If Scandinavia is the source of the image of the dragon Nidhogg in the Viking mythological system, then the Borkenfjord must be the snout that the dragon uses to spew fire and frost.
Rounding the island of Karm, the Atis Beauty sailed into the Borken Fjord.
The hydrology is complex, with craggy cliffs common on both sides of the river, and small islands dotting the landscape along the way.
During the journey, the channel suitable for large ships is sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, and from time to time with other sailing ships, often leaving only a few meters of tiny gaps between the two ships.
Hina's steering skills would certainly be difficult to handle in this environment.
Lorraine took the handwheel early and stowed the mainsail, while Hina stood at the watchtower and the all-important bowsprit was entrusted solely to Keren's care.
Their destination was the Black Harbor of Stavanger.
The eponymous Stavanger, the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Norway, was founded on the Tongenese peninsula on the west coast of the fjord, while the thriving Black Harbor was built on the island of Rønneas, which is less than twenty kilometers away in a straight line across the sea from it.
The boat traveled on the water, following the contours of the island around the dock.
Lorraine stood at the high helm and looked out over the south side of the island at a grassy slope with the great Utstein Abbey, with its white walls and red roof.
Built on the sunny slopes of the island of Ustine, which borders the island of Rennes, the monastery dates from the time of Augustus and was once the oldest religious building in the Kingdom of Norway.
It flourished for four hundred years until the Reformation broke out throughout Europe in the sixteenth century, when it was abandoned by the king and given to the Evason family, and then, for one reason or another, became the private property of the Garman family.
And it just so happens that the Garman family is the de facto controllers of the Black Harbor of Starneg, the only members of the MC.
If Elgin's information is true, Sir Garman, who ran Black Harbor, was excommunicated from his family for being a non-believer, an "outcast" and a pure Viking.
Thinking of this, Lorraine couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
Sir Garman's beliefs and identity were an advantage to him, while never having been in contact with a true Viking was a disadvantage.
What should I do to build on my strengths and weaknesses to quickly open up Stavanger's business path?
He was deep in thought when a towering and slender gunboat suddenly plunged up behind the flank of the Atis Beauty.
She spread her sails full in the narrow channel, clattered and tore through the waves, and grazed the side of the Beauty as she sailed away.
The crew of the Beauty jumped in fright as Lorraine steered the helm and Kron controlled the sails, hands scrambling to circumvent any washout they might encounter.
For a moment as he brushed the side of the ship, Lorraine made out the flag flying from the other side's mainmast.
On a black background with white stripes, the motif is two skulls facing each other against their foreheads, with a sword and an axe underneath the skulls, crossed in an X.
Two giant-sized young men stood side by side on the deck, the long-haired one with a Scottish cutlass at his waist, the bald one carrying a big axe on wheels.
At the closest distance between the two sides, Lorraine vaguely saw the bald man spit, "Ch-ch-ch-changes, Englishman!"
A few moments later, the gunship was lost and the stunned crew gathered around Lorraine.
Little Pierce's face was pale, and his forehead, with the bulge from the fall earlier, was red and swollen.
He shivered with palpitations, "Captain, was that a skull and crossbones flag just now? Are they ... real pirates?"
Keren frowned deeply, "Judging by the flag, they should be the Viking Twins pirate group that has gained fame in the past few years, headed by twin brothers, Leif and Bonet of House Eriksson."
Hina㤞 looked at Keren in disbelief, "You know them?"
"I haven't met the two captains, but the Black Harbor branch of the Bell Dockyard has repaired ships for them and handled merchant ships they've taken down, so I'm more or less familiar ..."
Pierce opened his mouth, "Their boat ... is so big."
Lorraine shook her head slowly as she held the tiller, "Brigantine Standard, 30 meters long, two masts. Foremast transom, 20 meters high, mainmast longitudinal sail, 22 meters high. The bowsprit is 5 meters, with four spinnakers, and two catch sails between the twin masts."
"This type of ship is a standard high speed ship, twelve knots downwind and five knots upwind, slender, stable and adaptable."
"She's not bigger than the Beatis Beauty. The main reason you'd think she's bigger is because she has a longer bowsprit and much more sail than the Beauty."
"In addition well ... Brigantine has five decks, even if you remove the two upper decks, in the case of a similar draft, her gangway height is almost two meters higher than that of the Beauty."
Keren grimaced, "Captain, did you see what was on their deck?"
"Guns." Lorraine let out a long breath, "There are eight guns on the main deck, all six-pounders, two stern gun windows closed on the transom, and ten porthole gun windows closed on the gun deck, which, if fully loaded, would be a twenty gun ship ..."
Keren took a deep breath, "This is a real gunship ..."
...
Even though the psychological construction had been carried out a long time ago, the experience of having a chance encounter with the Twin Pirates in the waters of the Black Harbor at first glance still cast a shadow over the hearts of the crew of the Atis Beauty.
The North Sea is not quiet.
The Scots, the English, the French, and the Dutch haunted the dense routes of this little sea, and the most powerful and cruel ... of them all were again the Vikings.
Vikings lair in the Scandinavian Peninsula around the scattered small islands, the total number of about twenty or thirty, the Gemini pirate group is only one of them, and far from the most powerful one.
This brought Lorraine's attention back to a problem.
If the Chamber of Commerce wanted to use Northern Europe as one of the fulcrums of the Triangular Trade, he had to properly address the threat of piracy.
Will Sir Garman ... be an opportunity?
In the setting sun, the Atis Beauty slowly sailed into the calm harbor.
Stavanger's docks were somewhat dilapidated and looked far less organized than Elgin's, at least Lorraine didn't see a pilot.
The ship picked a vacant mooring dock at random to drop anchor, far from the Twin Pirates on the other side of the harbor.
Once the ship was anchored, Lorraine left Kron and Pierce to guard the ship, and took Haina herself into the harbor area and began poking around Sir Garman's hobbies and residence.
It occurred to him that Hina and he were both pagans, and it was only right that in a Viking port, they should be born with an affinity above the belief in God.
It's just a shame that his intentions were good and his luck not so good.
Inquiring around the harbor, he learned that Sir Garman lived most of the time on the island of Ustanin, across the channel, and only came to Black Harbor two or three days a month to take care of his chores, and the last time he had been in port had been exactly five days ago.
He also likes peace and quiet and very much dislikes strangers disturbing his peaceful life ...
This was pretty much the worst news of all, and it meant that Lorraine would likely be stranded in this strange black harbor for an entire month.
He and Haina walked helplessly back to the docks and actually found a group of large pirate-like men wailing and attacking the Atis Beauty.
There were about a dozen of them, drumming around the stacks and the boat to confront them.
Crane cautiously jerked off the boards, and, unable to board the ship directly, they began to throw hooks and ropes into the ship, climbing up the deck in the manner of the catch.
The arch has a total of five or six hooks and ropes hanging at the same time on the more than twenty meters long main deck, Pierce carrying a chopper is cutting hard, Keren on the one hand to protect him, on the other hand to deal with three or four opponents boarding at the same time, in a short time on the body to add a number of bloody cuts, the defense is unusually hard.
Lorraine was dumbfounded.
My old man's boat ... was robbed at the mooring dock?
"To hell with it hey!"
Lorraine, who had hit a soft nail all the way to the harbor, was so enraged that she even boomed out in Chinese.
His anger rose from his heart, and evil grew out of his guts, and with a clang he drew out his sword, and pounced into the fray as if a tiger had descended from the mountain!
"Hina, try to stay alive!"
"Oh."