ropes were tied her crew set off on their hike over the mountain.
To keep herself from fretting while she waited, Eianna busied herself tidying up and performing a few badly needed repairs to her ship as a way to pass the time. She had her head bent down over a rope she was braiding when the sound of someone stepping on the gang plank drew her attention.
Her crew was back, and judging from the size of the backpack Mark dropped on the deck as he turned to help the others board they had managed to find quite a bit of supplies. Then Tina came up the gangplank and lowered her burden onto the deck. Supplies wasn’t the only thing they’d found. They’d found a survivor.
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