An Earth Day story--at sea. Thanks to Voluptuary Manque
,
3113, findmeinnh, stephen55, Stella Omega, Zeb Carter, Dual Triode, vrosej10, and that incomparable author and technical adviser Penn Lady, my fellow hangers-out at AH! Salut!
Mistress and Commander - The Far Side of the World
Margarethe's eyes flicked over the Fathometer, then the tach, then out to the range markers, the buoys, the GPS, then back to the Fathometer, the buoys, the tach. Her left hand rested on the throttles, the knobs gripped loosely. Her right hand held the wheel, moving it scarcely an inch. She was whistling through her teeth "March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale, Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order? March, march...."
She flicked her eyes one last time, like a whip, taking in all the instruments, left hand to the clutch, reversing the twin Volvo Penta Diesels, then easing the throttle forward, watching as
Dread Sovereign
walked sedately to her marks.
Then, her hands moving like a three-card Monte dealer's, spinning the wheel, stopping the Diesels, flicking on the loudhailer and calling, "Let go forrad!" Almost faster than thought she called, "Let go, aft." Then "snug her up, take in, make fast, secure all hands."
Dread Sovereign
settled to her mooring like a woman giving in to her lover, just the feeling Margarethe wanted to feel.
Again the loudhailer, "Report to the wheelhouse!"
After a quick knock on the mahogany door, it flew open without another word, and Jenny and Robin walked quickly to the steps below the bridge and waited.
"That was better than the fucking disaster you pulled out of your collective ass at Carriacou, but not by much. You slobs, I'll have you dancing at the gratings the next time you enter port like a clap-ridden Chris-Craft. Now tell me your damned troubles, and make it quick. I need a large capairiñha, sweet and strong like me, and two good orgasms. Jenny make the first report and Robin give me the second. Now talk fast!"
"Mistress," said Jenny, "I have no Kotex, and my period is due. Please Mistress, may I go ashore and buy them?"
"No, you don't deserve them, but I won't have you trailing your damned menstrual blood all over my ship. I'll have the chandler send them with our order. Ferreira can do some work, it might be a novel experience, the bugger charges e-fucking-nough. He'd best get plenty, we aren't going home for a while. Robin!"
"Mistress," he said, "nothing, the stores-required list is complete and can be sent to Ferreira when you direct. When do you wish to refuel?"
"Tomorrow noon will do very well. Get the Harbourmaster on the blower and get
Sovereign
alongside the fueling buoy by 1145. Scan and e-mail the stores-required to Ferreira. Now get weaving!"
Margarethe had chosen Recife as a convenient fueling and restocking port. 120 days out from London, the Diesels working perfectly after the major overhaul, the VanDerBeeke generator cured of its coughing fits, and the worst of the Caribbean long behind.
The only problem was the lubberly slobs of a crew. Jenny was a strong little thing, for all she weighed eight stone soaking wet. Her seasickness gone, she could work, but took twice the time and triple the energy going about it. Robin was no sailor; a fine rounded butt, utterly floggable, and a pendulous scrotum and long narrow cock made for CBT might be just the thing (pun intended) for a long voyage, but he could not "hand, reef and steer/and ship a selvagee", whatever the hell Gilbert meant by all that gibberish.
Entering Carriacou,
Dread Sovereign
had overshot her mooring because Sweet Robin was too slow with the fore anchor. Then
Dread Sovereign
(DS--how appropriate!) had to be reversed at the risk of parting the stern anchor lines that Jenny had properly gotten overside, and ended that leg of the cruise bobbing and dipping like an overweight woman crossing a cobblestone street. Margarethe was furious, and Robin's contrition was wasted.
"On your hands and knees, garbage! Call yourself a seaman, do you? The only seaman about you comes out of your jerked-off skinny-ass cock!"
The cat descended on Robin's lower back. He knew better than to cry out anything but "One, Sir!" The next scored a welt on the backs of his legs, and he counted "Two, Sir!". The next over his kidneys, and he couldn't control the yelp that parted his clenched teeth. "You booby-mouthed whaleshit, you'll cry out, will you!" and she pried his knees apart and drove the cat under him, so several lashes caught his balls. He screamed and fell forward, writhing in pain, held up only by the ropes around his wrists that held him against the teakwood grating on the Great Cabin floor.
"You'll be quite the boy soprano," sneered Margarethe. "How about giving us a chorus of 'The Little Drummer Boy'? Only you won't be a boy, will you, shit?"
