The Dutch (17 page)

Yet the illness had taken its toll on the boy's physical and emotional development. Gustoff was a very small five years old, with a horrendous disposition. He was spoiled by parents who expected his demise. Once he became healthier, his less compassionate brothers found his antics aimed at remaining the center of attention less amusing, particularly as normal growth patterns returned. It was the older boys who first noticed that Gustoff had little interest in the written word and could not distinguishing one letter of the alphabet from another. Reylana and Henri chose to ignore their astute observations, feeling Gustoff's ability to recognize letters would blossom like his physique with time, but that flower never bloomed.

At nine, already two years older than when his brothers had entered the same private school, Gustoff began his education. After only a year the school suggested Gustoff's best interest might be served elsewhere. He showed little interest in his lessons and enjoyed provoking confrontations with boys of higher birth. Reylana, in despair, rose above her anti-Papist feelings and enrolled him in a Catholic school known for stern discipline. The school had a harsher approach to education but a reputation for good student outcomes.

It was only a few months later that the Brother Superior visited the parents at their home. He told them Gustoff's behavior had improved somewhat, probably because of the severe consequences. Yet, he still occasionally lapsed into outlandish and defiant conduct. During those episodes the monks were finding it difficult to restrain him without injuring the boy. His teacher was convinced that Gustoff would never learn to read. The Brother Superior believed it was God's will that some children saw the letters of the alphabet differently than other children. He believed Gustoff learned entirely by listening to the spoken word. “If a teacher tells your son something multiple times, he seems to remember everything said. When a short passage is read to him more than once, he retains at least part of the information. And whenever Gustoff finds a subject interesting, he remembers all of what he heard.” The good Brother went on to assure the parents that God had given Gustoff an auditory path to learning.

Like most families in the Netherlands in 1568 A.D., the Roulfs had far greater concerns than a wayward child. Duke Alba had arrived in the south with a massive Spanish army. Many Protestants and even some Catholics were being condemned to death for heresy and treason. Resistance to Spain's occupation had grown and much of the country was in open rebellion. Rotterdam's government was attempting to balance loyalty to the Catholic King with the desires of the ever-growing militant Protestant population for war. Henri's oldest son, Teewes, a follower of John Calvin, had fled his school in Brussels as the Spanish occupied the city. He was now apprenticing with Henri to become a shipwright. Petrus, fascinated by his mother's interest in finance had found an entry level position within the budding banking industry. Even the Catholic Church was beginning to accept the idea that money could be loaned with some expected annual return, and bankers in general were escaping the internal trouble by financing both sides of the warring parties.

By now, Henri had completed the long voyage Jachtschips he envisioned and his design was quickly copied. Ships like these would take Dutch and English explorers to the New World. As the war intensified, obtaining timber became an even greater problem and sometimes the shipyard lay idle. Reylana was also finding that the religious polarization was curtailing her limited social calendar and making business decisions riskier. It became her responsibility to handle all of the family's financial interests and Reylana had risen to the challenge. She converted most of their investments into gold and silver coins and purposely turned away from those exceptional but risky business opportunities that war always brought. She was now a much happier woman for the compromise on intimacy had stood the test of time.

Soon after Gustoff was expelled from the Catholic school, he ran away and spent a few weeks in hiding with some of the less desirable juvenile elements in Rotterdam. He found refuge with a gang of orphaned boys, aged 8 to 13 years old who begged and stole to support themselves. It was not the sheriff's men, but Hector, one of the soldiers hired to protect their home and shipyard and who sometimes served as Reylana's personal bodyguard, who actually found him. Gustoff was ready to come home and Hector's dubious reward for finding the boy was to see that he did not run away again. Hector was a gigantic Frisian with a short beard and a pock-marked face. He wore chain mail armor on his bare skin during the warmest summer days and the coldest winter nights. He carried a brace of pistols in his belt, but relied on a Frankish throwing ax and a long Saxon knife to intimidate potential adversaries. The nearby neighbors loved him because his mere presence made the area safer. He was one of the few people Gustoff feared.

