The Reckoning

By Don Solosan

Norfolk, VA -- The Baltimore Clipper, the Reckoning, leaves port on a 10-day run to Cadiz, Spain, carrying the U.S. Secretary of War on a diplomatic mission. But a sudden squall sends them off course into an area of the Atlantic where the winds seldom blow and sailing ships become trapped: the Sargasso Sea. The crew soon discovers that the hold is full of illegal weapons, their purpose shrouded in mystery. And that something huge, ancient, and sinister lurks beneath the weeds holding their ship in place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Solosan
• Release date: Feb 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463943083

Don Solosan

Don Solosan's first professional publication was in L. Ron Hubbard's Writers of the Future, volume 15. He is also an avid photographer, videographer, and sculptor. He currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.

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The Reckoning

Don Solosan

THE RECKONING

Copyright © 2021 by Don Solosan

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

Edited by Heather Ellingwood

Cover Art by Jeff G. Rack

Cover Design by Gnomus

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

A Coolville Digital Production

ISBN ebook 978-0-46394-308-3

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To my brother, David, for taking

me to the drive-in to see

the Hammer Studio classic

The Lost Continent

A Note On Sources

This scholarly account of the planned voyage of the Reckoning from Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America, to Cadiz, Spain, has been painstakingly assembled from all the extant journals, diaries, and personal letters of the crew and passengers, as well as the captain’s own journal and, of course, the ship’s log. Our heartfelt thanks to the Maritime Museum of Boston for allowing us to have access to this important document. None of these records have been available to the public before now.

Sadly, the most complete account of the voyage is also the least reliable. Popular British author William Hope Hodgson (1840-1880) was the second mate on the Reckoning and late in life wrote a novel about the experience (The Thing Beneath the Hull, 1878). It contains all fictional characters (even in the 1800s, getting sued was an issue!), and the included conversations will certainly be disputed by scholars. We have kept much of it here because it captures the salty flavor of life at sea.

Interestingly, all the major plot points of Hodgson’s book are nonetheless corroborated by the non-fiction texts (some report the conversations the men had, which should limit the aforementioned dispute). Whatever potential flights of fancy Hodgson’s imagination took also included the bulk of the others involved, it seems. Continuity between all texts is remarkably consistent. Therefore, we will not omit the fictional account, especially as it serves to fill in the holes of the narrative, and gives deep insight into the mental states of the men.

Historical Notes

In 1833, when the Baltimore Clipper Opportunity was proudly launched from the Kennard & Williamson shipbuilding docks at Fell’s Point, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America, the topsail schooner was state of the art. Her deck measured 100 feet, with an overall length of 157 feet. Her beam was 23 feet, her rigging stood 107 feet tall, and her draft was 12 feet. Her frame featured live oak, with decks of teak, and rails, hatch coamings, and skylights finished with Spanish mahogany. She was fast. Her top speed was 18 knots, using 9,327 square feet of sail to her best advantage. Her raked masts made her look like she was moving swiftly, even when standing still—but that speed was achieved through a sacrifice of cargo space resulting from her rounded bow and V-shaped hull. She reportedly cost $50,000.

Wealthy sea-dog and merchant Isaac McKim owned and operated the Opportunity, along with his cousin, John McKim, Sr. They ran cocoa, coffee, sugar, tobacco and cotton to Europe. When Isaac McKim died in 1838, the ship was sold to Howland & Aspinwall, a shipping concern based in New York, New York. They sent her east, where she spent 12 years plying the China trade.

Upon her return to the east coast of the Americas in 1850, she was sold once again. This time, to a Virginian shipbuilder who, in 1846, had been appointed as acting constructor for the U.S. Navy. His name was J. Luke Porter. He further reduced her cargo space, creating more cabins, screened the crews’ two heads at the bow for privacy so women could stroll the deck, and adding other luxurious passenger accommodations. Relaunched under a new name, she began her life as an executive transport and personal luxury yacht.

