Diaries / Lottie’s Watch Book
The view from the top of the mast and the top of a palm tree: what the lookout saw, on the galleon and on the island, and what she decided not to see.
Fiction. Legends, reports and most of the crew are invented. The ship and the shanty are real.
First watch
Climbed to the crow’s nest at sunset with my spyglass, a biscuit from Cookie and a blanket. Shouted “Sail ho!” at nine. It was a seagull. The captain came up on deck in his nightshirt and Duchess laughed at him for an hour.
Below me, the prisoners in the hold were very quiet. Scarface walked past their hatch three times. I did not write that down. Except I just did.
Sketch: the seagull, looking pleased with itself.
Middle watch
Sea fog so thick I could not see the bowsprit. The crew is snoring off Cookie’s grog. The captain says fog is perfect for keeping prisoners. Scarface says fog is perfect for lots of things, and looked at the lifeboats.
At four bells I heard a lifeboat splash. I looked very hard the other way, at nothing, for quite a long time.
Note: lifeboats, before, six. Lifeboats, after, five. Not my department.
Morning watch
The hold was empty at dawn and so was the treasure chest, mostly. The captain stamped up and down the deck and asked me what I had seen. I said a seagull. This was true, earlier.
He has ordered a second lookout. Scarface has volunteered to choose one. I expect it will be someone with very poor eyesight.
Sketch: the captain stamping, drawn small so he can’t see it.
Shore watch
We are anchored off the island, and the captain has made me lookout for the beach shanty too. There is no crow’s nest on an island, so I am up a palm tree, with a coconut for company and Madame Coralie underneath telling the coconut its fortune.
Today’s prisoners are locked in the shanty. The captain is rowing back from the galleon with the tide. I can see his boat. I can also see Scarface waving at me from the shanty door, very gently, to say “not yet”.
Note: coconut’s fortune: “You will fall.” Correct, at two bells.
Shore watch
Shouted “Sail ho!” as loudly as I could, a good while before the captain’s boat reached the reef. Everyone on the beach looked up. The prisoners in the shanty looked up. The captain looked up and stopped rowing to see what I was shouting at.
By the time he started again, the shanty was empty and the treasure with it. He has asked me to shout later in future. I have said I will try.
Sketch: the shanty door, wide open, and a very small boat.
Last watch
Saw the green flash at sunset, the real one, a sliver of green light as the sun went under. Sailors say it shows where treasure is buried. The captain asked me which island it pointed to.
I pointed at the wrong one. He has rowed off to dig there in the morning. Scarface brought me up a hot cocoa and said nothing at all, which is what friends do.
Note: the green flash is real weather. Look for it on a clear sea horizon. Don’t tell the captain where.
— L. Spyglass, lookout (seagulls a speciality)
