“If being stranded here means we eat like this, I think we ought not to be too eager to be found,” commented Paul. The others all indicated to Marcella their pleasure with her cooking – Marcella beamed. One imagined these might have been the first compliments she had received since entering service with Susan Thorpe.
James spoke to them quietly of their predicament – they had no idea where they were, no radio or other signaling device, and a limited supply of food. While the basics of survival were of great importance – keeping the fire going, getting firewood in to sustain the fire, cooking and tending to the ill and injured – there were other needs to be acknowledged that should be addressed. They needed a sanitary facility – and a pit latrine would be the best answer. Digging would not be easy, especially where the lava rock was not far below the surface of the sand, but a latrine would nonetheless be needed. This afternoon, he suggested, we should divide into two groups, one to collect more firewood and the other to create a latrine.
“I think, my dear,” responded Maria, “we have other needs as well. We are feeling dirty and unkempt. I think some of the ladies would like an opportunity to find a sheltered cove somewhere along the coast to bathe and freshen up.”
“Of course. After lunch, the men will go counterclockwise around the island to look for more firewood while the women bathe. There is a small beach between two rocky headlands not so far from here to the west. It should suit your purposes well.”
Everyone ate well – bowls of soup were conveyed to the five occupants of the infirmary; George and Roger could not be bothered; the Kirkpatricks tried gamely to eat a little; Jim ate about half of his bowlful. The soup was thus devoured. Each member of the group washed his or her eating dishes and implements, scrubbing them in the sand and rinsing them in the ocean water; Ron and Ralph took the pot to the water and scrubbed it, the outside being dirtier from smoke than the inside was from cooked food.
The women set out to bathe. Michelle insisted on staying with the infirmary. Having checked on his patients, James started scouting out a location for the latrine. The other men – Mark, Ron, Paul and Ralph – went off looking for firewood.
Afternoon
Eventually, the women reappeared, chattering cheerily, wet, somewhat better groomed, dressed in the same clothing as when they had left camp. The men had gathered a moderate pile of driftwood and downed palm fronds – a pile that looked as though it would last for several days, but James thought that to be an overestimate.
The pit latrine would be located on the far side of a small thicket of bushes that would create a visual screen for privacy. It was well above the tides, but otherwise close to the ocean for cleaning up after a visit to the latrine. The men, eventually joined by Michelle and Jeanne, worked at digging with sticks, serving spoons and spatulas since no shovels were rescued from the ship. The work was slow, but many contributors made the work go faster, and they soon had a good sized trench in place.
After this, it was the men’s turn to go to the cove for a swim and to clean up.
Having found a number of refrigerated steaks, Marcella cooked them for supper, with potatoes and more barbecued vegetables. Everyone but the five in the infirmary ate well. Lady Richard was weaker, but still alert. Lord Richard was also weaker, but his disease was progressing more slowly. Roger and George were still consumed by grief. Jim was now complaining of a cough, stuffy nose and headache.
The topic of suppertime conversation was what the tainted food might have been that could have killed off two-thirds of the ship’s complement but spared the group that now found itself on the island. James started by sharing what he knew of botulism:
“Botulism is caused by a toxin produced by Clostridium botulinum, an anaerobic organism. Growth of the organisms is inhibited by an acid environment or by oxygen, and the spores are killed by the kind of heat normally employed in commercial canning. Home canned or home cured food, especially low acid food, is most frequently involved.”
“But we didn’t have any home canned food, did we?” asked Paul.
“Actually, we did, but please let me finish. Honey often contains C botulinum spores, which are not harmful to adults, but may grow in the intestines of infants causing infant botulism. Usually, the growth of the organisms in food is not detectable, though a loss of vacuum in a can of food is a potential indicator. “
“This is why one looks for the popping of the tops of canning jars!” exclaimed Marcella.
“Signs of botulism usually start within 12 to 36 hours of eating contaminated food, but can be as early as six hours depending on the severity of the exposure and the immune system of the victim. Early symptoms include dry mouth, sore throat, weakness, vomiting and diarrhea. The sign that makes the diagnosis of botulism, though, is acute symmetrical cranial nerve impairment.”
“Come on, Doc,” Ralph interjected, “what are cranial nerves?”
“Cranial nerves are the nerves that leave the brain directly through the skull rather than going down the spinal cord first. Cranial nerves control the eyes and the face, so weakness of eye control with double vision and sagging eyelids are characteristic, as are drooping of the face, slurring of speech and difficulty swallowing. It was finding all of these well developed in Joan Fuller that led me to the diagnosis, and the presence of many involved people was enough to make the diagnosis certain.”
“Well,” Paul indicated, “that makes sense to me.”
“Given the rapid progression of the disease in many of the victims, I would suspect that it was something served at lunch, and that the crew ate liberally of it. Is there anyone in this group who ate the smoked salmon?”
Everyone denied eating the salmon.
Ralph: “By the time Jeanne and I got to lunch, it was all gone.”
“Valerie warned me not to eat any because she thought it might be a problem.”
“Jim tasted it and thought it had gone bad. I think he spat out what he had tasted. I thought he was being too finicky, but he insisted I not eat any, so I didn’t.”
“The Kirkpatricks ate some, but only a little ‘cause they were pacing themselves for the rest of the meal.”
“I don’t like smoked fish.”
“Someone said that the Howlands brought two fish, one was served to us and the other was served in the mess for the sailors. If the eight of them split an amount anything like what we had for the 30 of us, they all had much higher doses of toxin than we did.”
“I think we have all the pieces to the puzzle. For various reasons, those of us who survive did not partake of the salmon; those who ate it became ill. I think we have identified the culprit. This should make us less anxious about the safety of the rest of the food on board, from which supply we are now eating.”
Darkness settled in rapidly after sunset. The growing crescent of a moon was hovering longer over the western horizon, but it too would soon slip away, leaving the group in shadow. Precious candles were to be used only in the infirmary; dishes were rapidly washed in the sand at the edge of the water as the light waned, the crimson hued world fading to gray. A rotation for the infirmary and one for the cooking fire were established; everyone else went to their lean-tos and to bed.
James and Maria settled into solitude with some gratitude. It had not been an easy day for either of them, but they were very glad to be together. Shrugging out of her terrycloth bathrobe, Maria chose that moment to comment on an issue that would affect her very soon: clothing. The one piece of attire she possessed was that bathrobe and it was going to be very dirty and very smelly very soon. It could be washed, but it would probably take two days to dry out after washing, and what would she wear while it was drying? They had knives (but no scissors) on the island, so they could cut up cloth, but they had no sewing materials, so the range of clothing creation was limited. James acknowledged the same problem with his singularity of attire – just the dressing gown – though in his case, it appeared that he could wash it at night and expect it
to be dry in the morning, provided it did not rain during the night. They agreed to leave off this discussion until later – probably tomorrow at lunchtime – when it could become a community-wide discussion. But, for the night, they took off their gowns and hung them on the posts of their lean-to, crawled between the blankets and snuggled into a loving embrace, murmuring words of love and comfort to one another before they slept.
Acknowledgments
I want to acknowledge all people involved in this book series, without their permission and their support of whom this work could not be accomplished: Mr. Samuels, Mr. Del Mar, Captain Ashley, and the free spirit of Mr. Gallagher.
Distributed by Nick Niels Sanders with all rights and permissions required.
Table of Contents
Stormy Destination
Work
23
Lunch
Acknowledgments
Stormy Destination Page 3
