Alright that last chapter really taxed the spooky side of my brain, so I decided to use the other part, you know the same one that created the Lonely King. So now on a lighter note I present a story I call Captain Kellog and the lost island again presented by Mr Max Malcolm.
Not so long ago, but longer than most of you can remember there was a time that the measure of a countries greatness was their power at sea. Being a man meant something different then, and like a country was hardly worth talking about unless they had a powerful navy, a man was hardly a man if he hadn't sailed the seas and explored shores unknown all in the name of his country. During this time the fastest ship usually won, and countries had to compete to be the first to land on new shores and claim them for king and country. This was also the time of privateers and pirates. Being a privateer was a sort of trade off. On one hand you had wonderful chances to make money in a unique and challenging way. Add to that if you were particularly good your king or queen would pin a medal on you and perhaps even grant you a fancy title and land to go with it. On the downside you wouldn't have been very popular with the merchants and navies of other seafaring countries. But that's life for you, you take the good you take the bad you take them all and there you have... Captain Kellog is just such a man as we have been talking about. Some called him a monster, terror of the high seas was his nickname to his enemies. But to the people of his country he was a hero, and mothers told their sons to grow up to be like the great man. He was popular with his men, and women in every port he stopped at tried to pull out all their womanly whiles to try and tempt the great man into being their personal sweetheart. But Captain Kellog was immune to their charms, while he appreciated the acclaim and popularity he wanted to win a woman's heart on his own. He also always told himself that his mistress was the sea, and such a saucy mistress is as much trouble as any man can handle.
This is a story about an above average adventure that changed his life. Captain Kellog was charting his own course out of port. He had a full supply of goods, a happy and well rested crew and the wind was on his side. He sailed southwest out of European influences toward the unknown. About three or four days out to sea the man in the crow's nest spotted clouds on the horizon, and Captain Kellog instructed the helmsman to try to sail around it. This turned out to be little help as the storm was much to large to avoid. They hit the storm several hours later and the sailors fought for their lives and their ship to survive the horrible storm. This was more than just being a man and saving yourself it was keeping your friends save and serving your captain. Captain Kellog's crew were as fine a crew as any captain could hope for. The ship tossed and battled through the waves through the night, several men were swept overboard as the vessel tipped in the waves and rainwater made the deck slick and dangerous. When they finally got free of the storm they found themselves within eyesight of a landmass none of them were familiar with. An island rose out of the frothy ocean like a mirage, and many of the men wondered if this was some sort of trick of their tired minds. Captain Kellog ordered them to sail closer and to drop anchor so they could assess the damage and try and repair the damage. As he had worried the mast was in no condition to sail, not even to limp towards friendly waters. The determination was made that a new mast must be constructed and that the sails needed some work before they could continue on their voyage. It would be five days before the ship could sail again, and the more time they could give it the better off they would be.
Since only half the men were needed to do the repair work the captain decided that now would be as good a time as any to explore the uncharted island that they had come to. He personally led an expedition ashore to learn more. Upon first glance the island looked as inhospitable as any he had ever seen. On one side steep stone cliffs with rocks around the bottom prevented even their lifeboats from finding safe harbor. As they rowed around the island however they found a hospitable cove with sandy beaches to safely pull their boats up onto the shore. They had not seen any sign of natives from the shore, but that didn't mean by any means that the land was uninhabited. The captain and his crew cut a path through the underbrush, unknowing that they were being watched. They didn't expect the tripwire or net to ensnare them as it did. Even more unexpected was the state of the natives. When the natives came to collect them the captain was shocked to see them fully clothed in finely tailored suits, in bright beautiful fabrics. This was far from what any of them had seen in what they always considered primitive cultures. Even more shocking was the way they spoke, they spoke with as much intelligence as any crewman on their ship. The natives told them that their leader had expected them, and the sailors were now prisoners and should not struggle and they would be treated fairly if they did as they were told. Captain Kellog agreed and they followed the natives through the underbrush until they reached a large clearing and found an english style large dwelling there. They entered into the house and met the leader, a tall white man in a tailored suit as fine as any nobleman. He spoke to them thus: "My name is Gorag, well not actually. It's actually Smith but the natives have taken to calling me Gorage which means leader to them. I teach them things I know and they made me leader, that seems like a fair trade to me." Well what could captain Kellog do but agree to that? so he did of course. Then Kellog went on to explain their situation, and how their ship was stranded until they got a new mast. Gorag was sympathetic and said he would do what he could to help. Gorag explained that he had become shipwrecked on this island with nothing but his intellect to survive, lucky for him that he was a scholar and knew how to teach the natives how to create beautiful clothing and strong buildings. As Gorag explained this a door opened and in walked the most lovely woman Kellog had ever seen. It almost didn't seem fair to call her a woman she was so beautiful. She wore a simple tightly fitting dress that displayed every bit of her figure. Her skin was practically golden from the sun, and her complexion was flawless. She spoke and it was like music, such music as they had never heard before. She said that she was curious to meet the first visitors they had received in her lifetime. Kellog couldn't keep his eyes off her, and for her part I shouldn't have to explain she didn't mind looking at him either. Gorag was fuming and had been for several minutes before Kellog noticed. Gorag ordered his men to tie up Kellog and his men and throw them in cages until a fitting punishment could be devised for their disrespect.
