“You ignorant dog!”
This was shouted in Greek, but even before Icould react, a figure dropped down from the walkway, making asplash as he struggled to the bench, where he grabbed the slave whowas only trying to help his comrade by the hair, and yanking himsavagely back down onto the bench.
“If we do not keep the strokes even,we are going to founder, you stupid bastard!”
He was grabbing the oar and shoving it intothe man’s hands as he said this, but before he could reach down tohelp up the other man, whose head had at least broken the surface,the ship lurched in a sickening manner that was not part of thenormal motion. The crewman would have joined the slave at thebottom of the ship, yet somehow, I managed to drop the helmet andgrab the back of his soaked tunic. He glanced over his shoulder,and while I heard him say something, I could not make out thewords, but I gave him a nod to assure him that I would not let go.His footing more secure, he reached down, and just as he had withthe other man, grabbed a handful of hair, and pulled the man backup next to his companion.
With that done, he bellowed, again in Greek,“If your mate loses his seat, he will have to fend for himselfbecause you need to do your fucking job! Do you understand me?”
It was not until some time later that thethought struck me that it was actually unlikely that these men did,at least not much of it; still, what mattered was that they obeyedwhen it happened again, this time on the opposite side of the ship.While this was taking place, now that the men were using theirhelmets to augment their comrades who were already working with theleather buckets, the level of water in the bottom of the ship beganto drop. It was barely enough to notice at first, and it seemed asif as much time was spent by my men helping one of their comradesout of some difficulty caused by the plunging and rolling of theship as they did the bailing. Nevertheless, somehow, it seemed asif one moment the water was over the knees of all of the men butme, then it was several inches below.
“Centurion!” I turned to see thecrewman who had leapt down to save the two oarsmen, but he was nowback on the walkway, holding on to one of the support beams withone hand. Seeing he had my attention, he shouted, in Latin, “We areno longer in extreme danger from foundering. I thank you and yourmen!”
My usual impulse when someone says somethingI consider to be superfluous, or perhaps a bit silly, is to besarcastic, but this time, I stifled the retort about how neither mymen nor I could have given a fart in a testudo about the crew; wewere working to save ourselves.
What I did not realize was that he wasgiving me a hint, so when I did not move, he added, “My suggestionis that you return to your cabin, Pilus Prior. We’re alreadycrowded as it is, and,” he did pause, then finished, “you will justbe in the way.”
What he did not realize was that I was perfectlyhappy to leave, and I made my way back to the rear of the shipalong the walkway, although I made sure to call out to those men Iwas close enough to that I could recognize them, offering them whatencouragement I could. I had just left the compartment and wasstanding in the small open area, clinging to the ladder, when ithappened. What happened,exactly, I would not know for a fair amount of time, but I dorecall it began with the deck underneath my feet suddenly shiftingagain. However, I instantly understood that it was not in themanner to which I had grown, if not accustomed, at least acceptedwas part of the normal pitching and rolling in this storm. The bestway I can explain it was that it was as if the ship suddenlypivoted and changed its orientation by a matter of ninety degrees,and because it was so unexpected, my feet flew out from under me sothat I landed heavily on my back on the deck and I was now lookingstraight up at the ladder and hole. Somewhat ironically, my fallwas cushioned by all the sloshing water so that I was not knockedsenseless, at least at that moment. Then I heard a sharp,splintering sound that, while it was similar to the snapping I hadheard earlier, was much, much louder, but I only had the barestsense of something appearing above the hole, moving so quickly thatI am not certain how I understood that what was rushing at me wasthe mast of our ship. There was a horrific crashing sound, and Ithrew both my hands in front of my face…and that is the last thingI remember of that moment.
My next memory is of swaying, not in aviolent manner, but more of a gentle rocking that I immediatelyremembered was the
