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Two Sailors

by Jill Vedebrand

351 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); not suitable for children under 12; catalogue #04-0016; ISBN 1-4120-2092-1; US$28.50, C$32.99, EUR23.50, £16.50

Thousands of miles apart, a young Brazilian and a Swedish boy who long to go to sea, will change each other's lives in this compelling story set in the 1950's.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpts       catalogue info

About the Book Georgio, a fourteen year old Brazilian boy, dreams of becoming a sailor but his father wants him to be an apprentice in the factory where he works. Georgio escapes the heat and pollution of the crowded city and runs away to the port only to become trapped on the KISHIWADA, a Japanese fishing boat, when it suddenly takes to sea, bound for West Africa. Thousands of miles away in Sweden, on the shores of a frozen lake, sixteen year old Leif is working on his family's small farm and longing for the spring. When the snow and ice have gone, the ELISE, an old cargo motorschooner, will return and anchor in the bay once more, and Leif can think of going to sea. It will be two years before he fulfils his ambition and finds work on a passenger cargo ship bound for Argentina. During that time Georgio has been half way around the world on the KISHIWADA and has become one of the crew. The two sailors meet in a dramatic rescue at sea and the incident brings them unexpected good fortune but also conflict and heartache. In the following six years they become great friends, then rivals, as they lead each other into adventure and danger. Leif's obsession with the beautiful but elusive Ella, the fate of the ELISE, and Georgio's guilt over the family he abandoned, all play a part in this compelling sea story set in the 1950s in the aftermath of the Second World War. Not suitable for children under 12; book is for young adult or general readership. Story begins when characters are 14 and 16 and continues over the next 6 years of their lives. Reviews Adventures on the high seas, sailing ships across vast oceans, visiting colourful places as poles apart as Scandinavian glaciers and Amazonian jungles are all excitingly found within the covers of Jill Vedebrand's wonderful book, Two Sailors. Set in the late 1950s, this nautical tale is gripping from the very start and tells how, through fate and circumstance, two boys bedome best friends. The two sailors in question, Georgio, a 14-year-old Brazilian boy, and Leif, a 16-year-old Swedish boy, have apparently more than poor backgrounds and hard working families in common. They both have an irrepressible dream of escaping to the sea and this dream will one day bring them together from opposite sides of the equator. In a town just south of the stifling heat of Rio de Janeiro, Georgio knows that the only way of escaping a five year stint as an apprentice in a sweatshop is to run away. He heads to the docks and becomes a stowaway on what turns out to be a Japanese fishing vessel bound for West Africa. Meanwhile, on a remote frozen wasteland of a farm in Sweden, Leif longs for spring to arrive and imagines that becoming a sailor would lead to a full, rather than dull, experience. For over two years, each has their own enthralling adventure and gains valuable experience at sea. Leif, on a passenger cargo ship bound for Argentina, and Georgio, as one of the crew on the Japanese fishing boat. Then tragedy strikes and, off the South American Coast, Leif is able to save Georgio's life. This dramatic sea rescue brings them both together, not as boys, but as young men. From then on, through love, jealousy, hate and rivalry, they lead each other into both adventure and danger. A terrifying journey across the Atlantic Ocean calls for them to make use of their hard-earned sea faring skills. However, even that experience, could not prepare them for the uncharted depths of the Amazon River where hidden perils await. Jill Vedebrand is no stranger to the sea and this is so evident from her clear, informed, and compelling writing. Her storytelling sweeps you along, from the vivid mind pictures of the frozen snow-laden lakes of Scandinavia, to the humidity of the tropics. Life at sea is brilliantly evoked and the descriptive, emotive writing lifts this tale so that you can actually see, smell and feel the ship and the ocean around you. After a bit of an adventure? I bet you can't put this one down. Janice Horton for Dumfries and Galloway Standard, May 14, 2004 'A brilliant boy's novel (and girls will not be bored by any means). I love it! Emotions are very well depicted in this fast moving teenage and young person adventure story. Jill Vedebrand presents her memorable characters in a vast array of scenes and moods." Kate Stanforth, B.A., Dip. Ed., English Teacher