She flogged him again on the upper back, again hard on his buttocks.
The she ordered, "Jenny, cut the useless swab out of his bonds, and see to his cuts. And send him to bed without dinner. I'll see to him later. Now, when you're done with Popeye the Non-Sailorman, you can cook dinner for me and you, and lubricate your ass. You're dessert."
Now in Recife, anchored properly (although no evolution was ever performed to Margarethe's satisfaction), it was time to relax. The voyage from the Caribbean had been long, though, while they had dodged the midsummer storms, they had not had the restful sailing Margarethe wanted.
Time now to enjoy Recife's beaches, to replenish stores and fuel, to down a wee bit of Turbinado sugar, muddled lime, a splash or two of soda water, and a few litres of chachaça, and roasted beef and pork. And to play at leisure with her slaves.
Jenny brought the capairiñha. She had used the last of the vodka (thereby transmuting the drink into a Caipiroska, a Russian capairiñha) and had found some fresh limes (the Devil knows where, thought Margarethe; the girl is a marvel, and she eats champion cunt into the bargain). It's good to be a Mistress, thought Margarethe as she sipped the drink, with a few million pounds in the bank and another few million under my feet.
Margarethe took seriously her responsibilities.
Dread Sovereign
and her crew were a trust, a burden, an obligation honorably accepted and honorably to be discharged. Hong Kong may have built
Dread Sovereign
, but England crewed her. Margarethe, Lubeck-born and descendant of Hansa captains, respected her ship, as she respected the sea and the sky. Hers it was, in the ancient words of the marine insurer, " the good shippe or vessel
Dread Sovereign
, whereof is Mistresse, under God, Margarethe Maria Ehrenreich von Schuldig, the said shippe or vessel's hull, rig, gear, tackle, trim, Crewe and all Merchandize, accoutrements and Furniture whatsoever". Hers to command, hers to serve, and she need answer only to herself and Der Allmächtiger Herr Gott. But it would be heavy to answer if she failed so much as one hair's-breadth from her duty.
"Mistress," came Jenny's voice from the galley, "if so please you, dinner is served."
"Very well, Jenny. Stand to!"
Jenny approached the gimbaled table. She set on it the tureen of stewed lamb, root vegetables and broth. She quickly fetched the steins and placed them next the plates and cutlery. She stood back and bowed her head. Robin came forward, in clean shorts and singlet, and stood to attention. He abruptly bowed his head as well.
"Almighty Father, bless this food and us to your service, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, Amen" said Margarethe. "Serve!"
Jenny served out the food, poured the cold lager, and waited her Mistress' order.
"Seats!" snapped Margarethe.
They sat. Margarethe waited until Jenny and Robin each had first taken a spoonful of the stew and eaten it. A Mistress' duty is to make sure her crew, even her slaves, have been fed first. In her heart were the words of the great Slim of Burma, spoken as if the Allmächtiger Herr Gott spoke them to her: "You will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor smoke, nor even sit down until you have personally seen that your men have done those things. If you will do this for them, they will follow you to the end of the world. And, if you do not, I will break you."
"And it's to the end of the world I will take them, and do my duty to them," thought Margarethe, eating the stew hungrily. At the wheel all day, she had had a slice or two of re-baked bread, cheese with the mould pared off, and some water, and nothing else, while sending the crew to their meals. Baked beans on toast with bottled lemon juice in water were hardly enough for a working crew by day, but the re-stocking would begin tomorrow, and a feast was in order.
Margarethe thought of broiled pork chops, red cabbage sauerkraut, boiled potatoes with butter dripping from them, cold dark St Pauli Girl, and a real eisbecher with fresh strawberries and chocolate sauce. Then an Uppman perfecto, and then she would play, biting Jenny's little fraises-du-bois nipples, slapping her thin English cheeks both facial and rectal, then using the vibrator (must get some more batteries, make sure Robin the Fool has them on the re-stocking list and beat his ass if he doesn't) and her finger and tongue on Jenny's thin warm cunt. Then the strap-on (dear old Schwarz Max) in Jenny's thin little ass. Finally, Jenny's mouth on her clitoris would finish her. Jenny would hum "Land of Hope and Glory" as Margarethe exploded her ejaculate into Jenny's mouth.
"Robin, you have the first watch. Take a couple of ibuprofen if you're still sore from last night. Jenny, I'll fuck you now, and you can take the next watch. Then call me, and I'll take over. Standing orders are in force from now; call me if in doubt at any time."