The Silver Lotus (37 page)

A gigantic lightning bolt raced across the sky from west to east, and quite uncharacteristically parallel with the earth. It was followed by a thunderclap so loud that it rattled all the buildings and frightened everyone. For a few moments the flash of bright light and the stupendous explosion of sound both blinded and deafened the party. And when they at last regained their senses, they looked up to discover the everdignified Master Yee and little Macy holding hands, laughing, and
skipping up and down. It was raining, and it was a generous, sweet-tasting rain, and it continued to rain in this manner, on and off, for six full weeks. The monsoon rains had returned at last, after a drought lasting almost four years. This occasioned destructive flooding in some areas, but the people rejoiced all the same. Everyone worked together to clean out long-dry cisterns and clear irrigation channels. Runoff was judiciously channeled into enlarged duck ponds, stone reservoirs, fish hatcheries, and, of course, rice fields. And at last, to everyone's relief, the air was finally washed clean, and the breezes no longer smelled of road dust, garbage, soot, and dry manure.

To know the Chinese is to be certain that the story of the little girl who scolded heaven for its lack of compassion and brought back the rain was all over Canton in twenty-four hours, and possibly all over southern China in another week.

The Hammonds had been in China for almost a year, a generous family visit by any standard. The captain also confessed to being somewhat homesick. He longed for his home, the company of friends, and long conversations in English. As much as he enjoyed China, he enjoyed California more, and he believed it was time to go home. Thanks to Captain Penn's unerring seamanship and strict harbor schedules,
The Silver Macy
had made four round-trips, and a fifth shipload of grain was expected within six weeks. As a result, Captain Penn had earned himself a considerable bonus. The ship had performed flawlessly in all weather, and the engine ran like the proverbial Swiss watch. Every cargo imported into California had seen healthy profits, and a world glut of sea coal had reduced fuel expenses appreciably.

Though she had not voiced sentiments one way or the other, Lady Yee was very attuned to her husband's moods and motives. She had begun to sense his agitation and restlessness. She was therefore not in the least surprised when he announced at breakfast one day that they were returning to California on
The Silver Macy
in six weeks. Lady Yee
simply said she would see that everything was prepared for their departure in good time.

For Lady Yee, the hardest formalities involved making farewell calls on her numerous relatives. To each she brought a small commemorative gift, and from each she received protests and tears. It was expected. Then one day Lady Yee received a note sent by one of her favorite aunts. It requested she come to tea the following afternoon. The note hinted that her niece might discover something of great interest and value. Lady Yee accepted the invitation, but mostly to take her leave. Old ladies thought the oddest things were of interest, and so Lady Yee expected little.

The next afternoon Lady Yee waited upon her aunt with a farewell gift. Then her aunt suddenly took the opportunity to introduce a newly arrived guest, a young man named Dr. Wei Chun of the Korean legation in Canton. The young doctor spoke little Cantonese, but was quite conversant in English and French. Lady Yee and the young man jumped back and forth between the two languages where necessity required.

After a course in traditional greetings and pleasantries, Lady Yee discovered that Dr. Wei Chun had begun his medical training under his father, a well-known Korean physician, when he was eight years old. Having shown exceptional promise in the field of traditional Asian medicine, when he was sixteen he was sent to study under the famous Dr. Su Wong Loo in Peking, where he received praise and honors. When he returned to Korea, he was chosen by the government to be sent west to study Western medicine and surgery in Berlin and Paris, and when he returned to Korea five years later, he went to work for the government.

Canton was his third foreign legation posting. His nominal assignment was to look after the health of other high government officials, which he said was mostly a matter of dealing with their perpetual overindulgence in one vice or another. The work lacked all the challenges he had trained so long to master. Finally, he said, his contract was up
at the end of the month, and though he had been invited to stay, he wanted to get married, and that was not allowed for low-level legation personnel, and anyway, in his present position he really couldn't afford to get married. He bemoaned the fact that his salary was almost ceremonial, and therefore close to nothing. The bulk of his earnings went to repay the government for its investment. He believed he could do better somewhere else, and was told that Lady Yee might be able to help him find a new position more suited to his education and ambitions.

