The next morning Captain Whiffo and his first and second mate strode into the ship builders office again. "Sir," exclaimed the director, still elated by the events of the preceding evening, "there she be, ratlines and rigging tight, and all in all quite seaworthy!" "Haha!" replied the Captain, and, turning to the mates, he exclaimed, "prepare the crew by high tide, and we shall be off at once!" "Uh, Cap'in," replied the second mate, "you do know you've given us exactly five minutes?" "Pshaw!" responded the captain, "well, then make it five and a half. We're off to Pontelli, me hearties!" Five and a half minutes later the anchor was up, and the Henri sailed out into the uncharted waters of adventure. A few hours later, as the first watch went below, Captain Whiffo sent for his first mate in his cabin. "Mr. Bowditch, sir," he began, "as you can see, we be hear, and need to get somewhere over there to Pontelli." That was now taken care of. "Before we left, by the by," went on the Captain, "I went over to see Wilkinson, and he informed me that he had settled the whole mayor thing, and I have his letter to Alberto de Pontelli right here. Let's see," he cleared his throat. To Alberto de Pontelli Terreli, 23rd of April, 616 As mentioned earlier, your experiments in the area of using the phlogiston extracted from Oleonish wine to lift pieces of cloth with other various oddities of a round and brownish hue - in short, with coconuts - into the air, convinced me that your worthy self would make a most excellent mayor for the settlement of Pontelli - though, also, as mentioned previously, either Colonel Brickinson or some other person willing (or not) would be the one who would have to do all the work involved in the post. I give you, sir, my congratulations, and hope that you may have a long and prosperous life (at least as long as may be reasonably expected, given one with your own occupation), and that you will avoid blowing up (or down) more houses in the settlement than necessary for the pursuit of science. I sincerely hope that this letter reaches you in good health - in short, in a pre-poisoned, exploded, burst, or other uncomfortable condition, and that you will enjoy and make the most of your new and honorable position. Yours, E. T. Wilkinson de Chauncourtois "Well, well," continued the Captain, "there is a fine end to that business. That is all!" The second mate soon after came down and called on the Captain. "Compliments, sir," he declared, saluting, "the weather looks fine, sir, and Terreli has just faded astern." "Very well then sir," replied Captain Whiffo, "I shall go topside then and see what's up with that Oleon passenger guy." Meanwhile Myles had checked that all the cannon, powder, and balls were prepared for any time at which they might be needed. Pirates and other enemies (well, for all practical purposes they were pirates too...) swarmed the seas, and though the Henri could easily outrun most of the other ships east of Terraversa, it were always best to be prepared. Off they were to sea, at last, and to the Pontelli - the first mate smiled a bit as he thought of de Chauncourtois' letter, and though he likewise did hope that they would arrive to find the new mayor (well, soon to be, that is) in a pre-exploded state, it was undoubtedly just a tad eccentric to actually declare as much. The second mate: The interior: I was quite surprised to find how little interior room (comparatively speaking) there was in such a large-ish ship, but I tried to make the most of what I had! The cook: And a couple of unedited overview shots: The crew (well, most of the crew was actually below deck when I took the first pictures, and above when I took the interior shots, so they don't show up here - at least, that was the excuse they gave! ): It's finally ready! The Henri took a little over one month to build, and a little less than that to edit (I did have a lot of other things to do, btw!) A fast trading ship (I'm think Class 7 or 8F, but I won't be licencing it for a while yet), the Henri has a complete interior, an armament broadside of three 18 pounders, and a very exhausting amount of rigging! She is owned and commanded by Captain Whiffo, a high ranking member of the ETWC. Myles Bowditch (my sig-fig) is the first mate and navigator, and the second mate is the guy behind the wheel (if the story didn't make that clear!). The Henri was greatly inspired by the Putnam and Koen's awesome De Ruyer Frigate, which was a lot of help, especially with the rigging - which, by the way, I believe I only had to redo completely once, due to the wind (it was blowing a hurricane when I went out to take pictures!) blowing the white posterboard down on it from above (when I discovered the 17-18th century ships were apparently not rigged with such a possibilty in mind!) Thanks for viewing, C&C are always welcome!