Atlantic Ocean: Thanksgiving

8) Thanksgiving
Atlantic Ocean, November 28, 1844

A) Fair Winds, Empty Seas
The weather continues to be remarkable fair, especially for early November. Joab takes every opportunity to pile on canvas, and soon orders studding sails set on the courses and topsails. Commonly referred to as “stunsails” and pronounced “stuns’ls,” these extensions take full advantage of the fair wind. They are erected by extending the yardarms using extra spars, the additional canvas giving the ship a notable pyramidal shape. While it requires some adept seamanship, the Quids are up to the task, and the Keeper may call for Seamanship rolls from relevant player characters, with failures resulting in minor mishaps or injuries. Although whalers rarely set stunsails, no one seems surprised by Joab’s haste to reach the Pacific Ocean—after all, the Atlantic has been sadly bereft of whales.

Traveling South
As the days and latitudes pass, the weather grows warmer. The dogwatches take on a more festive atmosphere, with sailors shedding their shirts and enjoying the tropical sunlight. Even Captain Joab comes to the quarterdeck more often, a look nearly approaching contentment touching his grim features. Indeed, he even asks the carpenter to auger a few holes into the deck near the mizzenmast shrouds, to better stabilize his pegleg as he gazes across the waves. As the Quiddity passes by the Caribbean, Joab points westward and remarks to all in earshot, “Ever since I was a boy, great men have talked of cutting a canal across the Isthmus of Darien, yonder on the Spanish Coast. Imagine it, man. No more Cape Horn. My God, we’d be in the Pacific in no time! Damn ye men, hurry thine spades—could only my will furrow the earth like our Quid ploughs the sea…”

Still no whales.

B) Training and Development Checks
Four weeks of constant training and “on the job learning” pay off, and all player characters may advance their skills before Thanksgiving. (NPCs do not advance; the stats as given reflect their abilities in mid-voyage, and may change as the Keeper sees fit.) After a month at sea, player characters benefit from the following.

Standard Development Checks
All characters are allowed to make Development Checks for any skill they have successfully used this first month at sea.

Bonus Development Checks
All player characters make bonus Development Checks in: Climb, Leadership, Mechanical Repair, Pilot (Boat), Seamanship, and Navigation. These checks occur regardless of whether or not the character has earned them through gameplay, or whether they’ve already advanced these skills as described above.

Bonus Skills
Each player character gets 25 percentile points to distribute among any skills relevant to shipboard life. This includes all the skills mentioned above, but also Natural World, Sea Lore, Spot Hidden, and various nautical Arts and Crafts. (However not Whalecraft.) Points may only be assigned in Fighting (Harpoon) or Fighting (Lance) if the character has been training with a proficient character. A Language skill is also acceptable, providing the character is being tutored by a native speaker. While these 25 points may be divided however the player sees fit, a single skill cannot be raised more than 10 points. 

C) Thanksgiving
In nineteenth-century New England, Thanksgiving was more important than Christmas, and it’s one of the few holidays celebrated onboard a whaling ship. (Christmas and the Fourth of July are the others.) Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 28, four weeks out from Kingsport and very near the equator. Captain Joab declares Thanksgiving a shipboard holiday, meaning a day of minimal work. The afternoon is spent sporting, with boat races earning the winning crew an extra tot of rum. (The Keeper is free to roleplay another boat race or just roll for the winner. However, by this point the oarsmen have become more comfortable in their positions, and no Constitution or Sanity rolls are required!)

Thanksgiving dinner is even more welcome than the reduced duties, and Natty Weeks asks a foremasthand to help with butchering a swine. The forecastle is given fresh pork and applesauce for dinner, with the officers, harpooneers, and idlers feasting on a turkey named Henrietta, a previous inhabitant of the forward deck. The cabin diners also receive pumpkin pie for desert. After dinner, Mr. Pynchon asks Mr. Coffin to assemble the crew for a sunset prayer led by Natty Weeks. Joab appears strangely uncomfortable during the prayer, and maintains an aloof distance before vanishing back to his cabin.

White Leviathan, Chapter 2—Atlantic Ocean
[Back to Encounter 7, Boat Races | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to Encounter 9, Star and Squall]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 21 March 2022
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]