Since his return, Gustoff had been making life more difficult for everyone. An attempt at putting him to work on small chores at the shipyard became a colossal failure. The now fearless ten-year old purposely did mischievous things to anger his father, brother, and the shipyard workers. He regularly amused himself by hiding someone's favorite tool or piling moist peak or wet wood on the fire pits, filling the boathouses with heavy smoke. The boy developed a habit of picking up tools that had moving parts which interested him. He would study the item for hours, usually forgetting to return it to its rightful place on the tool rack.

When Reylana noticed different weapons in the parlor were disappearing for periods of time, Gustoff became the prime suspect. The parents became alarmed that Gustoff was playing with these dangerous weapons. It was Hector who actually discovered that it was Gustoff who was taking them. He also learned the boy was able to disassemble and reassemble each. The veteran soldier was astounded the ten-year old boy could take matchlock weapons apart and put the pieces back together correctly. Hector volunteered to take the boy hunting so Gustoff truly understood the destructive power of firearms. Those trips progressed from Gustoff watching the discharge of a musket or fowling piece to becoming a partner in the hunt. Soon the boy was behaving more responsibly at the shipyard and his father rewarded him with a small caliber carbine of his own on his eleventh birthday. Under Hector's tutorage, the boy became an adept hunter and an excellent shot. By the time he was twelve he could handle the recoil of every weapon in the household. Gustoff expanded his interest to other metal objects. He learned to work the furnace at the boathouse and became a proficient blacksmith. Gustoff soon found himself winning praise for sharpening and repairing the same tools he once found delight in concealing.

Hector had a good friend who was a gunsmith. The man was in charge of the small detachment of professional artillerymen that manned Rotterdam's gun batteries. Many of the cannons sat on top of the city's walls, making them vulnerable to the corrosive mixture of salty air and wet weather. The cannons had to be frequently cleaned, oiled, and repaired. It was a difficult task for the lone gunsmith, who also had the responsibility of training the gun crews to fire them. When Gustoff was fourteen, Hector arranged for him to assist the gunsmith. Despite the grime and physical labor, Gustoff found the work satisfying. He was content to spend hours cleaning and polishing cannons for the rare opportunity to participate in drills. The gunsmith appreciated the boy's enthusiasm, treating him as an apprentice and over time teaching Gustoff all he knew about each gun.

To shore up Rotterdam's defenses, the government purchased a battery of twelve guns from an English foundry; they were capable of firing a fifty pound ball. Once the new battery was in place, a public event was scheduled to fire the new guns. When ignited, the barrel of the first cannon exploded, killing most of the gun crew and many bystanders. The horrific carnage sent shock waves throughout the small city. The families of the dead demanded an investigation. Everyone wanted to know what had caused the powerful and expensive gun to fail. An official hearing was scheduled before the last of the causalities were put to the earth. Almost as an afterthought, sixteen year-old Gustoff Roulfs, who escaped serious injury, was ordered to appear before the inquiry.

The panel had little idea that the young man could give vital information as to the cause of the gun's failure. On the day of the explosion, Henri and his other sons had rushed to the scene of the calamity, searching for Gustoff. They found him in the armory. It had been an hour since the explosion, but Gustoff seemed oblivious to the powder burns on his face and a gash on his shoulder covered in dry blood. He told his family the calamity had been no accident for he discovered the reason for the explosion. Henri took Gustoff home before he disclosed what he discovered. After his wounds were dressed, the boy told his family he found defective cannon balls. Once home, Gustoff began to speculate that the garrison commander must have purchased cheap defective ammunition. Henri and Reylana silenced him for they knew the danger of casting aspersions at such a powerful person. When the family learned Gustoff was ordered to appear before the investigating panel, they collectively began to prepare Gustoff for his appearance. For two days the family prompted Gustoff into giving calm, rational and truthful testimony. They rehearsed his presentation until he had memorized every word, and prepared him, as best they could, for the other questions he would surely be asked by the members. Since his testimony would be controversial, his mother warned him that one brash comment would negate the truth of his entire testimony.