Kellog was halfway to the cages before he thought to ask their captors what he had done wrong. The natives informed them that to look on Gorag's daughter Sheela was seen as horrible disrespect by Gorag, especially to look at her like Kellog had been doing. Kellog thought for sure that this was the end. He thought this is no way for a hero to go out, there must be a way out. They might well have been doomed if not for the luck of fate. It just so happens that Sheela had been just as enchanted by Kellog as he was by her. Some people don't believe in love at first sight, but most of those people have never had it happen, or are too jaded to remember what it feels like to be young and in love. They want to remember, but it hurts to much when compared with their present state. Kellog was no such man, he was tough and brave no question, but he was an idealist and believed the best out of people. It was why he got the best out of his men. This quality of his is probably what would save him, as it had many times in the past, but it saved him for different reasons now. Sheela knew from the moment she saw him that she wanted only him for the rest of her life. Like I explained, she was every bit as entranced with him as he was with her. So she devised a plan to free Kellog and his men, and get them free and far from her father. Her plan was fairly simple: she would get her father to drinking his homemade wine which he was known to overdo sometimes, and when he was asleep steal his keys. So she used her clever womanly talents of hospitality and prepared him a fine dinner. As he ate she brought him glass after glass of his strongest wine. Gorag was too busy eating to think about how much he had drunk. Then Sheela got her father to talking about his tales of adventure and of how he got stuck on this island. This was another area that she found herself lucky in, because she found out her father had been building a ship. Unfortunately he was not a perfect shipbuilder, and his ships never would have held up to the long ocean voyages to escape that island. However she talked to him until he dozed off, and carefully removed his keys. She delivered the information she had received to the captain, and offered to free him on one condition. That condition was that he take her with him, and bring her with him on his voyages. He tried to protest that a ship is no place for a woman, but she said that she believed her place was by his side, no matter what. Well Kellog was wise enough to know that you never really win an argument like that so it's pointless to try, so he agreed to her terms. She freed them, and they carefully made their way to the hidden bay her father used as a shipyard. The crew picked out two small masts that could be lashed together to make a sturdy enough replacement mast, and enough sail material to get them back on the ocean immediately. Sadly this was the end of their luck in being sneaky. Gorag's men had found Gorag asleep and known that trickery might be afoot. When they found the cages empty they tracked Sheela and Kellog to the shipyard. They arrived at the shipyard just as Kellog, Sheela and his men began making for the lifeboats to return to ship. They ran after them and a chase ensued. The captain and his crew running through the underbrush with Gorag's men close behind. The crew arrived last at the lifeboats and practically threw the supplies into the boats and rowed like men possessed to get out to the ship and safety. When Gorag's men saw the sailors in their boats they doubled back to the shipyard and took the best boat they could find to try and board Kellog's ship. This is where the sailor's luck took a turn for the better again. Because they were better in their mastery of boats they reached the ship half an hour before the natives could have. This gave them just enough time to lash the masts together and get the sails prepared. They hauled anchor just as the natives pulled alongside. This was a chase they knew they could win, and they did. Kellog and Sheela became married and she became his first mate, as well as his mate for life which has a kind of symmetry to it. Kellog's fear of having a woman aboard eventually proved completely unfounded and he found her to be not only pleasant company but as hard a worker and as good a sailor as any of his men. She became a legend in her own right as a matter of fact, but that, alas, is another story.
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