My Journal

By Harriman Nelson

17. Pieces of Eight

“A bag of coins?” I asked, incredulous, through my cabin’s intercom. “That’s all the divers found?”

“Yes sir,” Sharkey answered, “but they look kinda’ like ‘pieces of eight’. So I guess maybe the Skipper found us a treasure ship instead of the Nymph.”

“Not necessarily,” I said. “Ancient Spanish gold and silver was legal tender well into the 1850’s.”

“Yeah, but…there’s no ship. Not a trace. Not even a nail. The divers searched good and thorough, sir.  And sonar didn’t bring up anything that wasn’t sand. Maybe some pirate just lost his bag of money over the side or something.”

“Pirate?” I laughed.

“Well, there were some around here, back then. Or maybe it was lost by the very owners. The Spanish dudes that were exploring around here and maybe….”

“Enough, Chief. The simple fact is that we don’t know. Take the coins to the lab and secure the dive.”

“Aye sir, only…”

“Well?”

“The skipper’s sure not going to be happy about this. He was so sure….so, er, who’s gonna’ tell him?”

“I’ll take care of the skipper,” I finished and clicked off.

Yes it was going to be a blow to Lee. My nerves were taut and I reached for the electronic cigarette, but what good would it do, really?

I clicked the intercom again, this time for the Control Room. “Chip? Resume course. Has Doc finished with Lee yet?”

“Yes sir. Made him drink some kind of nutritional milkshake, a canned thing. Said the blood work showed that the captain was anemic.”

“Anemic?”

“And that he was showing signs of exhaustion. Seems Lee, er, the captain, hasn’t been sleeping much lately.”

“Well, that’s a relief. That he’s not being haunted by ghosts,” I chuckled.

“What about his vision?”

“We only thought he had a vision. But since there’s no ship, no chains, no skeletons…perhaps it was just his imagination taking over.”

 “You can’t believe that, sir. His eyes, his whole…persona….he felt something Admiral…I can’t believe his brain invented a hallucination about it…”

“You sure of that, are you?” I asked, amused that Chip was going to bat for Lee.

“I know Lee Crane, sir. Have his instincts ever been wrong? I mean, when it’s something important?  He’s always had a kind of sixth sense about some things. This time it was just a bit…more intense.”

“Think what you will, lad, but continue course to the cabin boy’s coordinates. And see if you can set up an video link to the Bermuda City Hall.”

“Aye sir.”

“And Chip? It’s Nelson-Crane, remember.”

“Sorry, sir. It…just happened.”

Of course, I knew Lee wouldn’t have minded, but damn it felt good to use the name.

I was surprised to see Mrs. Crane at Lee’s bedside in Sickbay. She was just staring at him while he slept. And  had she actually run her hand through his hair?

“Admiral,” Doc said, seeing me. It startled Mrs. Crane out her maternal instincts and she suddenly sat up and removed her hand from Lee’s forehead.

“I’ll be going now,” she said, rising. “You’ll let us know when L…when the captain is back on duty? We can’t run a shi..boat, without a captain.”

“You’ll be the first to know,” Will said.

“Put your fears at ease, Mrs.Crane. Commander Morton has a great deal of experience as Acting Captain. The mission is still a ‘go’.

“Yes, yes, of course,” she said, pretending to be relived. But I could tell, in spite of her anger with Lee, those years of maternal instinct had come to the fore, if only briefly.

After she’d left I took her seat by Lee.

 “How bad is he really, Doc?”

“Running on adrenaline. Sooner or later there was bound to be a crash.”

“What about the trance? There is no wreck.”

 “No Sea Nymph?”

“No Sea Nymph. Just an old bag of  gold doubloons.”

“Gold doubloons?”

“And no ship of any kind. Lost overboard a couple of centuries ago...we’ll be checking them out with Bermuda. While they might not be Sheamus’ loot, they may shed some light on who lost them. I think I remember some show on TV mentioning some kind of hallmark Spain used that we can use to identify just where, when, and which ship might be carrying such things. Or at least where they were from. We might as well find out what we can, even if this has nothing to do with Sheamus….when will Lee wake up?”

“I gave him a mild sedative. Should make him sleep at least twelve hours. As for a trance that didn’t amount to anything but scaring us to death, well, I’m as much in the dark as you, sir. A medical mystery for now.”

“I want to speak with him when he wakes up.”

“Certainly, sir.”

I’m not good at waiting. I have to wait to tell Lee about his vision that wasn’t? And I have to wait to find out about the coins. Bermuda’s hired a coin expert to look at them via the teleconference we’ve arranged. The Peabody’s will also be watching but I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Still, it was the PM’s decision on who to invite, not mine.

As for Sharkey’s idea about a pirate? Well, it’s a possibility, I suppose.