Gustoff was scheduled to be the last witness at the hearing held in the Central Meeting Hall. The hearing was crowded with people overflowing into the city square. All wanted to know why so many friends and neighbors had perished so needlessly. The first part of the hearing was devoted to the grieving families who spoke about their loss. Next came many citizens, present during the catastrophic event, speaking about what they had witnessed. Finally, the committee called Rotterdam's military commander and a number of prominent sea captains familiar with cannons. One after another, these influential men had adhered to the testimony of the Garrison Commander: that loading cannons was dangerous work and the crew had probably overcharged the cannon with black powder. Since the English foundry had an unblemished reputation, all testified the most logical explanation for the explosion lay with the gun crew. Each said that too much powder had probably been rammed down the barrel of the new cannon. The inquiry was startled when the last witness, Gustoff Roulfs, a mere boy, challenged the testimony of these influential military witnesses.

Gustoff began his appearance calmly, reminding the members of the inquiry that he, unlike all the expert witnesses, were present when the cannon was loaded. He respectfully disagreed that the experienced gun crew had overcharged the weapon. He stated that the deceased gunsmith who supervised the gun crew as they loaded the cannon knew well the danger of overcharging. Gustoff told the members he had scrutinized each of the remaining cannons and found the barrels well forged and without noticeable flaws in the metal. He felt the responsibility for the explosion rested not with the gun or its crew but with the cannon ball. Gustoff felt the ball the crew had embedded into the barrel on that fatal day had a serious flaw. The ball was cheaply made and its imperfections, and not any action by the gun crew, caused the tragedy. Gustoff speculated that the imperfect ball became wedged in the barrel. He went on to explain that he examined other fifty pound balls in the armory and found many with an almost oval rather than round shape. He asked the committee if he could submit evidence. Before anyone could object, he reached into a leather bag near the base of his chair. With both hands he lifted a heavy cannon ball high over his head for all to see. He walked to the heavy oak table in front of the committee and Gustoff placed the ball on the table and attempted to spin it. It spun for but a moment before the irregular circumference sent the ball erratically spinning off the table, crashing onto the stone floor with a loud smacking sound. The ball rolled only a few feet before stopping. Gustoff pointed at the ball and told the committee that the experienced crew, wanting to demonstrate the full power of the new gun, would have rigorously rammed a similar ball down the barrel. They would have unknowingly jammed it in the barrel. Once ignited, the wedged ball would have had difficulty exiting, and Gustoff solemnly said that the result was predictable.

The room erupted after Gustoff's testimony had contradicted the theory of the expert witnesses and provided evidence to the contrary. A detachment of sheriffs were sent to the armory to gather a more complete sampling of cannon balls. When members spun those balls even more gently, the results were the same. Many of the prior expert witnesses were recalled after being given sufficient time to examine the large sampling of cannon balls. They were asked if such balls could be considered defective, and if so, would that have played a role in the accident. After scrutinizing the balls, all admitted that imperfect shot could have played a pivotal role in the disaster. A few, including the Garrison Commander, embarrassed by their previous testimony, reluctantly admitted that an imperfect ball might have caused the barrel to explode, particularly if the cannons were “overcharged!” Since Rotterdam needed a new gunsmith, sixteen year old Gustoff Roulfs was appointed acting gunsmith of Rotterdam. His appointment had little to do with his honest and courageous testimony. The politicians decided that the boy's appointment would help appease the population. They also thought Gustoff was probably the least likely candidate to cause another disaster. The committee, at the same time, announced that any hope of discovering who purchased the defective balls had died with the gunsmith.