Enterprise of the 1600S

By David C. Martin

Enterprise of the 1600s is a sea story, a business story, about overcoming great odds and continually making the best of a situation. It tells how positive thinking, seizing opportunities, and building win-win relationships can work even in a world coming out of the dark ages. Dennis Merritt as a boy was kidnapped and forced to work as a crew on a merchant sailing ship. He found ways to thrive, and he built his own shipping business using commonsense techniques that were available then but not ever used. The ruling governments were jealous of his success and angry that he had avoided paying huge tributes back to them. Outwitting them was dangerous. Watch as Dennis plans and maneuvers to stay alive and thrive while building the most successful worldwide enterprise of the times.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 16, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984545855

David C. Martin

David C. Martin is the Emmy-winning national security correspondent for CBS News, a position he has held since 1993. He has been covering national defense and intelligence matters since 1974 and is also the author of Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of America’s War Against Terrorism. Martin and his wife, Dr. Elinor Martin, live in Chevy Chase, Maryland. They have four children.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

A Boy and the Ship – The Beginning 1633

He woke up and didn’t know where he was. It was dirty and dark with a faint light coming in through spaces between floorboards and wallboards. The floor seemed to be rolling contributing to his nausea. It was all he could do to keep from throwing up. His leg and his arm hurt like they might have been hit or twisted. What day was it? This must be a ship! He was shanghaied! He’d heard of that but didn’t think it could ever happen to him. Now it had.

Then it came back to him. Last he remembered it was night and he’d finished work and was going to meet Hannah at her house. She had agreed to let him take her out for dinner. He was really looking forward to her company and had saved up enough money for a nice meal. He had a very poor record with relationships. He had problems talking with the opposite sex. He didn’t want to screw this thing up. He was skinny and shy and didn’t make friends easily. This was officially, his first date. He wanted to make a good impression on Hannah. She was beautiful, and he was infatuated. Young as he was, he daydreamed about having a woman to share his life. Making a good living and making a life with her would be a very good thing. His mind was wandering in that direction and he should have been more aware of what was happening around him when he was attacked.

As he had walked near the downtown area two men came out of the shadows and attacked him. He tried to fight back, but they were big men with clubs and he was no match for them with his thirteen-year old body. He remembered getting hit and going down. Then nothing…. until now.

His name was Dennis Merit. He was born in 1620 in London. His father, Daniel Merit, had a business making clothes for some of the more prosperous Londoners. Daniel worked long hours and made a good living for his family. Dennis was the oldest, with four younger brothers, one not yet walking. His mother began to send him to work with his father to have one less kid to deal with at home, and he began to apprentice with his dad at the age of eight. He had problems with his dad, a perfectionist he could never do anything well enough for. He’d do things like drop bolts of cloth. He’d also disappear whenever he thought he could get away with it. Usually he didn’t get away with it. By now, he was a pretty good tailor, even if his dad didn’t appreciate it. Over the years he was taught his numbers and letters and how to write and cipher. He could compose letters and add and subtract. He had read many of the classics and enjoyed reading them when there was time.

He helped his dad keep the books of the business. He developed confidence in his abilities, and it was a good feeling knowing he could make a living as a tailor if he so chose, or something else, later on.

He turned over on the floor of the ship and was able to stand up. Thankfully, the sore arm and leg seemed to function ok. There was a door, but he couldn’t get it open. He yelled for help but no help came. He heard sounds he had never heard before, the creaking of wood and slapping of sails. The ship must be underway. He must have been in this place one night and most of the next day because the light through the boards became dimmer and dimmer like the falling of night. He was thirsty as he had never been thirsty before, and hungry. He was really getting scared.

In the next compartment, securely locked in, were five other boys. One of them was around twenty years old. One was only 11.

Dennis gasped as the door slammed open. A huge man with a club in his hand grabbed him by the collar and pushed him out and up a stairway. The other five boys were standing there. The smallest boy was sobbing.

He looked around. It was a ship. A huge ship. A few lanterns were lit and added some dim light. A few men working nearby looked like Dennis thought sailors should look like.

A man came up wearing a blue coat and hat with a sword in his hand. He said, I am Captain Willows. You belong to me now. If you do what you are told you will be fed and taught to be seamen. You are on the merchant ship Lucerne bound from London to Napoli. If you don’t do as you’re told, I will kill you and drop you over the side. There is no way you can ever go back where you were and no way will you ever escape this ship. Make the best of it, or make the worst of it.

They were each given a wooden bowl with water in it, and guzzled it quickly, trying not to waste a single drop. The man with the club moved in and said, My name is Noah. I’d just as soon kill you as look at you. Cap’n Willows told me to show you how to help us sail this ship. We need crew and you are it. You are going to swab out an area below deck and sling a hammock for yourselves. Make yourselves at home, boys. Come with me and see where you are going to live until you die or we are through with you. Don’t lose your bowl or you will not eat.

Days and weeks went by. Noah showed them how to raise and lower sail, swab decks, and clean the kitchen. He showed them how to angle and shorten sail. Their hands blistered, the blisters broke and their skin toughened. The food was fish from the sea and some oats, squash and barley from the cargo in the hold. They leaned down and toughened up. They were young, and still growing. They learned a little about each other.

William Hess was the oldest. He was 20. Alfred Possen was 14. Samuel Gray was 13 as was Jonathan Hackmore. Teddy Manly was only 11.

William had no family and survived as a member of a gang that hustled what they could and stole what they needed. He happened to be by himself at the wrong time and got picked up by the Lucerne’s Recruiting Party. Alfred was going to the store to pick up supplies for his mother. Samuel and Jonathan were walking home from school when they were picked up. Teddy was stolen out of his own backyard. Nobody was safe in the streets of the seedier parts of London.

