THE DERELICT STORY
nce upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had to go down the steep hill on the narrow road, for there wasn't any other way. And because ships had come there for a great many years, and all the sailors and all the captains and all the men who had business with the ships had to go on that narrow road, the flagstones that made the sidewalk were much worn. That was a great many years ago.
The wharf was Captain Jonathan's and Captain Jacob's, and they owned the ships that sailed from it; and, after their ships had been sailing from that wharf in the little city for a good many years, they changed their office to Boston.
Once, in the long ago, the brig Industry was tied up at a wharf in Boston. The wharf was much longer than any wharf in Boston is now, for they have filled up the dock that was there with stones and dirt, and they have put more stones and dirt on the top of the old wharf and under it, and they have built a street there, so that the wharf is not half so long as it used to be. And Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob had their office on India Street, not very far from the head of the wharf, as it used to be, so that they could go to their ships easily and the captains could go to them.
The Industry had aboard all the things that the sailors would eat and the water that they would drink; and the cargo was all stowed, and the sailors were all on the ship and the sails were loosed. And Captain Solomon came from the office of Captain Jonathan and Captain Jacob, and he walked down the wharf and he went aboard the ship. Then the sailors cast off the ropes that had held her, and they hoisted the sails and sailed away. They sailed out of the harbor and past the islands and into the bay and then into the great ocean, and Boston was left far astern.
And, when they had been gone from Boston nearly a week, the sailors fixed the sails so that the wind would blow on them the right way, and then they didn't have to change them for a long time, for they were in the part of the ocean that the trade winds blow over. In this part of the ocean the winds blow nearly always from about north-east, so that they are fair winds for a ship that is going south. That is one reason why ships don't always go the way that you would think would be the shortest, for it may be that, by going a way that is a little longer, they will be helped so much by the winds that they will get to the place where they are going sooner than if they went a shorter way.
And there is another reason why ships do not always go the shortest way. In some parts of the ocean the ocean water is moving in one direction and in other parts of the ocean the water is moving in another direction. So, if a captain knows about these ocean currents, he can sail in that part of the ocean where the water is moving in the direction that he wants to go, and the ocean and the winds will both help the ship. Every captain of a ship knows about these ocean currents and these winds, and chooses the part of the ocean where they will help his ship along. Captain Solomon knew all about them.
