Sailor
So; a life on the ocean wave, a home on the rolling sea? Well, it’s healthy for some, what with all that sea air and exercise. Mind you it is also a little less healthy for others, say, those that sleep in a tiny iron box and spend all day leaning over a vat of indescribable soup.
I might add that all this slat air has added a little tarnish to my face – a blip of dirt right on the eyebrow of the Tsar, no less! Goodness, a coin with a more careful master would not have such a blemish for long, but I’m sad to say that this cabin boy has little use for money most of the time.
From what I understand he is saving his poker winnings for a spree when he gets ashore at some as yet unknown destination. Goodness knows how much longer I’ll be stuck here in this grimy wallet.
It’s been good that we have been joined by an elderly rouble, that Armand removed from a newly joined passenger. This means news from ashore, surely a relief after the bottled-up intrigue of the tight ship’s community.
It sounds as if the Tsar’s Amerussian armies are on the march again, with some progress as the autumn set in.
Some of this is heresay, but the general picture is that the border is being consolidated out west, with some support from our sometime allies, the Mexicans.
As for Europe, well word has it that the Italian Federation are attempting to assert claims to the Tyrol, also to some of the Cantons that the Austrians overtook back in the 50’s. It all seems to be going fairly well for the Italians, but no doubt the Austrian army will manage to stabilise a line somewhere decently far west of Vienna.
Finally, I hear that diplomatic deals are being made left right and centre, with the Russians farming out the ex-British colonies to anybody who will take them. The French got some, the Germans others, basically anybody who has more wish to rule over some poor natives in a backwater.
Hmm, all in all a quiet enough year, and one in which I have become heartily sick of rocking to and fro. We have been chugging around the Caribbean, and may apparently soon head north for colder waters. Here’s hoping that there’s landfall ahead, and that it includes the site of Armand’s wishes!
