Voyager E-Book

Amanda Aalto

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Abenteuer, Thriller, Horror
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 160

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

In August 1864 a ship called 'Voyager' leaves from London port to New York with twenty six passengers aboard. This voyage starts with a hope for a new beginning for many but soon turns into a nightmare when the abhorrent events of the ship start to occur - caused by an enemy who leaves no trails behind. At the end the question is not just who is behind these brutal acts but how to defeat them before other lives may be lost.

Leseprobe

To my mother, my father and my sister who have always been there for me and encouraged me to be creative and to believe in my work.

Table of Contents

Chapter one

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Liam Davies's diary

Chapter two

Captain William Edward's diary

Annabel Witherby's diary

Henry Witherby’s diary

Captain William Edwards's diary

Chapter three

Annebel Witherby's diary

Liam Davies’s diary

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Heather Witherby’s diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter four

Henry Witherby’s diary

Liam Davies’s diary

Chapter five

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Henry Witherby’s diary

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Henry Witherby’s diary

Liam Davies’s diary

Chapter six

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Heather Witherby’s diary

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Henry Witherby's diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter seven

Liam Davies’s diary

Heather Witherby's diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter eight

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Liam Davies’s diary

Henry Witherby’s diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter nine

Istvan Varga’s notebook

Liam Davies’s diary

Istvan Varga’s notebook

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter ten

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Annabel Witherby’s diary

Liam Davies's diary

Captain William Edwards’s diary

Chapter one

Annabel Witherby’s diary

21 August 1864

We left our house right after breakfast. I could not sleep so I laid awake on my bed the whole night, staring at the white ceiling of mine and my sister's shared bedroom and studying some of its beautiful engravings. I kept wondering about our ship and what it would be like traveling with it across the Atlantic. Lizzie, who is our governess and that way a part of my parents staff (and whom we have spent a lot of time with), said that our ship would be as big as a mountain made by God and that it would glide almost without a sound when we would leave from London later in the evening.

»Can it truly be that big?« I asked her but she only replied by reminding me that I needed to hurry to run some last minute affairs with my father. And now when I am sitting inside that mountain Lizzie mentioned about (which is rocking gently in the little waves of the dock) I must admit that our ship must be the grandest thing I have ever seen in this world. Its prow and its back are shiny black but the upper parts are painted with white. Everywhere there are small windows and the vast sails lay partly tied to the masts like the wings of a bird that can not fly. In the back there is written the word VOYAGER in gold, which seems to be the name of our ship.

Our father said that the voyage to America can last almost six weeks which is why I am so happy that me and my sister have our own cabin. I can not wait to see all the wonderful places we will visit on our journey or to meet all the interesting people who are traveling with us to the New World (as some call it)! I will try to keep this diary during our whole journey and write down everything we might see and experience on this wondrous journey of ours to the other side of the Atlantic.

I can hear some cheerful calls and the busy footsteps of men echoing from the deck and I wonder if we are about to leave from the harbour. I might go outside with Heather and see what is going on but I will get back to you as soon as there is something worth writing about. Now Heather is here and she is asking me to accompany her to watch our departure so I must go!

Later in the evening: We left from London sometime between five and six in the evening (I did not remember to have a look at my watch since I was so excited and Heather insisted for me to join her on the deck to watch us leave from the harbour). There are about twenty other passengers along with us and the crew and they had also come to the deck to watch the ship take its leave from London. And because the day had been warm we could enjoy a gentle breeze coming from the sea long before we had taken our daring attempt to leave towards our new home town called New York. I wore my best ivory white dress and a straw hat with a white bow (which I could barely hold still because of the wind!). My sister was wearing her dark blue silk dress (as usual – she is always so grim!) and a small hat to match her dress, which she was holding on her head with both hands as we speeded towards the open sea. We had pulled our new white handkerchiefs in sight and we kept waving them in the air as we left our old home town behind and to all the people who kept waving back at us. And we laughed - oh how much we laughed, Heather and I! This must have been one of the happiest days in my life if not the happiest!

But now I must stop now since we are going to have dinner in the ship's restaurant. I can only hope that the cook here knows what he is doing like Mr Doyle in our previous London home!

22 August

Our first day at sea has gone well in every possible way, even if I feel a bit sick because the ship keeps rocking hard in the waves (which was even worse last night probably because of the tide – but even that can not spoil my good mood today!)

