Chapter 145: Start of the 1206 Season

The sea was open for trade the week after Easter.

Caterina had spent the winter negotiating with lenders and merchants, drawing up her leaf broadly enough to cover a harbor no one had thought to name. The notaries choked on it, but the houses signed in a queue.

She had learned that men who balked at a single unfamiliar clause could be made agreeable by the third, provided the figures beneath it were large enough.

Vito had spent those same months working on the fleet and the patricians, whose plans would have needed a leaf of their own, and by the time the work was done, the venture stood at the door with its boots on, waiting for the sea to let it through.

The private yard had been busy all winter, with Nestor and his sixty carpenters working by torchlight on ways glazed with frost, filling the air with pitch smoke and cursing every plank in three languages.

By the end of it, five new naves had taken to the water, the first, La Greca, on San Nicolò’s Day, and the last during Lent.

Nestor left the christening to the lagoon. La Barozzina took its name from the fraterna, La Contarina from the bride’s house, La Leonessa from the black lion, and the fifth was named La Quinta because, by then, the lagoon had run out of ideas.

The Piazza supplied the crews, all free buonavoglia. Every ship carried a compass with the Republic’s permission, and a cadet who had arrived at the sack with three galleys now commanded a merchant fleet and the silver of half the Rialto.

The change had been gradual enough to escape notice until the ships stood together at their moorings, their hulls crowding the water and their crews demanding provisions, wages, and orders.

Things had gone rather well for him, at least by the standards of merchants.

?? [FLEET OVERVIEW — BAROZZI’S FLEET]

Fleet Strength : 11 Ships

Effective Force : 1,120 Sailors, Oarsmen, Soldiers, Officers

Warships

La Contessa | Flagship

Zorzi | Escort

Zustignana | Escort

Merchant Fleet

3 Large Naves | 245 tons

5 Standard Naves | 300 tons

Total Cargo Capacity : 545 tons

Cargo Status : Fully Laden

The Rialto swore that no private family had ever put so many keels afloat in a single year, while the red caps counted the masts and went to bed furious. The galleys would serve as escorts, their decks devoted to oars and spears, because a merchant ship might make money, but one that arrived without its cargo was mostly a very expensive piece of bad news.

Pirates, hostile ports, and the sudden ambitions of local governors could turn a profitable voyage into a floating funeral, and no merchant with sense entrusted his entire fortune to the goodwill of strangers.

Caterina bought the entire outward cargo in Venezia with a single stroke of her pen.

Cloth came first, by 280 tons of dyed woolens, plain woolens, and plain Lombard linen, at the cost of 121,800 grossi.

The metals amounted to 245 tons of iron, lead, tin, and copper, costing another 60,400.

Twelve tons of altar goods passed through Ambrogio’s procurator for 30,000, while needles, knives, shears, and silver-voiced bells added eight more tons at a cost of 12,800.

Customs and Ambrogio’s tithe took 7,500, outfitting cost 17,500, and the whole business came to 250,000 grossi.

There was no point in pretending that ships ran on enthusiasm.

Most of the money belonged to other people. The colleganza houses put in 215,000 grossi, the fraterna’s common chest supplied 17,500, and the strongbox contributed 20,500.

Every hold was full to the last ton, and Bepi checked the load lines with his thumb before going looking for trouble to complain about. It was a sound habit for a sailor, particularly one who had to take a full fleet across the sea.

The strongbox had 3,000 grossi left against a venture worth 250,000, leaving it the only part of the enterprise with room to spare. The obligations would be repaid first, and if the voyage failed, the investors would lose their stake.

Vito and Caterina still owed 6,000 on the Rialto loan and another 2,900 on the bench loans that had bought Marco’s paper.

Then there were the crews, the largest debt of all.

These were free men, to be paid on the pier when they returned, and six months of their wages came to 49,650 grossi. If the fleet limped home empty, every one of those souls would be standing on the docks with a hand out.

?? [SEASON OPEN — 1206]

Trade Route

Venezia > Constantinople > Sinope > Pending Harbor > Soldaia > Constantinople > Venezia

Outward Cargo

Cloth | 280 tons

Metals | 245 tons

Altar Goods | 12 tons

Small Goods | 8 tons

Total Cargo : 545 tons

Investment

Total Venture Cost : 250,000 grossi

Colleganza Houses : 215,000 grossi

Fraterna Chest : 17,500 grossi

Barozzini Strongbox : 20,500 grossi

Financial Position

Treasury Remaining : 3,000 grossi

Colleganza Principal : 215,000 grossi

Crew Wages Due : 49,650 grossi

Outstanding Loans : 8,900 grossi

The lines came off the bollards on the first dawn the sea would have them, and all eleven ships left the lagoon for Constantinople, eight of them riding low and heavy with cargo.

Behind them, the rooftops of Venezia caught the morning light, while the harbor dwindled into a confusion of masts, bells, and pale stone. The sailors aboard had little time for looking back, there were sails to trim, provisions to count, and a long passage ahead.

Vito and Caterina sailed aboard La Contessa, with Bepi at the steering oars and the needle tucked into his pocket, out of sight of the saints.

No ship had come out of the Horn since the sea had shut, and no one in Venezia knew whether the straits were open, whether the regent still held the city, or what an empire at war would make of eleven keels arriving together.

The fleet was on its way, the money was spent, and the answers lay beyond the horizon. The sea had opened its door, but whether it meant to let them back through was another matter.