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About the Author Jill Vedebrand was born in London but spent many years working in the film business as a Production Manager and Line Producer in Hollywood, USA, beginning with Roger Corman and continuing with other independent companies in a variety of feature films starring Ron Howard, Oliver Reed, David Carradine, Brad Davis, George Kennedy and many others. In the middle of her career, she met a Swedish sea captain and made the choice to join him at sea, where she was to spend the next ten years on a variety of cargo ships and oil tankers. In addition to TWO SAILORS, Jill has written TRAVELS WITH MY SEA CAPTAIN, a humerous and personal accont of life on board ship when she joined her husband travelling all over the world. Jill Vedebrand is currently working on the sequel to TWO SAILORS, titled: TWO SAILORS 2: THE NAGASAKI PEARLS (available later in 2004)

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Sample Excerpts or Table of Contents

Chapter 16

"No! We are in Gydnia, in Poland! Jävlar, satana perkelä! I am sorry Leif, but these two, they are Estonians, they had no patience to wait, they made me take off and brought three javla crew with them. Crew! God, they are useless, useless!" It was Sven Fager on the telephone and the line was very bad. Between the hissing and the clicking Leif could barely make out what he was saying. He looked at Georgio who was standing in the hallway trying to guess what was going on and Leif shrugged his shoulders at him.

"What are you saying? What do you want me to do?" Leif yelled down the line. He was furious with Sven. He understood that the ELISE had already sailed.

"Don't be angry with me Leif. I need you. Listen, we are bound for Liberia but these two idiots are trying to finance the voyage as they go. I don't believe they have even paid for the ship, but they had a cargo, have a cargo I should say, for good money. We have drilling equipment and pneumatic drills on board. It's for a Swedish company who have a mining company there. We are bound for Buchanan."

"So why are you calling me?" said Leif angrily. After all he had discussed with Sven over a week ago, this was a blow. Georgio had been at Hemviken two days now and he had filled him with enthusiasm about the ELISE, that they would go to Stockholm, sell the pearls to Erik Jorgensen and then join the ship.

"Nylon shirts!" Sven was now saying. Leif held the phone away from his ear so that Georgio could hear him. "I think he's drunk," said Leif to Georgio.

"I am not drunk!" Sven roared. "They bought nylon shirts to sell in Poland this they tell me when I am one day out! Now they 'exchange' them you might say, for brännvin."

"Brännvin," Leif repeated, feeling depressed. He was tempted to hang up the phone.

"Yes!" said Sven. "This is an old trick. Now they go to Norway to sell for something else. I don't know the hell what I am, only the captain, but they don't understand that according to the law they are supposed to inform me. They say they are Estonians but perhaps they are Russian."

"So when are you going to Liberia?" said Leif, hardly caring to know.

"After! After we pass Råå anchorage and have delivered this brännvin to Norway. This is what I am calling you about. You said you had a friend, in Brazil, but maybe you have another."

"He's here," said Leif, now laughing in spite of himself. He covered the receiver and spoke to Georgio. "I'll tell you later," he said.

"This is good!" Sven was now saying. "You see my friend there, the harbour master. I will let him know. I am going to put these others ashore. Not the owners, although I would like to. The other crew."

"Wait a minute Sven," said Leif quickly. "We haven't agreed to anything yet."

"Leif, I know your family. You know me. I will see you alright. I need you to help crew this ship. The two who have bought it, so called seamen and business men as well so they say, I don't know what they are, but they are in our hands if we can run this ship between us, in the proper way. Are you with me or not? I cannot talk here all evening. I am in the agent's office ashore and God knows what they are up to on the ship. I don't like the look of the weather."