After we had woken up, tidied ourselves and then had some breakfast, we rushed to the deck with Heather where we marveled at the round white sails that kept wavering against the bright blue sky. I felt so unreal surrounded with that grand vision. Of course we needed to be sure that we were not in the way of the crew as they rushed cheerfully past us in each direction.

Heather seems to be in a good mood too, actually she seems more joyful than usual. Or to be more specific she has not had any of her episodes (I believe that as a little sister she is sometimes jealous because our father gives me more freedom than what he gives to her – but what she does not understand is that alongside that freedom I also have more responsibilities too. And when this happens she starts to sulk and nothing seems to change her dismal appearance).

While we were on the deck I felt happy since I had remembered to take my marbles with me and as we watched them roll from one side of the deck to another trying to catch them, we got so much exercise and outdoors that we had to take the rest of the day more calmly.

The food here is not particularly good but it is edible. For lunch we had some lamb with a sauce and some boiled potatoes and sprouts. Luckily they do serve some mead with the food which always reminds me of the times we visited our grandmother (while she was still alive, which now seems like a lifetime ago).

The sun is going to set soon and I promised to go out on the deck with Heather and look at the stars if the sky is clear. I hope that I can sleep better tonight and that I will only wake up in the morning (not feeling sick like I did today).

Captain William Edwards’s diary

21 August (1864)

We managed to leave London as scheduled. From there got up twenty six passengers – mostly rich people who wish to travel to America to explore its prospects and a new life the city has to offer. We also loaded several boxes of tea, spices and different kinds of mechanical machine parts on board and also countless boxes of various fabrics.

We managed to glide swiftly away from the harbour with the help of the tide and noticed that the wind was on our side so we opened some of the sails and continued our way towards the Atlantic. The wind has stayed favourable ever since and because of that we have managed to get a real head start for our long journey.

23 August

Our journey has continued without any misfortunes. The wind seems now more brisk than before which has caused some rocking with the ship but despite that the weather has been on our side. If the circumstances do not change (which I very much doubt but still silently wish in my mind) we should reach New York way before our original arrival date.

Liam Davies's diary

21 August

A new adventure, a new country, a new beginning. Why won't those words still mean anything to me? For almost a year I have been waiting for this moment and now that it is here, I still feel like an empty shell of myself. I have laid awake for countless nights and wished that when the Voyager finally lowers its sails, I could leave everything that has happened behind me. But now that I am here I realise that like all these other people I am just running away from who I was and lying to myself that I could be something different.

Our ship is grand, that I must admit. The windows of my cabin are facing South and even though I know I am going to spend most of my time here editing my stories (which some editors will possibly reject in the future), I enjoy knowing that the restaurant is open the whole day for refreshments.

Today has been beautiful. Painfully beautiful. I watched how two young girls waved their white handkerchiefs in the air on the deck and laughed. I wondered when do we lose our innocence and our ability to dream? I do not remember exactly when it happened to me. Maybe it happened slowly in time, like a disease that spreads without knowing and cripples you piece by piece and then, when it is too late, swallows you and everything you stood for whole.

My thoughts seem especially dark today. The dinner will be served in an hour and I wonder if I could go to the restaurant for an aperitiv (or two) before that. I also hope that I will be left alone since I have no intentions of having any conversations with anyone today.

22 August

I managed to drink more last night than what I wished for. When I arrived at the restaurant I noticed it had been laid to its full glory for the first dinner served to us, to the ship’s passengers. Each fork, knife, spoon and drinking glass had been polished so that one could see their own reflection from their surface (not that it was a vision I hoped to see).

There were seven tables laid in the room and when I found my small table at the farest corner (which had probably been put there to save me from embarrassment) I sat down and asked the waiter to bring me a glass of port wine. The restaurant seemed quite empty at that hour since there was still almost an hour until dinner would be served. I noticed a handful of other thirsty passengers in the room with me, people who wished for a quiet hour before the social part of the evening would begin.

I also asked the waiter if they would have something to read and soon he came back with yesterday's newspaper which kept me occupied for the rest of my time.

I managed to order another port wine before dinner which was lamb (anyone who knows me knows that I can not stand lamb – cooked in any way) and half raw potatoes with sprouts so I decided to continue my dinner in a more liquid form. I drank two glasses of red wine with some of the food I managed to eat and ordered a glass of sherry with pudding.

These drinks alone did not get me drunk and so when I left the restaurant with the rest of the passengers, I pulled my little pocket flask out (which I always keep in the breast pocket of my jacket) which was filled with whisky, just in case of a so-called emergency.