Lady Yee looked over at her aged aunt and smiled like a cat with a sparrow. She asked Dr. Chun where he wanted to work, and he replied that it didn't really matter. He humorously added that he would live anywhere as long as it was relatively civilized, not at war, and not very cold. All he really wanted was a useful medical position, at which he could make a living wage and support a family. Lady Yee asked if he had any objections to treating poor Chinese. He responded by saying that the human body had no nationality, and only marginal differences based on medical susceptibilities to certain diseases. One human was very much like another. If you could cure one, you might cure another, but the principal importance still lay with the cure, not the monetary wealth of the patient. In short, he would use his skills to save anybody who requested his services as long as he could still feed and shelter his family decently.

Lady Yee played her part with her usual charm, elegant patience, and timing, and promised nothing that might confuse the issue. She continued her understated interrogation with the aura of a concerned friend, which went a long way toward making the young man feel at his ease. They shared subtle jokes in French, and absolutes in English. She asked if the doctor might be willing to immigrate to another country if his economic needs were satisfied, and he said he would as long as his other requirements were met. Lady Yee modestly laughed behind her sleeve and said she would keep that in mind. Before the tea party ended,
she told the young doctor that she would look into the matter, and if he were to come to her residence in two days she might just have a solution to his predicament. The young Korean doctor seemed amazed at Lady Yee's gentle confidence and concern, but she was Chinese, and in that regard he knew not to harbor unsupported presumptions.

Lady Yee told her husband all about the interview, and he encouraged her to strike while the steel was hot. He reminded her that Koreans were, in general, better engineers, scientists, and soldiers than the Chinese. He declared that it could be supposed that a Korean doctor may well show equal genius. At first Lady Yee thought her husband might be indulging a private joke out of affection, but then he laughed, kissed her on the forehead, and offered to loan her five hundred dollars in Yankee gold to secure the young man's contract at once if it pleased her.

When Dr. Wei Chun came to call he seemed quite disoriented, and Lady Yee decided to take advantage of this situation. When the timing was right, she asked him if he was willing to travel to California on a five-year contract, and he said that he was. Then she asked if he was willing to look to medical needs of the poor, and again he said he was. Lady Yee then proposed a yearly stipend that made the young doctor blink with disbelief, and she even offered to pay half a year's wages in advance so that he could send for his intended bride.

But there was one proviso: He had to be ready to depart in four weeks, wife or no wife. Lady Yee then stated that she had a contract at hand, and upon signing, everything would be set in train, as it were. As an afterthought, Lady Yee asked about the doctor's intended bride, and learned that she was a trained midwife and nurse, with a particular genius for herbal remedies applicable to the perils of pregnancy. Lady Yee smiled and signed her part of the contract at once.

When Dr. Wei Chun departed he was carrying five hundred dollars in Yankee gold and a semi-humorous promise that Lady Yee would
track him down if he betrayed her. The young doctor was so enamored of Lady Yee, as well as her generous offer of employment, that he would have battled his own family to please her. Happily, that test never came to pass, and Dr. Chun and his new bride returned to Canton five days before
The Silver Macy
was due to sail.

For Lady Yee, the hardest part of the preparations was taking leave of her parents and sisters. For Master Yee it was saying farewell to his grandchildren, and for Macy it was saying goodbye to her cousins. She was extremely happy in China and saw no reason to leave. She even asked if she might stay behind with her grandfather. And little Silver, who thought of his father's ship as his own, mainly because his name was on the stern, couldn't wait to get back aboard. The sailors had always spoiled him with constant attention, and he loved them all in return. The only thing that gave Macy any consolation was the fact that she would soon be reunited with Captain Penn, for whom she maintained a unique and profound affection.

