The Silver Lotus (34 page)

Contracting a grain cargo proved no problem at all, and since it was all California grown, the costs were quite reasonable. The Sacramento delta was awash in rice, and plains-grown wheat was fat kernelled and abundant. Lady Yee recommended that spare cargo space, if any, might be filled with dried fruits, beans, peppers, and ginger, as well as shelled almonds, pecans, and pine nuts, all capable of withstanding long storage while still retaining their food value. Lady Yee also suggested they play fast and loose with the Chinese salt monopoly, just as it had been done for years by the local fishermen. She believed they should purchase a hundred cases of dried squid, which was traditionally packed in shore-panned sea salt. In China the product would be taxed a duty as dried squid, and a blind eye turned to the fact that the salt, now rosy-pink and flavored like dried squid, was a far more valuable and useful commodity than the squid itself. The two products were then sold separately on the general market, garnering a double profit. She also believed that a thousand gallons of purified peanut oil would find ready buyers. If these items were sold at normal prices it would cause a sensation, and Lady
Yee's father would garner public praise from all quarters as a man of modesty and generosity, for without a cash layout, he could also afford to allow his creditors time to profit first and pay later, thus increasing his reputation, customer lists, and client obligations.

Captain Hammond was persuaded that his wife's cargo recommendations were truly insightful, until he learned that the original suggestions had come from her familiar, Ah Chu. However, this only confirmed that Lady Yee had consulted experts before voting, so he acted upon each detail to the best of his ability, knowing full well that if his cargos satisfied Chinese needs and tastes, profits and honor would soon follow.

But there was something Lady Yee didn't know. Early in their deliberations, Captain Hammond had told his wife that he had no intention of commanding the ship himself. Despite his long experience at sea, he acknowledged that steamships were a queer breed that required the judgment of officers who were familiar with their capabilities, limitations, and in particular, their maintenance and fuel requirements. Just knowing how much coal to carry could make the difference between profit and loss, and the captain confessed that he was too old a dog to be learning that many new tricks in so short a period of time. On the other hand, the captain never said he wasn't going on the journey, and this is where his secret plans to extricate Lady Yee from her growing web of obligations came into play. Aside from the captain's cabin and the officers' quarters,
The Silver Macy
had four generous staterooms to accommodate either supercargo or paying passengers. Captain Hammond ordered that the two portside staterooms be combined to make one large suite, while one of the starboard cabins was to be split in two and the other reconfigured to accommodate two very special bits of supercargo.

Despite the fact that he was always reasonable, accessible, and usually open to suggestions made by his wife, Captain Hammond came
from a lifetime of command, and in that regard he remained jealous of his prerogatives. In small matters he was amenable, but when it came to important decisions he was still master of his own vessel, and Lady Yee had long since realized that objections were not only useless, but in a deeper sense disrespectful. Nonetheless, the captain wondered just how his wife would react when he presented her with his real plans.

After seeing the children to bed and telling them a story, Lady Yee retired to the parlor and found the captain, hands clasped behind his back, pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace with an unlit pipe clenched between his teeth. She knew from his posture that he had something important to announce, and the thoughtful furrow on his brow meant he was ordering his words. Lady Yee was perplexed, but she quietly sat down, picked up an open volume of poetry she'd been reading, and waited for her husband to surface from his ruminations. After a minute or two, the captain took the pipe from his mouth, turned to his wife, and without preamble of any kind announced that they had two weeks to pack their trunks and close up the house. Now that the children were old enough to travel, the captain believed it was appropriate for the family to return to Canton for an extended visit. He declared it was time for his wife to present her children to their grandparents and aunts, and he was sure the rest of the extended Yee clan would want to put their oars in the water as well.

Captain Hammond was not remotely prepared for his wife's reaction to this sudden revelation. Lady Yee threw aside her book, leaped to her feet like a girl, produced a happy squeal like Macy at full gallop, and rushed into her husband's arms. She kissed his cheeks repeatedly with little tears welling in her eyes. Finally, holding her husband close, Lady Yee enthusiastically professed that she loved him more than life itself, for he had just made manifest her fondest ambition and a dream that had haunted her for the past three years. She tearfully confessed that, considering her parents' age, she secretly feared never seeing
them again in this world, and that they would never hear their devoted daughter personally voice her sincere expressions of gratitude and fidelity for all the gifts they had given her. Lady Yee went on to admit she had wanted to speak of returning home for a visit on any number of occasions, but there always seemed to be affairs of more immediate importance to attend to.