That grimness that had overcome me earlier was still keeping a hold of me. I opened my pocket flask every now and then and drank the whisky which burned my throat while I swallowed it down. After that I felt an urge to go outside so I got up on the deck, though it was not recommended at such a late hour. The sun had set and the sea swelled beneath us dark and unpredictable. I saw the helmsman somewhere a bit further from me, leaning onto the helm and steering it with both hands.

This view made me feel calm inside for a while and that was when I noticed that the first stars were lighting up the night sky one by one. I took another sip from my flask and pretended that I knew some of the constellations (though, to be honest, it is something I have never felt interested in before). Strangely enough, while staring at the different groups of the stars, I started seeing all kinds of different forms in the sky. They were like stories that were waiting to be told.

The next moment I staggered heavily when the ship took an unexpected turn and for a while I thought I saw a big shadow of a man move in the corner of my eye, but it was possibly just an illusion created by the shadows of the falling night (and all the alcohol I had drunk by then).

At that moment I decided that my nightly exploration had come to an end and got back to my cabin where I must have passed out shortly after. I just woke up a while ago to a pain in my head and I think I will try to ease this pain with what is still left of the whisky in my flask. I wonder, what time is it suitable to be seen in the restaurant with a drink? I might wait until lunch time, then I can have an aperitiv before the meal without any judging or bizarre looks from other passengers.

Chapter two

Captain William Edward's diary

25 August

Our journey has gone well so far, despite a couple of men from the crew who seemed a bit pale and tired today. When I asked them if there was anything wrong they only said that they had not been sleeping well so there is probably not any epidemic I need to be concerned about at this point.

We are now entirely at the mercy of the Northern Atlantic – but so far it has decided to show some clemency towards us. And even though the clouds covered up the sky for the first time today, the wind is still favourable and speeding us towards our final destination: America and New York.

27 August

The wind has stayed at our side but it is now more brisk than before, almost gusty. One man of my crew seemed very sick today, to me he seemed almost anemic so we fed him (almost forcingly) some red meat and gave him a glass of red wine hoping that it might help him at least for now. If he does not get better we will try the same tactics tomorrow. If that does not help him we must lay our trust on Mr Barrow's doctor's degree (he is a passenger of ours) – maybe he could tell us what is really ailing the man!

Annabel Witherby's diary

25 August

Today has been grey. We woke up really late with Heather and almost missed our breakfast (Lizzie would chide us for such behaviour but of course she is not here. I must admit I miss her a lot though).

After breakfast we went on the deck but this time it was so windy that we could not stay there for long. We got back to the restaurant shortly after, which was being prepared for lunch at that hour, and we decided to play a game where we tried to guess a backstory for each of the passengers who were in the room with us.

Heather wanted to go first. She picked a young and wealthy looking couple who were sitting at the table opposite to each other.

»They have just got married.« she began but I reminded her that she had broken the rules by referring to two people instead of one as we had agreed earlier.

»Wait! I want to tell you about them both.« she continued.

»The man is clearly from a very respected family. He is a count, a lord, a baronet - or something like that. He likes riding and he has charmed the woman with his fencing skills.« she began while squinting her little blue eyes.

I smiled at my sister's vivid imagination.

»And what about the woman?« I asked her.

»She is a beau.« Heather said and bursted into laughter. I could not help myself either and laughed with her and at that moment that couple gave us a very disparaging look and we understood that we needed to calm down.

»What about you?« Heather asked me after we had managed to end our hysterical episode.

»Who do you choose?«

I let my eyes wander around the room for a while until I saw a lonely man sitting in the farest corner of the room and sipping something from his tiny drinking glass. On the table in front of him was some kind of a notebook that he kept reading, looking fascinated.

I nodded at Heather to point out my choice and saw her gaze lighting up a little.

»Something forced him to leave London and his loved one behind.« I said silently so that the man could not accidentally hear my words.

»He likes…« I went on, now squinting my eyes this time. Then I saw an expensive looking fountain pen on the table next to the notebook.

»...writing!« I shrieked and realised that I had been too loud because of my excitement. Now the man kept staring at us looking both, confused and irritated at the same time.

»Come now, Annabel. I am tired of this stupid game!« Heather complained and after that we got back to our cabin where there seems to be nothing to pass the time with.

I just had a look outside a while ago and noticed that the sky is still cloudy and grey. I can only hope that tomorrow the sun will shine again and the wind will not be as strong as today.

28 August