A Watery Grave
Authors: Joan Druett
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Contents
A Few Recommendations for Those Interested in the Saga of the Exploring Expedition
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For Gillian (who knows who she is)
Author's Note
On Sunday, August 18, 1838, the six ships of the first, great United States South Seas Exploring Expedition, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, crewed by 246 officers and men, and with seven scientists and two artists on board, set sail from the Hampton Roads, Virginia, headed for the far side of the world. Almost four years later, in June 1842, the remnants of the expedition straggled into New York. One vessel had been sent back in disgrace; one had been lost with all hands; another had been wrecked at the Columbia River; and a fourth had been sold into the opium-running trade on the coast of China. Much had been accomplishedâhuge tracts of the ocean had been charted, plus 800 miles of scarcely known Oregon shore and 1,500 miles of entirely unknown Antarctic coast. The Stars and Stripes had fluttered off the lagoons of well over 200 tropical islands, and more than 4,000 artifacts and 2,000 scientific specimens had been collected, an enormously rich fund that became the foundation of the collection of the new Smithsonian Institution. For uncounted thousands of Pacific Islanders the Exploring Expedition had been their first introduction to the official face of the USA. Yet, instead of returning home in triumph, Lieutenant Wilkes chose to slink on shore by hitching a ride on the pilot boat.
The strange voyage of the U.S. Exploring Expedition is the setting of the Wiki Coffin mystery series. While the novels are based on true events, and many of the participants in the stories are real, the mysteries and the people most intimately involved with them are figments of the author's overactive imaginationâas is the brig
Swallow,
the seventh ship upon which most of the action takes place.
One
Virginia, August 1838
The man who was about to be wrongfully arrested waited in the black shadow of a tree by the Elizabeth River. His name was Wiki Coffin, and he had been waiting without moving for more than two hours. Thinking that it was surely time the appointment was kept, he restlessly touched the pistols in his belt. Stilling again, he listened intently for the sounds of people approachingâthe rhythmic swish of oars or the rattle of harness and beat of hoovesâbut heard nothing.
When Wiki had taken up his station the moon had been high, glinting on the leaves above his head, its face occasionally obscured by high clouds. The soft breeze was redolent with the smells of cypress and swamp, warm growth, and salt sea; and the night was filled with the quiet rush and lap of the river, along with the almost inaudible chuckle of one of the creeks that fed the great stream somewhere beyond an upriver headland. Closer, crabs scuttled and shellfish plopped. Too, Wiki had heard small creatures prowl the thicket behind him, owls calling in distant trees, and faint ghostly cries from the Great Dismal Swamp,
Whip poor Willy, whip poor Willy whip
 ⦠Now the graying sky rang with the harsh call of hunting ospreys, while gulls swooped and squalled over the harbor. The moon and stars had faded.
Across the river the far shore was becoming distinct. The waters were a clear brown like strong tea, streaked with veins of mud, shimmering as the sun nudged the low horizon, waves rising and falling so that the seven ships of the United States Exploring Expedition rocked gently at their anchors. The flagship
Vincennes,
her massive hull painted black save for the white streak regularly interrupted with square black gun ports, was lit up by the first long rays; and the intricate rigging of the second-in-command, the sloop of war
Peacock,
became silhouetted against the sky. Then the chunky hull of the expedition's storeship
Relief
came into view. The smaller ships of the discovery fleetâ
Porpoise, Flying Fish, Sea Gull,
and
Swallow
âwere veiled in the mists that rose off the water, but Wiki could hear faint piping and drums as the watches were summoned to swab decks.
He thought that soon there would be antlike figures in the yards and masts, reminding all of Norfolk and Portsmouth that after years of dissention and controversy the great United States Exploring Expedition was truly bound for exotic shores and distant seas, and heard the distant sound of a trumpet, echoed by trilling calls from all the ships. It was the order to get ready to make sail and trip the anchor, and he realized with a lurch in his chest that the fleet was readying for departure. Boats were putting out hastily from shore, heading for the ships. He thought urgently that he should be on board the
Swallow;
soon he would be missed. Wiki shifted from one foot to the other, a knot in his gut, on the verge of abandoning his vigil.
With a queer mixture of foreboding and relief, he saw a small boat heading his way. Unexpectedly, however, it was coming from an upriver direction, not from across the harbor, so that it was only about forty or fifty feet away when he first saw it. It was a curiously derelict craft, too, but he stepped out of the shelter of the tree, raising his palm in a signal. Then, from the corner of his eye, Wiki glimpsed movementânot on the river, but in the thicket on the low slope behind him. He whirled around, heard the utterly unexpected crack of a rifle, and felt the wind of a bullet as it whined close by.
