I finally became a Cap'n on this 'ere island of Pyracy, so I spent the night in celebratin' ashore with wine, women and song. I drank 'til I couldn't stand and then I drank sittin'. Then I drank lying down. I don't remember what I did after that. Strange.
Still...
...imagine me surprise when I awoke the next day to find the deed to a frigate clutched in me fingers! I unrolled the paper to read and re-read the name. It seems that I was new owner of a Spanish frigate which had been oddly named "Katherine the Great". A Spanish ship named for Russian royalty? I wondered how had I even come to own such a vessel. I found upon inquiry, that I had won her in a game of chance sometime during the night, though it was hard to consider it a win when I finally located her berth.
She lay in the trees, a full 200 feet from the tide line. She was upright but listing 5 degrees to larboard with her starboard side facing out to sea and her stern almost due west. Her sails had been stripped for other ships long before my arrival and more than a little timber had been taken as well. She had little riggin' left and her color showed that she had endured at least one season of neglect since that fateful wave had brought her hard ashore.
I was stunned. I stood transfixed, both in horror and delight. Here was a ship of excellent make too far from the sea to ever know it again. Here was a vessel of strong timbers that had most unexpectedly arrived in a grove of pecan trees and date palms. Here was a most sad and glorious site mixed together.
At first, I did not know what to do. Then, I clambered aboard to survey her depths. Little or no furnishings remained except those built into her original design. Only a few doors were missing and she seemed deceptively new in places, but poorly neglected just the same.
The galley remained much as it had been, with some evidence of fire remaining from her inland journey. I numbered the two stoves appreciably and noted the well made cupboards and larder. One could feed a fair number with such a kitchen, but what of that? I reminded meself that she were landlocked and should remain so without an undertaking that I meself could never afford.
My remaining rummaging revealed more of the same. A good ship that might never sail again.
I stood at the wheel for the better part of an hour. I then took to pacing her length for another hour and a half. When the sun was near it's zenith it occurred to me that she might be put to good use. She might be home to a crew of a sort. She might know the devotions of many a sailor again. She might be home to those of us that find ourselves landlocked and in need of the sea...
...so I went to work.
Today I open the doors to me first piratical establishment. I've sewn up her wounds and staved off her decay and neglect. Sixteen barrels of good oil and not a few casks of nails, wooden pegs and iron pins have put her right again. I've polished brass, glass and beam. I've scraped, reshaped and verily resurrected what would have been lost if not for drunken chance. She be landlocked surely, but she be a fine ship nonetheless, and until I can drag her back to sea, I shall fill this unfortunate interval in her life with music, mirth and merry-makin'! So come aboard and enjoy a pint. Sit down a spell and spin some smoke rings and yarns.
To name this new establishment, I have borrowed on her life from before and the circumstances that brought her here...
...I call her Tsunami Kate.
To slake and satiate all who enter in.
