Rio the Monkey Rescues the Ship Destiny's Dreams

No wind. Hot weather like a furnace. The ship running out of drinking water.  The steam engine used as a backup in calm seas not working.

Even Captain Alfonse of the ship Destiny’s Dreams looked like a wilted plant. Foresta the colorful parrot slouched where he sat on the captain's shoulder and Rio the rescued monkey clung to his back.

He reached over and stroked the parrot's head, saying something softly. Jealously, Rio the monkey wiggled around to Alfonse's chest, chittering, then jumped to the ship's deck and scampered around, picking up loose items on the deck and playing with them.

“It feels like we are in a wildfire,” said one of the sailors on the ship Destiny’s Dreams.

“Stranded, and our water running out.” Another sailor shook his head.

“Never seen it like this,” said another.

How had this happened?

Looking toward the horizon, Isabella wiped her sweating face and moaned. After the captain performed her marriage with Adelberto she thought the voyage would be a celebration. Now she was hoping they would survive.

It was summer in the southern hemisphere, in February off the eastern coast of South America in 1898. The Destiny’s Dreams was returning from an island expedition and heading now to Rio de Janeiro, a large bay in Brazil.

This time of year was the hottest and the wettest month there. Today Isabelle felt like it must be setting a high temperature record. The sun glared down from the clear sky. 

Were they going to perish out here? She pictured the cool, shady bay where the ship sat anchored when it was at Rio de Janeiro. They had to get back. 

When she ran away from home with Alessandro, to avoid a forced marriage to her father's business partner, the captain performed her marriage with Alessandro.

She never dreamed their life would come to this. Adrift in the middle of the ocean. Running out of water. What was going to happen to them?

Do not think like that, she told herself. We will get back. This is only temporary.

She wondered if the carnival festival had begun already. It was February. There would be parades, dancing, food, music. So different from their isolation in the heat wave on the ocean now.

Perspiration dripped down Isabella’s sides. Her long dress was like a tent and the undergarments clung wetly to her body. Water drips ran down her forehead and cheeks. Her body felt like she was on fire.

She felt lightheaded and staggered.

“Miss, come over here to the shade.”

One of the sailors sitting under the eaves of the ship’s wheelhouse tried to leap to her assistance. But the heat was so stifling that he could only manage to drag his legs slowly under the burning sun.

“Have some water. Take some of mine. There. There.” His voice was kind.

“I need to talk to my husband.” Isabella’s voice sounded scratchy.

“There he is.” The sailor tried to help support her over to the shade.

The temperature there was only a few degrees cooler, if at all.

“At least this is out of the sun,” the sailor said.

“Yes. Yes. That glare. I feel like I am burning up.” Isabella’s voice was raspy.

“It is so hard to breathe. This heat,” she said.

“In all my years as a sailor, I’ve never seen anything like it.” The sailor’s face looked grim.

She saw Alessandro come out of the door to the wheelhouse. He stood for a moment, swaying. The air was like a furnace.

The ship sat on the flat ocean under the blazing sun. The windless sails drooped on the three masts of the clipper ship. The steam engine smoke stack added to the boat was silent. Down in the furnace room several sailors were bent over the machinery.

“We’ve got to get this working or we could die out here,” said one of them.

“Hold that pipe while I try to turn it. This might work.” The voice of the other sailor was hoarse.

Then he spoke to the engine as if it was alive. “You can do it. Come on. Cooommmme oooonnn.” He drew the words out like he was singing to it.

Outside, the hot air seemed to waver like ripples over the smooth ocean surface.

Isadora walked weakly across the deck of the ship Destiny’s Dreams to her husband. Alessandro’s eyes were like red-rimmed stones in his flushed face.

He had studied the charts in the wheelhouse again. Last night under the clear, hot sky, the stars looked very close and bright. The navigator used his sextant to calculate their position. 

They were several days away from Rio de Janeiro.

“How much longer will we have fresh water?” Captain Alfonse walked across the deck to one of the men heading toward the steps down into the steerage and cargo area below the decks.

“The barrels are getting pretty low. Tighten up on the rations. Keep everyone out of the sun.” The man’s voice was low.

Then he said, “Pray for wind. We must get to the shore and fill up on fresh water again.”

Captain Alfonse studied the horizon in all directions. Destiny’s Dreams was returning from a set of islands hundreds of miles off the eastern coast of South America. 

