Uplifted by Voyages of Wonder on the Mystical Coast

Part I. Crossing Vast Seas to the Islands

A new radiance began to grow in Arni as if he absorbed the sun sparkling on the sea.

His love for the vast oceans filled him and spilled over.

His inner fog cleared and a sense of wonder grew.

Arni's tangled thoughts turned into a sense of inspiration and direction. These began to fill Arni and uplift him beyond his daily tasks.

Arni knew what he wanted to do.

The many threads of his life were becoming woven into one fabric filled with a sense of wonder. He wanted to share it.

Soon he was leaving on the Calypso Calls clipper ship for distant islands.

While he worked as a deckhand he wanted to write inspiring adventure stories to uplift other people, based on his own experiences. He decided to send them to the papers and magazines for publishing.

He felt he was redeeming himself after the years when he drifted feeling heavy and without purpose other than his own wants and pleasures.

If only others could also share the sense of wonder he felt about the beauty of nature and especially his beloved sea.

In the second half of the 1800s, on the western coast of America, across a wide, foggy bay surrounded by hills in the mists, the masts of fast clipper ships with huge, square white sails and the smokestacks of steam-powered vessels rose to the sky.

Smaller fishing boats bobbed in the waves when seventeen-year-old Arni left the bay on a trade ship called “Calypso Calls,” heading for islands thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean. 

Despite tropical storms blowing in sometimes and unpredictable rain and wind squalls, the Captain and crew set out with confidence and the sturdy, fast ship's sails pushed her across the waves.

At a post office earlier that day Arni dipped a quill pen into ink and wrote, “Mama and Papa, I have signed on as an apprentice for a ship leaving today for the islands to the west.

Remember the day Silas told me ‘be careful what you wish for?’

Now I can add ‘I hope it does come true!'

I will post to you letters from the ports and keep a journal and sketches.”

*****

Part II. The Ocean Calls and A Secret is Born

A month earlier, it was a summer day in the late 1800s at the lighthouse in the wilderness of the Mystical Coast when seventeen year old Arni, the son of a local Scandinavian homesteader, heard a story about voyages to Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands and the Spice Islands.

While he listened he wondered if he would ever discover his true purpose, his calling, and live a life around it.

Working on the family homestead was rewarding. But throughout the day his eyes were drawn beyond the mountains to the ever moving sea beyond.

It held a sense of wonder for him. All day the waves sang to him while he worked.

Arni’s eyes were big and unmoving while he listened to the local storyteller as if he was in a trance.

Silas had come from England and now he owned a cannery and a sawmill near the local village on the Mystical Coast of northwestern America.

 “We booked passage on a clipper ship and we went over 13,000 miles in six months from England to Australia, including stopping at ports along the way.

Arni listened to the wiry, bent man speaking, who had bright eyes that glowed against the roadmap of lines on his tanned face, framed by the brown and grey hair and beard.

“The ship sailed into the harbor in southern Australia. Our legs felt like rubber when we stepped onto land after all that time at sea.” Silas paused and everyone leaned forward.

“When you did that you were only a few years older than I am now,” Arni said. “And married too.”

Silas tilted his head, and Arni said, “What was it like?... Thousands of miles from home…a new country”?

“The unknown has always attracted me,” said Silas. “Because there I found opportunities.”

Arni’s eyes widened and he raised his eyebrows. “Tell us about the Spice Islands.”

“I’ll get to that, too.” Silas nodded. 

Silas noticed Arni’s interest. “Some people have a natural talent for exploring.” He saw Arni nod slowly.

A plan and a secret were born in that moment for Arni.

“I know what you’re thinking, young man.” Silas smiled.

“Be careful what you wish for…”

This made Arni feel even more determined to carry out his secret plan.

The group sat on the porch of the lighthouse keeper’s house, high on a bluff above the Pacific Ocean in the Mystical Coast wilderness, in the second half of the 1800s.

Arni listened intently to the story Silas told. Later he wrote it down and gave it to the local village newspaper.

The challenges Silas overcame inspired Arni.

The editor loved it. The story was printed in sections over time. Local people rushed to buy the paper when it came out so they could read the next installment.

Arni was happy about that. He also had a secret.

Someday he would write many more stories.

The story in the Mystical Coast Gazette was called “the Inspiring Voyages of Silas Beck.” Under that it said, By Arni Nielsen.

His own name in print. When he saw it Arni stood tall with his shoulders back and looked out across the ocean at the horizon.

*****

Part III. Arni's Story of the Inspiring Voyages of Silas Beck

Decades ago, against the odds, a young boy embarked on inspiring projects and wonderous voyages across the seas.

An eleven year old boy named Silas and his brother living on a farm in the British Isles during the second half of the 1800’s did his best to take on the responsibilities of an adult when his father abandoned the family of six children and left the country. 