Porter, a God-fearing man, named her the Reckoning.

The years had not been particularly kind to the Opportunity. Barnacles and microscopic worms had continually attempted to claim the hull as their home. A drunken captain had driven her onto the Seven Mile Reef off the Florida island of Key West, and stove in her hull. A sober one had gotten her stuck on a sandbar outside the Parengarenga Harbour of North Cape, New Zealand, during a blow when she lost a mast (that was salvaged and later attached to a converted sugar barge; such is the way of the sea). By the time that Porter took possession, at least 40% of her original wood had been replaced.

Shipbuilding techniques had advanced rapidly over the passing years as well; new technologies, such as metal-clad hulls, and diesel motors to drive ships when the wind was lacking, were game changers. The good ship Reckoning was becoming a relic, obsolete.

But she had one more voyage ahead of her.

The year was 1860.

1 An Unwanted Guest

It wasn’t the first time that Dennis Wheatley thought he was about to die on that voyage, and unfortunately for him, it wouldn’t be the last.

The arm wrapped tightly around his neck was cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain, and he was in danger of blacking out.

Can’t... breathe... he managed to sputter.

He was surrounded by sailors, big, brawny men, who were yelling like animals and frantically striking out around his head.

And Wheatley just couldn’t understand how they had gotten to that point so quickly. Just moments before, they had all been finishing their dinner. It had been a quiet, civilized meal. Then, everyone went crazy. He had been yanked to his feet from behind, then the crew rushed him. Then he thought his life was ending.

Spots were dancing in his vision. He glimpsed Hodgson, the small second mate, roughly shove a much larger man out of his way. In his right hand, he held a machete, and as Wheatley lost consciousness, the man he thought was his friend swung the blade at his neck.

Wheatley collapsed, but the men held him up; they massaged his chest to get his lungs working again. Wheatley coughed and sucked in air.

Are you all right, sir? Gilliatt asked.

Wheatley revived and looked around; the men he was sure were bent on killing him now conveyed nothing but concern for his well-being. Gilliatt gently removed a rope from around his neck. Wheatley took a deep, calming breath. As oxygen infused his system, his mind and vision cleared. The rope in Gilliatt’s hands was actually purple and reddish flesh, with wet circular suckers running down its full length.

Wheatley gasped.

"What in Hades is that?"

2 A Cast of Characters

Hodgson and Wheatley quietly enjoyed their pipes standing in the crisp Virginian morning air while waiting at the end of the Reckoning’s gangplank for the rest of the passengers’ arrival. Most of the dignitaries were arriving late. Wheatley, himself, had arrived two days earlier. He had observed some cargo being loaded aboard under the supervision of Hodgson, the ship’s second mate. Even though the two could not have been more different, they were fast becoming friends.

William Hope Hodgson, a Brit, was a diminutive figure, and preciously handsome, which had encouraged bullies in his youth. In an excellent example of an organism responding to its environment, he had taken up exercise with an eye toward perfecting the art of fisticuffs. As a result, he had become incredibly, deceptively strong for his size. Ever since, anyone who thought to use him as a punching bag would learn a painful lesson.

Dennis Wheatley, an American, was tall and lanky, and his face would not win any beauty contests. It was thin, his nose was thin as well, and his lips were thin. He had the sharp, focused visage of an owl, which was fitting because he was in fact, a learned man.

Wheatley was 35 and had led a sheltered, academic life; Hodgson was 20 and had seen the world. Whereas Hodgson was reserved and introspective, Wheatley was prone to humor (especially bad puns) and laughter. His view of life was fairly innocent, even naive. For Wheatley, it would be his first ocean voyage; Hodgson hoped that it would be his last.

She’ll make fifteen knots, you say? Wheatley asked quietly about the Reckoning.

Yes, though our record is eighteen, Hodgson softly replied.

Wheatley did the math in his head.