The captain kissed his wife and said that pleasing her gave him boundless satisfaction, but he was also happy to note that the journey would serve so many other worthwhile purposes at the same time. And though it went unspoken, by this he also meant extricating Lady Yee from the net of public expectation that had bloomed in the wake of her civic transactions. Then the captain paused, thought of something, and smiled. He told his wife that perhaps it would be a good idea if she immediately wrote her father a letter to say they were coming. Otherwise, he said, there was a good chance that the Hammond clan might arrive in Canton before the letter. He was pleased to say that the new ship was quite fast, even fully burdened, and they would only stop for fuel twice on the most direct route possible. Ships carrying mail under contract stopped off in numerous ports.

Captain Hammond had been fortunate in his selection of a master for
The Silver Macy
. While in San Francisco, he had made the acquaintance of the well-known Captain Christopher Penn. This intrepid officer had begun his career as a nine-year-old powder monkey aboard a Confederate commerce raider. They had been at sea when Lee surrendered, so in the company of other Confederate naval officers and seamen, he escaped west into the Pacific aboard an unsurrendered cruiser. Knowing they could hardly escape notice for long, and needing to avoid close inspection, they disguised their cruiser as a Spanish warship, and flew the royal standard for good measure. Then, as if to thumb their noses at the Union ships that were doubtlessly out searching for them, they sailed their small warship all the way to the Philippines and sold it
to the Spanish Navy. Though they dared not interfere during the rebellion, the Spanish had always been fairly sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Captain Penn had said that the Spanish also enjoyed the humorous aspects of the transaction, and even kept the ship's original name,
The Pensacola
. For the next forty years, Captain Penn sailed to every corner of the Pacific and became famous in Asian waters as a man all self-respecting pirates should avoid like the pox.

Captain Penn had recently resigned his last ship due to a disagreement with the owners and was looking for a new berth. Captain Hammond was quite drawn to the man's professional demeanor and good sense. His manners were chivalric, and his reputation for honor and decency irreproachable. He also possessed a robust sense of humor, and loved quoting long passages from the works of Mark Twain. Captain Hammond, who had a good eye, liked the man at once, and offered Captain Penn command of
The Silver Macy
. After inspecting the ship thoroughly, Captain Penn said he would take command on condition that he could hire his own crew and choose his own officers. When that was agreed, Captain Penn signed on for an initial three-year contract, with an option to renew if the position proved lucrative enough.

Before leaving Monterey, Lady Yee made sure that Dr. Neruda and Mr. Bishop were reading from the same text when it came to finances, so there would be no interruption in essential services or salaries. She made her houseboy the nominal caretaker, but hired a Chinese woman to cook and keep the house clean. She also made a point of keeping her three Japanese gardeners employed at full salary to look after her fruit orchards and extensive gardens. She placed Mr. Bishop in overall charge of all the property and, with the exception of Dr. Neruda, the infirmary, and its employees, power to hire and fire as he saw fit. She also ensured that there remained no outstanding debts owed to local tradesmen, and made certain her bank knew its obligations to be paid out on her behalf. She spent the rest of the time crating away special treasures for storage
in the bank's vaults and seeing that the family packed only those garments required for the journey west, for she strongly intended to have new and better clothing made for everyone once they were established in her father's compound in Canton.

Three weeks after making the first announcement of his intentions, Captain Hammond, Lady Yee, and their two children were comfortably installed in their staterooms aboard
The Silver Macy
. They were accompanied by Lady Yee's maid, a new children's nurse named Sing Joon to help lighten the burden on Li-Lee, and, of course, Ah Chu, who insisted that he was the only one qualified to cook for the family, especially the children. Lady Yee agreed in principle, and the captain acquiesced, knowing that any objection would only cause ill feelings all around.

