THE RIVER LADY
By; Speaker Gerald A. Polley.
All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Captain John Henderson
As Captain John Henderson watched the four cars and twenty-five passengers come on his ferry The River Lady, he was a little disappointed. He thought a few more would turn out for the last trip to the mainland.
The trip out had been dismal, too. Few looking at the Captain would guess he was sixty years old. Many that knew him were well aware that he had made the trip from Cape Glouster to Prince Edward Point and back for thirty five years. Through hurricanes, blizzards, whatever nature could throw at them The River Lady had kept her schedule every day. Now, twenty miles of bridges and tunnels connected the three off shore islands, and already land speculators were buying up the peaceful communities. Soon Americans fleeing the congestion of their overcrowded cities below the border would be pouring up to fill these peaceful Canadian Islands with humanity.
True, they would be cream of the society, the rich and the influential that could afford to pay the expensive foreign resident's tax that Canada now charged outsiders who wanted to reside in their territories.
The Captain shook his head. A wave from the Piermaster told him it was time.
"Mr. Peterson!" he called to his helmsman, "Half astern, please!"
The twenty-five year old helmsman who the girls of Cape Glouster all called Hercules, fit the image of the mythological strongman. His long dark hair and olive skin made him look Greek though his ancestry was Irish and Indian.
"Half astern sir," the helmsman answered. "Engine room not responding, sir!" the helmsman snapped. Annoyed, the Captain keyed the intercom.
"Mr. Davidson," he groaned, "What's the trouble now?"
An irritated Irish voice answered, "It's the damned gear box again, Captain. Give me a minute!"
There were two loud banging sounds over the intercom and then an annoying grinding.
"Engine room answering, sir," the helmsman snapped.
"Very good!" the Captain answered. "Steady as she goes! Stand by for maneuver. One quarter right rudder, now."
The River Lady's stern slowly turned, bringing her bow around with it. "Rudder amid ships!" the Captain called. "All stop!"
"Rudder amid ships!" the helmsman called. "All stop, sir!"
"Full ahead!" the Captain ordered. "Standard course, Mr. Peterson. Take us into the channel. Watch out for those damned yachts. We don't want to run over another one, even if you do like to rescue nearly naked young ladies!"
"It wasn't my fault!" the helmsman muttered.
"Didn't say it was!" the Captain snapped back.
As the ferry began to move for a few moments it seemed to rock. The Captain looked to the nearby shore. Though the weather was beautifully calm suddenly waves were lapping over the rocks.
"Oh, Jesus Christ!" the helmsman moaned, "Not another one!"
"I'm afraid so!" the Captain answered. "I wonder where in the hell it was this time?"
"Turn on the radio, sir?" the helmsman asked.
The Captain nodded. In a few moments a squeaky voice filled the air. "Well, this is Bobbin' Robin in Vancouver, on WHLL. And if you're wonderin', YES, that was another earthquake. But it was only a little one. Our seismograph here in the office registered only point one. Just as soon as I can tell you where it was located, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, back to our music. Here's the latest release from The Thundersteeds, "I'm Chief Of This Mountain.""
The Captain had not particularly liked rock and roll. He simply hated Native American bop even more. He tended to ignore the music and only became interested again when the announcer came back on.
"Well, folks," the announcer cried, "Old Bobbin' Robin has got the news for you. That tumble was from Mount George. It seems that old volcano has decided to start rumbling again after several hundred-thousand years. That makes eight volcanoes now reactive on the west coast of the North American continent. I have with me here in the studio Professor Norman Pike, one of Canada's most noted vulcanologists.
Professor, tell me, what do you think of what this expert Jonathan Woods in The United States is saying about a catastrophic collapse of The Pacific Rim? What is his theory, exactly?"
The vulcanologist laughed. "Professor Woods," he began, "is a very sincere man, but is basing his calculations on inaccurate data. He believes the continental drift has been occurring because the Earth is slowly shrinking as it cools. Most of the time the Earth is cooling at a steady rate. But for some reason he cannot determine in the last twenty years the Earth has been cooling at an alarmingly rapid rate, twenty to thirty times faster than normal. He firmly believes from studying previous eruption patterns, that this occurs every million years or so, that in a very short time, maybe even days, the entire Pacific Rim will suffer a catastrophic failure. He has so alarmed the people of California that many of them have left the state for fear The Big One, as they call it, is finally at hand.
As anyone can see from the last few months' activities, there HAS been an awful lot of volcanic and seismic activity, but I am sure nothing catastrophic like the Professor visualizes, will come to pass. I believe we may see one or two more extinct volcanoes return to life for a little while, and everything will settle back. There's going to be no violent explosion of the west coast of North America."
"Well, let's hope you're right!" the D.J. cut in before the Professor could ramble on any more. "I mean, really, two tsunamis in six months is quite enough! Well, folks, we'll bring you up to date on the rockin' and rollin' on our regular newscast at eleven. Right now I feel like some classics. Let's see, what will it be? Let's just push a button on the old Memory Machine."
A surfing song began to play. The Captain reached up and turned off the radio, much to his helmsman's displeasure!
Dusk was settling in and the Captain wanted to see the lights of the harbor undisturbed, as they came in one last time.
Even the helmsman sighed a little, as they plowed on, the old ferry's three diesel engines pounding away.
"It's too bad," the helmsman finally remarked as they were nearing the dock, "they couldn't find someone to buy her, that wanted to use her. I hate to think of her run up on a beach and scrapped."
"You're not the only one!" the Captain muttered, "You're not the only one!"