The vessel carried an expedition of explorers, tourists, and amateur scientists from Brazil. Their trip to gather information and enjoy a pleasant vacation had turned into an emergency.

How he wished they were already in the sheltered bay of Rio de Janiero, near the crystal clear streams that ran down from the mountains.

He would throw himself into the waters and feel them wash through his skin all the way to the heat burning inside.

The ship rocked slightly and a metal pulley on one of the halyards clanked against a metal cleat on one of the masts. The sound echoed oddly over the silent ocean.

Then a holler went up. “Fire. Fire. On the mast.”

The metal pulley from the halyard hitting the cleat must have thrown a tiny spark. Even that was enough in the burning heat to start burning.

“Lower the buckets, form a line to the mast.”

The captain yelled orders. Sailors and passengers lined up from the railing to the mast. Buckets of seawater were pulled up and passed along the line.

Several sailors lowered buckets and ran with them to the mast.

Orange flames were leaping at the base of the tall spar. The oiled canvas of the lowest sails caught fire. The flames ran up the mast, higher and higher, catching the large, white sails on fire.

The buckets of water doused the flames at the base of the spar. But the sails above it hung in black-rimmed tatters. The air shimmered with the heat from the fire.

In the bow, a group of the passengers huddled against the railings. Several small children and teenagers watched with wide eyes. The faces of the adults hung with half-open eyes while they struggled to keep breathing in the heat.

The air felt so thick their lungs had to work hard to draw it into their chests.

Several sailors near the burned mast were coughing.

A distant humming floated through the hot air over the ocean.

Captain Alfonse pulled out his telescope, squinted one eye, and turned the metal band near the lens slowly to adjust it.

“Someone’s out there. A boat.”

The object got closer. It was a small, steam powered vessel.

“Who could this be?” Alessandro was at Captain Alfonse’s elbow.

“I don’t know. Way out here. It is a shipping lane to those islands. Thieves? Pirates?”

The approaching boat slowed and circled around them. People on the deck were examining the Destiny’s Dreams.

The strangers’ steam-powered vessel was rusty metal and grey curls rose from the smokestack.

Captain Alfonse called out to them.

“Hello. We’re running out of water. Can we buy some of yours?”

The boat came closer. It looked like they were going to tie up and come aboard.

When the strangers’ boat came alongside the Destiny’s Dreams it had too much speed in the still ocean water.

The sharp point of the bow struck the hull of the Destiny’s Dreams. There was a loud boom.

Captain Alfonse and Adelberto leaned over the railing, their faces showing horror and fatigue from the heat.

The paint and wood was scraped off the side of Destiny’s Dreams, but the damage did not go through the hull. There was no water leaking into the boat.

Their angry faces stared at the people on the smaller boat and they identified the skipper.

“So sorry. Captain Abilio here, I misjudged the speed and momentum in the calm water.” The man wearing a skipper's cap stepped forward.

While they were talking a change came over the ocean that had almost never happened before. Stirred up by the heat of the surface water, far to the south, pressure systems had been building up and the weather began to change. 

Both captains saw a breeze ruffle the flat surface of the ocean.

Their eyes followed it and widened.

In the distance, they saw clouds coming over the horizon. Alfonse knew that the curvature of the earth limited sight to only several miles when in a boat on the sea. If he were standing on a cliff or mountain on the shore, then he could see much farther.

The wind and clouds must only be several miles away. They were not very far.

“Storm coming. Tie everything down.” Adelberto knew what to do and his voice carried to the other sailors.

Waves began to replace the flat ocean water. They saw the storm approaching with tall waves, a wall of marine fog, and dark clouds in the distance.

The slight movement in the air felt good.

“If we can’t steer the boat to face the waves, we can get swamped and sink.” The sailors talked among themselves. Their tired faces showed a new fear.

“Throw us your bowline,” hollered Captain Abilio. They saw a name on the side of this boat. It was the Carina, named after a constellation of stars in the southern hemisphere.

“We will tow your ship. Our boat is smaller but our engines are fit to be used as a tugboat.”

“We’ve got water too. Send your sailors to haul up these water barrels.”

Isabelle watched Adelberto help attach the bowline to the Carina and load the water barrels.

“Adelberto, have the sailors put the water catching barrels and all the containers possible out on the deck. If we get rain we need to catch it, in addition to having the extra water from the Carina.” Captain Alfonse’s voice was calm, despite the urgency of the situation.