The new nurse slept in the children's cabin, while Ah Chu and the maid occupied the newly split quarters next door. Captain Hammond and Lady Yee occupied the expanded double stateroom across the way. The passenger accommodations, though limited, had all been furnished with the most modern conveniences possible, including electric lights and fans, gimbaled beds, and water closets. Lady Yee was quick to confess that their stateroom was far more comfortable than the old captain's cabin aboard
The Silver Lotus
. And being a large and bluff steamship, it afforded the added luxury of not requiring one to live at unnatural angles all the time. Lady Yee even came to appreciate the ship's new name.

To the delight and surprise of all aboard, the outward-bound journey to the Hawaiian Islands was exceptionally smooth. Even Captain Penn was moved to regard the millpond surface of the ocean as something quite exceptional for so long a period of time and distance, and he openly wondered whether it presaged something less commodious, but in the end, nothing happened. The sky remained cloudless and a vivid blue, the breezes wafted gently from the southwest, the sunsets were
clear and bright, and the ocean swells remained almost unnoticeable. All these elements together allowed
The Silver Macy
to log very good course speeds despite being fully burdened with cargo and coal. This made for a happy ship all around. Even the captain and Lady Yee found the experience broadly nostalgic and quite romantic. In the evenings they would sit alone in the stern, hand in hand under the bright stars, and talk of their many adventures under sail. But this was unique, as it was the first time Captain Hammond had ever enjoyed the experience of being at sea as a passenger, even though Lady Yee had noticed that every time the ship's bell was struck, her husband winced like a retired fire horse.

But it was the children who had the very best of times. Macy and Silver were totally convinced that the whole expedition was just for their benefit, and in a sense it was. Within two days, Macy and her little brother had endeared themselves to every man in the crew, and these hardened tars took turns watching over the children when they played on deck. Sometimes these salts even joined in games of tag or blind man's bluff. Then Macy somehow formed a special attachment for Captain Penn. She insisted she liked the way he talked, and she thought him very amusing.

This fact seemed to both flatter and frighten the captain, who had never spent any time around children. But Macy persisted in her affections and devotion, and completely won the old sailor's heart. Suddenly, and when conditions allowed, Macy was permitted to go up to the bridge and stand with Captain Penn. Together they marveled at the vast schools of leaping dolphins that sometimes accompanied the ship for great distances, and also the flocks of flying fish that were determined to stay in the air for as long as possible to avoid becoming a dolphin's supper. Macy appeared to love it all, and she bubbled with clever questions that Captain Penn always patiently answered. In fact, Lady Yee became used to finding her daughter in the company of Captain
Penn, and was surprised to discover how much her daughter learned every day about her new environment. On the other hand, little Silver became the darling of the deck officers, who went out of their way to arrange for all his amusements.

The ship laid over in Hawaii for three days, adding coal to her bunkers, taking on provisions, and allowing the crew a short while to stretch their legs and purchase personal items onshore. The children were allowed to play on the beach, collect seashells, and wade in tide pools that were clear as glass. Ah Chu had a particularly rewarding time visiting the local markets. He came back aboard ship with a splendid variety of fresh fish, fruits, vegetables, and herbs. Soon, even Captain Penn chose to eat with the Hammonds, rather than the other way around, as tradition dictated.

Though the ship made two more short landfalls, the journey to Canton continued as a swift and smooth affair by all sailing standards, and the Hammond family arrived in the hectically busy harbor of Canton on a beautiful spring morning six weeks later. After the relative tranquility and refreshing ocean breezes of the past few weeks, the raucous sounds of constant activity from the shore and the fetid odors of garbage mixed with the exotic smells of a thousand kitchens were all a bit overwhelming, though the children seemed to enjoy every moment of the insanity. Lady Yee told Macy that Canton was a remarkable conglomeration of cultures and peoples. Long before any European had ever set eyes on the city, the old harbor on the Zhu River in Guangdong province had been crowded with trading vessels from Hormuz, India, Java, Korea, Sumatra, and all points in between. An early Arab presence was still represented in the city's population, and their trading houses and banks had been some of the most successful in China.