At the end of the second month, they were told they would get paid a rate of 10 Shillings a month.

There were thirty seamen already on the ship. They were the toughest roughnecks Dennis had ever seen, with lean bulgy muscles and nasty dispositions. Their attitude toward their new shipmates was not good. They ignored them when they could, and bullied them when they got in the way. Some of them were sadistic and sought out opportunities to beat the boys and make them into servants. The boys were not safe alone with any of the sailors. The only safety they had was to stay together. They figured that out and resisted efforts to separate them.

One day William, when told to clean up a mess, said something back to a sailor named Caesar. Caesar was a tall, chiseled veteran with many years of sea duty and a nasty disposition. He’d had several fights and had won them all easily. They were in the hold, and only a few sailors were around. William was no stranger to fighting since it was how you established yourself in a gang. Caesar said, Clean that up or I’ll feed it to you!

William said, Come on! The fight was on. William was doing all right until Caesar picked up a spar and got in a good blow with it. William went down in pain, and Caesar clubbed him in the head until he was dead. The other sailors backed up Caesar’s claim that is was a fair fight caused by insubordination. Caesar was not disciplined.

None of the other captives had much education. They were shy and withdrawn and easily cowed by the crew. They were so scared they were almost sick. The captain and Noah recognized this and did just enough to buoy them up that it kept them alive and able to do the tasks they wanted from them. Dennis was scared to death, too, but he recognized that the captain needed them to crew the ship, and their best choice was to fill that need. It seemed obvious to him the alternative choice was torture and death. Scared as he was, he decided to work as hard as he could, learn as much as he could and do as much as possible to make them respect him. Then maybe he wouldn’t have to fear for his life all the time. He wanted his family back, and he wanted Hannah. But for now, he had to put that out of his mind and concentrate on what he had here.

The new boys were bullied all the time. Dennis found that staying away and being as invisible as he could be saved him a lot of problems. The others were easier to pick on. When he had a chance he fetched and carried for the seasoned sailors. He told the other guys that moping around was not helping. Find ways to be helpful. When you couldn’t find a way to help, get out of the way. Don’t let them know they were hurting you. The others recognized Dennis was different. They wanted to hear what he had to say. He didn’t seek it, but before long he was the leader of the captives. He talked about his philosophy. Work hard. Make Them happy. Learn how to do everything they needed done. Make it easy on them so they didn’t need to be beating on you to get things done. Maintain hope. You never know what might happen. He said, Sometime when we least expect it we might get an opportunity to get out of this mess. Be ready for that chance. In the meantime the question is, How can I get something positive out of this I can use later? This is an experience. It’s like going to school. We need to learn what it has to teach us."

Dennis thought getting physically stronger was one thing he could get out of this. Noah made them climb the ropes to get in the riggings and move the sails. Dennis relished this and tried always to be the first into the mast, into the highest sails. He liked to climb to the crow’s nest at the very top of the ship. He had never seen a view like it in his entire life.

They sailed into Napoli. Seeing land from the riggings was a big thrill, and he was the first to see it. He slid down and told Noah what he saw, and it was relayed to the captain. They docked and over the next few days, moved cargo to the deck from below. They were locked up while dockworkers took their cargo and loaded goods from Napoli to the decks. There was no chance to get off or talk to anyone from the shore. Two of the seamen defected. When they sailed, they were two people short. They sailed out of port and moved the cargo below decks. Noah supervised how it was secured.

How did they find that port that far away from London? That bothered Dennis. Up in the riggings you could see for miles and no landmarks were out there to guide you. How did you decide which way to point the ship, and how did you keep it going it that direction? He asked Noah. Noah agreed, It is a great mystery. Only the Captain and Andreas, the Mate, could guide the ship. Them and two of the seaman were able to work the tiller and keep the ship on course. Dennis thought to himself, How can I learn how to do this?

One night Dennis climbed up into the crow’s nest and found that Andreas was already there. He was looking down at an implement that didn’t look at all familiar. He said, Sorry Andreas, I didn’t know someone was already up here. I love being up so high and seeing all the stars around me. Should I go back down?

I’ve been watching you, Dennis. You can stay up here. This is a sextant. It lets me see a line stretched from due south to due north. I can add a line representing the direction the ship is going, or that I want the ship to go, and it shows me the angle that the lines intercept. A compass detects magnetic North on the deck of the ship. I can use that to aim the ship on the angle I want to go. As I turn the rudder, I affect the intersect angle on the deck compass. As long as I can keep the ship on the intercept angle I have here, I can keep it going in that same direction. If I want to change course, I plan the angle I need and change the rudder.

Wow! This is how to guide a ship! He thought he’d never get a chance to learn that. Dennis said, "Hey, Andreas. Can I help you? Can I do the rudder sometime when you have the ship and you want to use your sextant? Andreas didn’t reply. No other words were said as they both watched the stars and the beautiful seas.

A few nights later, Andreas summoned him to the deck. It was the middle of the night, and the seas were blustery. He said, Here is the compass. This shows the line of the ship in relation to the North-South line. It is 275 degrees. See if you can keep it that way while I go aloft and plot a new course. Dennis struggled all night long to keep the angle exactly as Andreas had wanted. Andreas checked in occasionally, but said nothing. By dawn Dennis was exhausted. Andreas called on him often after that, and he lost a lot of sleep. But he started to get the feeling if he could learn about this he could get control of his life.

At the next port two seamen defected and the captives had to do a lot more work. Noah sent Dennis into the hold with the instructions to tie down the cargo and keep it from moving around with the pitching of the ship. He walked through and immediately saw there was a problem. Musket balls, gunpowder and cannon balls were all stored near the front hatch, near the stair to the main deck. They were by far the heaviest