The most well-known type of Japanese woodblock art print technique is called moku hanga which employs watercolour pigments rather than oil-based inks. The earliest surviving instances of this type of printing on fabric are from China, dating from before CE 220, and from Egypt, dating from the 4th century. With a wood plank that has been carved in such a way to allow inking and subsequent printing, it continues to be widely used throughout East Asia. The scene was only one more strange element to be added to the voyage of the Cyclops.Woodblock printing is a technique for printing text, images, or patterns that originated in China in antiquity as a way of printing on textiles and then paper. The eyes were open and reflected fear mingled with suffering and hardship, eyes that had seen too much. The patient's face looked tired and yellow-skinned, a youngish face that belied the thick forest of white hair above.
Church peered over Gottschalk's shoulder and saw the ship's doctor bent over a man lying in a bunk. He made his way aft and saw that the steam lines that ran the winches and auxiliary equipment were scraping against the bulwarks as the ship rose and fell with the long, slow swells.Īs he was walking down a passageway toward the wardroom for a cup of coffee a cabin door opened and the American consul general to Brazil, Alfred Gottschalk, hesitated on the threshold, talking to someone inside. The waves had diminished to ten feet and no water was coming over the deck. He stepped onto the deck and stared out over the bow. Almost immediately, the mooring lines were cast off and the ship got under way and was heading out to sea through the harbor entrance. Then he greeted Gottschalk and escorted him to his quarters. As if on cue, Worley appeared and personally supervised the battening down of the hatch.
He gazed anxiously as a large oblong crate was hoisted in the air by one of the ship's loading booms and swung into the forward cargo compartment. Thank you, said Gottschalk.I need something from one of my trunks. He stepped from the cabin and closed the door behind him, his eyes narrowed with suspicion.Something I can help you with, Lieutenant.īefore we have coffee, would you be so kind, Lieutenant, as to escort me to the baggage cargo hold? Gottschalk turned and noticed Church standing in the passageway. His narrow eyebrows very nearly matched his clipped moustache. He wore his silver-yellow hair cropped excessively short, Prussian style. Despite his short, rotund, and almost comical frame, he radiated that indefinable air of someone accustomed to the upper rungs of authority. Then he looked up, taking in every detail of the Cyclops from her ungainly straight-up-and-down bow to the graceful curve of her champagne-glass stern. The consul general had stepped out of a chauffeur-driven town car and directed the loading of his steamer trunks and suitcases. I don't want to see your face until we reach port.Īs officer of the deck before the ship departed Rio de Janeiro, Church had observed a motor caravan arrive on the dock. Mother of God, muttered the helmsman, his voice edged with panic. Would you care to join me?Ī sickening realization struck Church.The Crogan Castle, the ship that sent the distress signal, said her prow was stove in and her superstructure damaged. I was just finishing an inspection of the ship and heading for the wardroom for a cup of coffee. A trip that proved negative, seeming to confirm Worley's faith in the Cyclops.ĭon't you see, she must have been struck by a giant, rogue wave.Ĭhurch, sir. One more inspection tour down to the engine room to see if any water was reported rising in the bilges. It took all his willpower to keep from heading to the snug confines of his bunk and gratefully closing his eyes to the grim set of problems surrounding the ship. Though the person on the stretcher was obviously part of his entourage, Gottschalk took little notice, turning his attention instead to the chain-drive Mack truck that brought up the rear. Church watched as a figure on a stretcher was lifted out and carried on board, but he failed to discern any features because of heavy mosquito netting that covered the face. The second vehicle in the caravan was an ambulance. The hull plates groaned under the stress and they could hear several cracking noises.
From instinct, honed by years at sea, everyone in the wheelhouse automatically grabbed at the nearest secure object to keep his footing. Suddenly, before Worley could reply, the Cyclops lurched downward into a deep trough between the swells.
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