“We need to do business with the villagers and other farmers or we won’t survive.”

He was good at arithmetic and he worked the farm by day and sat writing plans and columns of numbers by kerosine lantern at night.

He went to door to door telling people about their farm products and set up a wagon for selling in the village. Getting up in the dark at 4 am, he and his brother fed the animals, gathered the sheared wool they would sell, took care of the vegetable and flower gardens and other crops, loaded the wagon, hitched up the horses, and drove into the village in the light of dawn. 

Only still a child, he was doing the work of an adult and learning from doing. The family had food and shelter but Silas was restless.

He read the newspapers and one day he saw a notice for passage to Australia. His ambition and desire for adventure were fired up. A chance for a new life. Opportunity beckoned.

The land grants were no longer available but there was a land for sale at auctions.

The trip by ship would be over 13,000 miles and take over 3 months. Silas’s brother took over the farm business and Silas signed up to go to Australia.

Silas and several siblings decided to go and the rest of his family stayed with the farm business.

“We need to keep moving forward,” Silas said to his brothers and sister. He was almost twenty years old.

Silas went to see his special friend Amelia on the neighboring farm. Since childhood they ran and played together, pretended and created games, and shared the trials and chores while their family farms struggled to succeed.

Amilia was used to physical labor on the farm. She was strong and glowing with outdoors energy.

“Amelia, I am going to Australia to buy land at the auctions and start a new farm there.

I don’t want to leave you. Would you marry me and go with me?”

They got married within two weeks and then left on the fast sailing clipper ship called “Sea Star.”

In late Aug. they left with 190 passengers and some livestock on a 225 foot long clipper ship with three masts. It had massive square sales and a speedy pointed bow and stern with a sleek style for speed. 

The narrow hull made it much faster than the merchant ships designed for cargo. They were called “clipper ships” because moving at a fast clip implied speed.

With the huge square sails and narrow, lighter hull, the clipper ship kept sailing forward even on calm days with barely any wind when the other ships were dead in the water.

On the voyage from England to Australia The Sea Star stopped at Madeira, Rio De Janiero and Cape Town. These were the typical stopping places for ships heading to India and China in the 1800s. 

The low cost passage they were offered was in “steerage,” It was cramped in the bottom of the ship, without privacy, and they had to bring their own bedding.

There were straw mattresses in large shared bunks. They brought a lot of dried food for themselves too. Soup and stew was doled out to them from big kettles. The air did not smell good and there were no windows in steerage.

In rough weather the steerage passengers held onto the ship’s frame. They went up on to the deck in good weather for fresh air.

On the farm in Australia Silas found life was hard because he struggled to find fertile land, and the hot, dry climate made farming difficult. The seasons were different from Britain's, and most of the plants and animals were unfamiliar.

Silas saw notices that promoted New Zealand as a Britian of the South. He sold the Australia farm and the family moved to New Zealand. Affordable land a free passage was offered.

Silas, Amelia and the children moved to New Zealand.

Silas studied the opportunities and started a group of small businesses.

Silas and his brother built a house from adobe bricks and got involved with lumbering, boat building, river transport, food processing and later a hotel that he sold later to start an award winning flour business and a brewery.

He was always the person to spot opportunities.

Silas and Amelia had twelve children and stayed in New Zealand for over 20 years. He got involved with the local government and held official positions. 

From starting as a young farm boy in a family deserted by the father in England Silas had traveled halfway across the world, and started farms and businesses.

A self-taught, self-made business owner, Silas’s ambition still needed more challenges. The news of a huge bay on the west coast of America caught his attention. 

Again, he was obsessed with a focus on opportunities and new starts.

The family sold their businesses and left for the bay with a busy port nestled in the hills. Several of his oldest children decided to stay in New Zealand.

After several years at the bay he traveled north to explore the Mystical Coast. 

Land an opportunities called to him again. He decided to move there and start a sawmill and a cannery. 

Silas sent for his wife and children and they took a steamer up from the big bay to the Mystical Coast. The ship brought their possessions from their home on the big bay, livestock to start a farm, and even a piano.

Silas had a fast custom clipper ship built to take his farm good, canned salmon and lumber down to the big city on the bay for trading and bring back supplies.

Then he opened a supply market in the village and started plans for a hotel.

Always there were new ideas drawing Silas eagerly onward to the next project.

The End – Mystical Coast Gazette

*****

Part IV. Sailing on the Speedy Clipper Ship "Ocean Obsession"

Arni's secret vision lit a radiance inside him and a new energy. He watched the ships passing along the coast from the homestead in the mountains.

His sense of wonder grew.

After the night of storytelling Silas had stayed several nights at the light house station to explore the trails, creeks, lighthouse, beaches and other homesteads.