Captain Hammond had to make special arrangements for Doctor Chun and his new wife, but that was soon taken care of to everyone's satisfaction. Finding space for Ah Chu's special cargo took some thinking, as it included a small flock of exotic Chinese geese and chickens that he hoped to crossbreed with their heartier California cousins. There were also ten large cases of cooking utensils, preserved foods, spices, and all the hardware necessary to construct an authentic Chinese baking oven and wok stove. Captain Hammond humorously bet his wife that her cook was about to go out on his own and start a restaurant using her money. Lady Yee took the bet as a sure thing. She said Ah Chu was far too lazy for commerce of any kind.

21

THE SILVER MACY
left Canton on the morning tide two days later. Lady Yee's mother and father came to the docks to say a final farewell and to present Captain Penn with ceremonial gifts of wine, rare fruit, and fine silks. Master Yee gave each of his grandchildren a gold-mounted jade pi yao to be worn about the neck as protection. He gave his son-in-law an affectionate embrace, a few words of praise, and a silk envelope containing a bonded draft drawn on the Bank of England for sixty-two thousand pounds sterling. It represented just a portion of the expected profits from their mutual business ventures.

The ship cleared the coast in good time. The seas were kind and the winds gentle, but on the third night it began to rain heavily, and the seas kicked up considerably. It wasn't anything
The Silver Macy
couldn't handle, of course, but the passengers were nonetheless encouraged to stay in their cabins and avoid the slippery decks. Slowly the driving winds increased from the northeast, and Captain Penn decided that, with a full cargo and plenty of sea room, it would be better to turn his stern to the wind and go with the storm. It was easier than fighting waves he could not see. The heavy rains, though a godsend for the boiler collectors, made the bridge functionally blind. All the watch officers had to go on was the binnacle compass and the direction of the waves. To be sure, there were lookouts posted bow, nest, and stern, but they were no
better off than the bridge officers. And then the ship's compass decided to change its mind and became decidedly fickle. A pocket compass, though affected by the iron hull, showed the binnacle compass to be far in error, and no one, considering the weather conditions, had the time to find out why. Repairs, if possible, would have to wait until the storm abated.

Then, at approximately four-thirty in the morning,
The Silver Macy
struck an obstacle substantial enough to throw the lookouts to the deck and the captain from his day berth behind the bridge. The ship shuddered like a bull, and then settled down to continue on course in the trough between the waves. At first no one knew what had happened, but the bow watch reported that he believed that in passing he saw the deck of a swamped fishing boat with broken masts but no sign of life. There didn't appear to be any damage to the ship until later a crewman reported that the bow chain lockers were flooded with seawater. There was no immediate danger, since the chain lockers for the anchors were separated from the rest of the ship with a watertight bulkhead, but the added weight in the extreme bows might cause the hull to hog and place undue stress on the box keel. Captain Penn ordered pump hoses lowered into the flooded lockers, but it was soon discovered that the iron hull had been breached at the waterline with a handsome three-foot puncture that staved and split two abutting iron plates. They could pump all they liked, but it wouldn't make the least difference until the breach was plugged and patched from the outside. There was too much anchor chain in the lockers to access the hole from within the ship while at sea.

There was some consternation among Captain Hammond's many charges, but he and Lady Yee managed to calm everyone and saw that they returned to their berths, where they would be safest during the storm. Then the captain donned an oilskin and went to the bridge to support Captain Penn in any way possible.

At exactly noon, the storm moved on and left
The Silver Macy
floating like a battered swan on a placid sea. It was then discovered that one of the compensating magnets on the compass had come loose and fallen to the bottom of the brass binnacle. When that was repaired, Captain Penn and Captain Hammond took sextant sightings and determined that they had traveled a very fair distance to the southeast, and that the closest station to effect repairs was a Dutch navel re-coaling and maintenance base on an impoverished jungle island off the northern tip of the Malaysian archipelago. Sailing directories considered the port pestilential and its harbor an anchorage of last resort, but
The Silver Macy
and her present cargo were deemed far more important than the weather or the scenery, and Captain Penn set course for Van Koop's Island at once.