Ambush!
Wiki dived full length, rolling in the mud to keep a low profile as he discarded his pistols, spinning them into the cover of a bush. The rifle cracked a second time as he hit the water, and he dug his head into the first wave and struck out strongly for the boat.
When he lifted his face to suck in a breath the gun was silent. He had no way of telling how many shots had been fired in the meantime. There was no movement in the thicket, but the feeling of being watched persisted. Then he looked for the boat. It was just a few yards away, revolving with the current. There was no sign of any oarsmen. To all appearances, it was empty. Perplexed, Wiki paused, kicking slowly to keep still in the water.
Something white lifted up from inside the boat. It was just a flicker, but looked like a woman's arm gesturing for help. A superstitious shiver lifted the wet hairs on his neck. A man in a Norfolk tavern had told him the story of the Lady of the Lakeâthe ghost of an Indian girl who had died in the Great Dismal Swamp on the way to a tryst with her lover. The sight of her canoe always came as a dire warning, the man had said. However, Wiki ducked his head down and swam for the boat because he reckoned he had no choice.
Another dozen strokes and he was there. Wiki gripped the rough wooden gunwale on the side away from the beach, shaking his head vigorously to flap his long hair away from his face and blinking water from his eyes. Then he froze, his grasp convulsive. There was a dead woman lying in the bottom of the boat.
She was laid out formally, as if in a coffin, stretched out on her back beneath the single thwart with her gown spread neatly all the way to the toes of her satin slippers, her hands clasped together on her breast. A paddle lay tidily beside her, its blade still wet. Wiki knew something of boat burials. In the remote Pacific he had visited atolls where it was the custom for a funeral canoe to be pushed out to sea with the corpse inside. Too, he had read about Viking funerals, where important cadavers were placed in longships and buried or burned or set adrift; but this was definitely his first personal experience of any such thing. He was also certain boat burial was not the custom in Virginia.
The dead woman appeared to be quite young, not much older than himself. Her muslin gown was white, and he saw that a fold of this, catching the breeze, had tricked him into thinking it was a beckoning arm. Realizing that she had not been dead many hours, he shivered again. The yellow curls that escaped from her lace cap still held some of the shine of life. Then, as the boat bobbed with his weight on the gunwale, the woman's head fell to one side, and her mouth gaped. She had been beautiful, but now she looked grotesque.
He heard shouts and the thump of hooves and looked up to see that people had burst out onto the riverbank, followed by a big man on a horse, who held himself as if he was someone official. The low sun caught the glitter of the badge he wore on his coat. The law, Wiki realized, or maybe even the sheriff, which meant there was a good chance it was safe to return to the beach. Perhaps they had arrested the rifleman. He slid hand over hand along the side until he came to the trailing painter, and then, drawing the rope over his shoulder, he gripped the cut end between his teeth and began to swim, lugging the boat with its macabre burden behind him.
He swam slowly because the going was much harder than he had expected. The boat was getting heavier by the moment, and when he turned his head he saw it was lower in the water, sinking visibly. Then he saw that water was pouring in from two holes bored into the hull just below the waterline. The loose fold of the woman's white gown was now too sodden to lift with the breeze. Another ten minutes and the body would have disappeared forever. The boat would have sunk, the current dragging it along the river bottom toward the waiting sea, and the thwart would have prevented the decomposing corpse from floating free.
Wiki swam hard to get the boat to the beach before it foundered, thinking it was going to be a close call. As it was, if people had not dashed into the water to help, he would have been forced to give up. When they finally got hold of the boat, Wiki crawled up onto the grass with what felt like the last of his strength. He sat slumped, waiting for his breathing to settle. The sound of the hull grating on mud and sand and people shouting was muted in his thundering ears. Then he heard the rattle of leathers as the horseman dismounted. Wiki slowly clambered to his feet.
However, the officer was paying him no attention. Instead, he was hunkered down by the beached boat, so Wiki took the opportunity to look about for his pistols but without success. Then, when the man finally stood up and turned to face him, Wiki saw he had the two heavy weapons held by the barrels in one massive hand.
The officer was a middle-aged, burly fellow, his face mottled red with good living and creased with years of sun. His coat and riding breeches were well-tailored and fashionable, so that despite the five-pointed nickel star on his lapel he looked a lot more like a prosperous landholder than an agent of law, order, and the collection of taxes. For a moment there was silence while this individual looked from one muddy pistol to the other, balancing them on his broad palms; then he lifted his head to stare at Wiki from under the brim of his wide planter's hat, saying, “These folks tell me they heard you firing these here pistols. What did you think you were shooting at, son?”