Chapter 69: The Banquet

The lighthouse port bustled with extraordinary activity, as twelve oars-and-sails warships were docked at the wharf, with laborers transporting dry food and barrels of fresh water onto the ships. The sailors disembarked and pitched tents on the open ground of the harbor, made fires for cooking, and rested.

Ever since leaving Vineta, the oars-and-sails warships' sailors could only drink cold water and eat dry hardtack that had lost its moisture. It was only after arriving at the lighthouse port that they tasted hot soup and fresh bread for the first time.

Other lucky ones from the ships selected by lot also pitched camps and made fires on the shore, but they were strictly isolated from the oars-and-sails sailors and were not allowed to intermingle.

It was the same with the sailors from the oars-and-sails ships; each ship's crew set up their own camp, and the lieutenants and midshipmen took turns patrolling, forbidding any sailor from leaving their ship's encampment on their own.