"When will you be at the Råå anchorage?" Leif asked him, he knew where it was, ships anchored not five hundred meters off the Swedish shore on the west coast. He had been anchored there himself on the tanker when they passed on their way to Copenhagen.

"In four days, if the wind is with us. I see you there." The phone went dead.

Georgio had fallen in love with Hemviken in spite of the weather. He couldn't believe what a beautiful place it was, the wild life around, the forest, the animals on the farm. "I could stay here for ever if I was you," he told Leif. "So much space, so much air. It is a paradise."

"You can tell me that when you have spent a full winter here," said Leif but he was pleased that Georgio liked it. It made him look at his home with new eyes. It was still too dangerous to go out on the lake and too full of ice to row but they walked in the forest and Leif told him all about the moose and deer that lived there. Anna was telephoning almost every hour but he told his mother to tell her he had gone to sea. Greta had shrugged but she had already heard in the town where Leif had been the many hours he had been away and she was happy to give Anna the lie. Her son had come to his senses. The lie became the truth. Leif and Georgio left a message for Erik Jorgensen with the bank. They would return later. They were going to sea they said, and would get back to him in a few weeks.

The ELISE came sailing out from the fog like a moth from a cloud, silent and ghostly. A thin shaft of soft yellow sunlight moved ahead of the bow, then broadened, engulfing the sails. It was as if the ship was lit by candlelight and it took their breath away. They had sat on the shore and then decided to row out a small way, thinking they might miss her in the fog and listening hard for the sound of her engine.

"Why is she under sail?" said Leif to the boatman "Isn't she going to anchor?"

Georgio said nothing. He felt he was never going to see anything as beautiful or as romantic again as the vision before him and he didn't want to speak but to capture it onto his memory for ever. All those days and nights when he had dreamed of sailing ships he had thought in his heart that was where they would remain, in his dreams. The wooden hull was the colour of honey and the weathered canvas sails translucent against the sun. The fog was lifting all around. Men could be seen on the deck now as they lowered the sails. The ELISE drifted slowly towards them.

"Lost power in the Flintrännan Channel," Sven Fager called down to them as the anchors were let out. "Lucky the wind was in the right direction or we would be on the shore."

"Fog as well," called Leif. He grabbed the rope ladder and climbed on board. Sven gave him a tremendous hug in his bear like arms. "Georgio Silva," said Leif as Georgio came on board. The boatman passed up their bags and suitcase then tied up on the painter to wait.

"Seamen's books, passports all in order?" said Sven. He was sober, very sober, Leif was thinking. It must have taken courage as well as skill to come through the channel under sail in fog and not simply have anchored up where he was when the engine cut out.

There were two surly looking men on the deck in caps and oil skinned coats, Leif thought they were the crew meant to go ashore until Sven introduced them.

"Anton Talvik and Jak Kangro, owners of the vessel," said Sven and they shook hands. Anton was slim with a narrow face and small eyes, Jak was the opposite and he was the only one of the two of them who smiled, showing the stained teeth where the pipe held in his hand was clenched all day. They were in their late thirties, Jak was probably older, possibly forty, Leif was thinking. They didn't look like owners, more like labourers. He saw Georgio's expression as he shook their hands. It was guarded. He didn't like them or trust them on instinct.

"Thought you'd get tired of waiting if I didn't press on" said Sven, taking them through to the cabins in the stern. "I had to put the other two crew ashore in Poland. A pair of communists I am thinking. Didn't want to be put ashore here in Sweden or in Norway so I took the chance you'd be here. Not much sleep in four days. Had to be on deck all the time. This Anton and Jak, they know how to sail, but they are lazy."

"Like me to go below and check the engine?" said Georgio as he threw his suitcase onto his bunk. He and Leif were sharing the cabin. The walls were panelled in varnished pine, it gave a warm feeling to the room. "O.K. Captain?" he said to Sven and went out.