Captain Abilio on the Carina fired up his steam engines and the massive bowline from the Destiny’s Dreams to the stern of the Carina pulled taught. The ocean churned behind the Carina as her propellors spun.

Very slowly the Destiny’s Dreams began to move.

Alfonse noticed Rio the monkey was no longer clinging to his back.

“Anyone see where Rio went?”

A sailor replied. “I saw him run inside. Probably escaping the sun.”

Inside the ship the monkey was swinging along down the stairs to the depths of the hull.

It was dark there. Rio heard voices and followed the sounds. In a moment he swung from the door to the engine room where the workers were doing repairs.

When the workers ignored him, Rio entertained himself by picking up pieces of machinery and tools, flying them around, and catching them.

“Hey. Monkey. Stop that.” The tired worker’s voice did not seem to have any impact on Rio.

Giving a playful screech, Rio used his long monkey arms to climb around the pipes and boxes. In one dark corner, he picked up another object.

He made “ooo…ooo” sounds and carried the object over to the men. Maybe he could get them to play a game with him.

Rio dropped the object and it landed with a loud clang.

“Hey. Look what the monkey brought us. I’ve been looking all over for one of these.” The sailor’s voice sounded excited.

“The missing part.” The other sailor’s voice was surprised.

“Quick, grab it before the monkey gets a hold of it again.”

“Who would have thought. Don’t tell anyone that the monkey found it for us.”

"We've been rescued by a monkey."

The workers wiped sweat from their foreheads and bent over the engine.

“This should work. Easy now.”

“OK. It is in place. Fire up the engine now. There’s fuel in the furnace already.”

A series of sounds hissed and rumbled. The engine came to life.

“We did it.”

“Let’s go.”

The voices were jubilant.

Rio the monkey decided he was bored. He stretched out his long arms and hands, reached the top of the doorway, and swung through it. Then he made screeching and “ooo.ooo” sounds while he swung and climbed his way back to the deck.

Out on the ship’s deck Captain Alfonse heard the engine start up. The ship began to move.

“We have power.”

“Hurray.”

They untied the bowline that ran to the other ship.

“Thank you. We won’t be needing a tow after all.”

“You are welcome.”

Both boats began to slowly move in the direction of Rio de Janeiro.

Rio the monkey came out the doorway onto the ship’s deck.

“Oh, there you are, Rio. I wondered where you had gone, you rascal.”

The captain felt comforted when he had his parrot and monkey with him. He got to see his family when he went home to their port.

But Rio and Foresta were his companions on the long voyages. Their antics lifted his spirits, even in the worst of times.

Rio scampered up into Captain Alfonse’s arms, snuggled up in a hug, and then climbed around to ride on Alfonse’s back. His long, narrow fingers clutched Captain Alfonse’s damp, sweaty clothing.

Everyone on deck was looking at the horizon and feeling the air moving. Waves were getting larger.

“I think the air feels a little cooler. That new weather front is getting closer.” Adelberto called over to Isabelle. Her hair was wet with sweat against her neck.

They had extra water from the stranger’s ship. The Destiny’s Dream’s engine was working again, and the ship was moving. A new weather front was arriving with wind.

Isabelle and Adelberto smiled at each other.

Rio the monkey sat on one of Captain Alfonse’s shoulders and Foresta the parrot sat on the other.

Clouds came over the horizon with a stronger wind. It felt so good on their sweaty skin.

In the distance, they could see the blur of raindrops hitting the ocean waves. then the storm arrived and a sprinkle of rain began to fall on them.

Everyone lifted their faces to the sky, letting the drops cool their skin.

The workers who repaired the engine came up onto the deck.

“Thank you. Great job.” The captain’s words made them smile.

“You need to thank Rio,” said one of them.

Captain Alfonse raised his eyebrows and cocked his head.

What had the little monkey done now? 

Rio chittered, made some soft screeches, and finished with some of his “ooo…ooos.”

The Destiny’s Dreams chugged her way back to the bay at Rio de Janeiro. They docked at the harbor and left the ship to go downtown.

They heard the music of the festivities floating across the bay.

Food, dancing, singing, storytelling, costumes, and celebrating were everywhere.

The frightening times of being stranded in the hot weather out on the ocean were forgotten.

Captain Alfonse strode around the festival with Rio the monkey on one shoulder and Foresta the parrot on the other.

They blended right in with the parades and costumes.