Arnie went into town when he was ready to talk to Silas about his plan. Early in the morning he saddled Flame and by late afternoon he rode out to Silas’s cannery and sawmill. Silas's sleek new clipper ship was docked there.

“She’s a beauty, Silas,” he said. “I see you’re loading her up now. Is she heading down to the big bay soon?”

“Yessiree. End of the week.”

“Can you use an extra deckhand?”

“My, my. What a surprise.” Silas laughed.

“I guess you are good at reading minds.”

“After this many years in business I’ve had some practice.”

“I’m strong and you won’t be disappointed.”

“I’ve seen how you work. The other deckhands will have to push hard to keep up with you.”

Arni and Silas laughed. Back at his parent’s homestead near the light station Arni spoke to his parents.

“It’s about a week each way, including stops at ports. Plus around a week in the port there.”

“Oh, honey.” His mother stopped. “I guess you are all grown up now.” He had never left home without his parents before.

“I’ll be with Silas. You know him. So don’t worry.”

“I understand, son. I’m proud of you. When you get back I want to hear all about it.” His father nodded.

Arni and his father rode across the wet sand of the beach at low tide and then over the bumpy dirt trails to the village and along the path to Silas’s wharf and boat. His father would lead Arni’s horse back to the homestead.

Before they parted his father said. "While you're gone I'll graze the livestock on that homestead you purchased and I may start building some fences." Arni knew he always had a home there.

******

A sudden storm squall blew in from the horizon when they left the Mystical Coast on Silas’s clipper ship, the Ocean Obsession. Soon the waves were tossing the ship and Arni felt the boat rise on the swells and plunge into the depths.

He helped stow the supplies uploaded below the decks and secure them so they would not slide. There were pallets of canned salmon, barrels of butter from local farms, huge cans of milk, and other goods to trade at ports along the way. As quickly as the squall arrived it blew over.

“Good job.” Captain Silas was pleased. 

“I can do far more, Sir. Just let me have at it.” Arni was glad to start proving himself outside of his parents protective shadow and start making a name for himself.

After several days of mentoring the new sailor, Captain Silas said, ”Keep learning at this rate and you’ll have my job soon.”

Arni doubled his hard work after that. 

He wrote in his journal, “The seasoned sailors are showing me how to do new valuable skills and Silas is teaching me seafaring life and business operations.”

Part V. Voyages with Captain Vitus and the "Calypso Calls"

In a week the clipper ship sailed through wisps of fog like torn cotton into the wide bay of the big city surrounded by hills.

A few days later in a crowded, noisy eatery establishment with Captain Silas, Arni met Captain Vitus Cooper of the merchant ship called Calypso Calls. It was heading west with goods to trade in the islands thousands of miles away.

The two captains shared brandy and toasted their ships and crew.

Silas nodded toward Arni. “This one is a gem and I’ve mentored him myself. Already he is making his mark.” 

"Thank you, Sir, your teaching has made the difference."

Captain Vitus looked at the strong young man.

"Tell me more, Silus. I could use someone like that. We are heading across the Pacific."

By the end of the night Arni and Captain Vitus signed the papers and Arni was leaving in a few days for the islands.

On his last night on the Ocean Obsession, Silas said to Arni, “be careful what you wish for…”

And Arni finished instead with, “I'll keep wishing because it might come true.”

*****

Part VI. The Heart of the Sea Calls Again



The passage to the first islands was hard physical labor for Arni, combined with moments scribbling fast in his journal and making spontaneous sketches.

A month later at th islands Arni wrote in his journal, “The seas flashing, the surf beating, the sun and balmy breeze on the palm trees. I am enchanted by these islands. A wish is growing that I might settle here for a while.”

A week later he posted a letter and an installment from his journal to his parents on the homestead at the Mystical Coast.

The local newspaper in the small village printed the new adventure installment. Silas forwarded it to a magazine in the big city to the south on the bay. 

The editor there printed it and sent a big check to Silas to forward to the author.

Then Arni sent another and then more stories of sailing and islands. The checks from editors kept arriving.

One day Arni saw a sleek clipper ship hybrid steam ship slide over the water in the white toned morning light and into the island harbor. 

It was like a glistening dolphin on the shimmering sea. Arni felt his sense of wonder lighting up inside.

The stern of the boat said “Heart of the Sea.”

Arni hurried down the wharf to see the boat up close.

“Be careful what you wish for.” Arni said the words out loud to himself. "And I do hope it comes true!"

The sea called him again. Soon he was standing on the deck of the "Heart of the Sea" bound for more islands with pen in hand and stories flowing like waves spilling onto the beach.

Like a high tide swelling, Arni's love for the sea and gratitude for the ocean's beauty filled him again with a sense of wonder that uplifted him onward.