"Beds need to be sorted," said Sven. "Haven't been able to see to that." The bedclothes were rumpled and dirty. The other crew, Leif thought. "Do we have a cook or steward?" he asked.

"Huh," said Sven. "If you can say so. Another of their choices. You can help shape him up. I haven't the time. Albanian. Ben something or other I can't pronounce his name or understand him but maybe it's the language. No Swedish, no Finnish, no English and no brain, well he has a little English. He talks to our owners of course, in Russian. Well, you and your friend's papers seem to be in order so I'll tell the boatman he can go. He looks alright this Georgio. Both of you look fit and strong by God. I bet that was mud in their eye on deck. You're like I was once before I hit the brännvin. Oh, yes, the brännvin, we have cases and cases on board. We sell for twelve thousand dollars in Norway."

"You got that much brännvin for shirts!?"

"Nylon shirts Leif, nylon. Very popular in Poland. Very popular. They can't get them there. Communists, pah!" he spat. "Poor bastards in that country. First the Germans and then the Russians. We had bales and bales of shirts straight from the factory in Stockholm. They make the brännvin by the gallon in Poland, it's cheaper than water there. The Norwegians will think they have a good deal and it will be, to them. Customs on all sides are in on it of course."

"Who thought up all of this? I thought you were carrying mining equipment for Liberia."

"We are. It was loaded on first. It's at the bottom of the hold."

Leif couldn't help smiling. "You knew all about this didn't you?"

The fog was completely gone within the hour and Sven was able to get some sleep. Leif went down to the engine room to see Georgio who raised his eyes to heaven to indicate the condition of the engine he was working on. Leif took him coffee and a sandwich from the dirty galley as 'Ben' was snoring in a hammock swung between posts in the kitchen storeroom.

Within two hours, as Leif was checking the lines and tackle up on the deck, he heard the engine start up, cough, stop, restart and then keep running. He jumped down the stairs to the engine room. Georgio smiled at him through the grease. He pointed back up to the deck and they went out. "Not been cleaned properly for years. I need lube oil and some parts when we get to the next port."

"What parts?" said Leif feeling a new respect for Georgio. "You know what they're called? We'd have to call over the short wave radio to the coast radio station, maybe to Bergen. One of the Estonians just told me our next port and its a very small place. Its way up Sognefjorden, that's a fjord, a deep inlet in between the mountains. Like a valley leading in from the sea and the port is at the far end. Its called Revsnes, 'Fox's Point'. Know what a fox is?"

"We saw one, at Hemviken, remember? I think I'm looking at one right now," said Georgio, wiping his hands on his trousers. Anton Talvik was seated on one of the hatches smoking, and watching them both intently.

Sven came up on deck, yawning away, dressed only in his long winter underwear.

"By God, that's a good sound to hear. You have earnt your keep already," he said to Georgio who told him the engine needed parts.

"We don't worry about that," said Sven feeling optimistic after his sleep. "We like to use the old skills. We sail more than we motor."

"It's a long way to Liberia. And back," said Leif adding, "I've been looking at the charts."

"Well maybe you are right, but not so easy to go to another port right now is it?" said Sven. He tapped his nose. "Maybe when we have unloaded the brännvin, on the way back down."

"I don't know names of parts. You have manual?" said Georgio.

"Manual?" laughed Sven. "The ELISE was built in 1938. Manual he asks me for."

"I can draw the parts I need," Georgio suggested.

Sven gave him a friendly pat on the arm. "You get yourself cleaned up and ready to sail." He looked up at the sky. "Fair wind."

Washing was a tub on deck. Leif woke Ben and told him to get some hot water going and to take buckets up and fill the tub. Leif thought he would be as surly as Anton but he was quite chirpy and wasn't Albanian at all but English and from London.

"Captain told me you were Albanian," said Leif.

"Captain. Cor' strufe," said Ben, clattering about to find the buckets.

"You have an Albanian passport?" Leif asked.

"You picks up a few passports if you was in the war," said Ben casually. "I gives 'em what they'd like to see."

"You speak Russian?" Leif continued, trying to work it out.

"You 'as to learn a few words if you fight on the same side as allies you know." He said the word 'allies' with sarcastic relish. "Well, we was allies once, not so very long ago. 's' all different now, aint it? Don't worry about that mate," he said as Leif tried to make space on the table. "I'll see to all that later on. 'E's 'ad me up on deck aint 'e? Nice to 'ear we've got a motor again." Leif was not surprised that Sven had thought he was Russian. He couldn't understand half of what Ben was saying. Ben finished a lot of sentences as if he was asking a question and it took Leif awhile to get used to it and realise that he didn't always want an answer. Ben was a man in his late forties with thinning brown hair. He must have been handsome when he was younger, he was still quite good looking but his face was lined and he didn't look healthy. His arms were covered in tattoos. He smoked all the time, the cigarette dangling from his lips over the cooking pots. He told Leif he had been a soldier which earnt Leif's instant respect. He was already looking forward to talking to him about guns.

"Met the two Estonians 'ave yer?" he asked Leif. "I 'eard you and your mate were comin' aboard. Couldn't be worse than the last two I was thinking, but I see you've got the engine goin'."

"That was Georgio. He's from Brazil."

"They knows 'ow to enjoy themselves. Always liked the Brazilians meself, cheerful 'aint they, and they don't 'alf 'ave nice birds."

"Yes," said Leif. He couldn't remember seeing any birds when he was there.

"When you and your mate's not busy, I've got a bottle out the back. Got loads of it on board."

Georgio had never been in a boat with sails. He had watched sailing boats skimming around on the blue waters of the Pacific when they had been close to shore on the KISHIWADA but they didn't get too close to larger sailing boats like the ELISE. The KISHIWADA would always turn away at speed if a cutter came into sight, motor giving way to sail as Georgio had understood being one of the 'rules of the road'. The tuna boat had no set route or schedule and Kato would simply head off in another direction to avoid being in the way. Observing the smaller boats, Georgio had learnt as much as he could simply by looking, but like watching a cowboy jump on a horse and gallop off into the sunset, it looked easier than it was and the ELISE was thirty meters in length and her masts some twenty meters high. With that amount of sail, you had power, but without experience it was easy to lose control.

His desire to learn was so strong that he had drunk in everything that Leif had told him over the last days at Hemviken and on their journey to Helsingbourg and the Råå anchorage. Leif had drawn diagrams of the ELISE and discussed the workings of the ship, explaining 'coming about', close hauled, beam reaching, and all the terms and what happened. They spoke about direction of wind and current, something that Georgio did know and Georgio impressed Leif with what he knew about navigation and how to read a chart, something Leif had persuaded Rutger to teach him with old charts spread out on the kitchen table but never actual plotting and setting a course in the same way Kato had shown Georgio at sea. Leif had no experience of sailing on the ELISE either, but he left that information out. He wanted Georgio to feel confident and he thought if he told him that it would take something away. Leif had been on board many times, it was all familiar, but like Georgio he had only watched as big sailing boats sailed away. What he did have was skill with a heavy rowing boat, he had shown that already, but he explained to Georgio how he would rig a simple mast and sails and sail the boat all over the lake in the endless daylight hours of the Swedish summer. Leif had taught himself, sometimes in difficult conditions and alone, and it had taught him a great deal.

When they had taken up the anchors and motored away from the anchorage the wind as Sven had predicted had allowed them to set sail and Georgio went below to cut the engine. Anton was down there, and he watched Georgio.

"You. Brazil boy," said Anton, "What you do in Sweden?" Georgio made a few adjustments and then sat down to sketch part of the pipe line to the cooling system. Anton bent to look into his face.

"Hey, Brazil boy, I talk with you."

Georgio unbuttoned his shirt and took out his seaman's book from his wallet.

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Catalogue Information

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