Ship Fever
Chapter 26 of Shalom on Distant Shores. Our three Dutch young people: Wolfaert DeGroot, Joanna Krantz and Rebecca Van Arnhem sail for Nieuw Holland in 1651.
XXVI: Ship Fever
Early on during the voyage, when their vessel reached the English Channel, Rebecca Van Arnhem and Joanna Krantz joked light heartly about being careful with their health together:
Rebecca said: “First, we’ll eat any citrus the galley provides us. And we can nag the cooks too, you know.”
“I already take the fruits and vegetables they offer us, not like those sailor boys who content themselves with meat and biscuits. You’ve seen how I take what I can at mealtimes. Any stray apples or other fruits get picked up by me.”
“Yes, but we should have a plan for our wellness, Joanna. We have to wash our hands very often and clean where we sleep. We even need to be careful near the sailors.”
“Why, because one might ask you to marry him?”
“These sailors get very sick when they sail far from the Netherlands. I hear about the sailors dying all the time.”
“OK, I understand, some of these old sailors might have scurvy.”
“I mean they might be sick, Joanna, and they can get us sick, too.”
“Look, I am asking for limes, I’m seeing what produce they will give us at mealtime and I even brought on some fresh citrus and pickled vegetables in the baggage allowance. I brought it myself” Joanna said proudly, but Rebecca said
“We’ve got to be extra friendly with the cooks.”
Rebecca looked confused and said why?
“Laten we aardig zijn voor de koks in de kombuis![1] That’s the way we will keep from getting scurvy!”
The two young friends laughed about flirting with cooks and Wolfaert DeGroot in their matching bonnets as the Brandaris made its way further from the North Sea and further into the Atlantic Ocean.
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After a month aboard the Brandaris, the early excitement of the voyage to Pernambuco was giving way to fatigue and fear. The food began to show signs of its age and no amount of being cute with the galley cooks would get them fresher produce at this point. Rebecca and Joanna began to notice that there were people getting sick on their ship. And it wasn’t just other people. Rebecca started noticing that she was feeling feverish and shacky at times. While their vessel was an official WIC vessel and professionally run, it was still filled to capacity, or worse, greedy coordinators had overfilled the ship, charging a nice fee to colonists and businesspeople. The Brandaris seemed like a nice ship at first, but there were almost-invisible stow-aways: lice. Sailors and colonists crowded the deck at mealtimes, there were moments of crowding on deck when there were announcements given and usually there were sailors scratching their heads. Because they had lice.
Joanna found Wolfaert on the thirty-second day of the voyage. He seemed unchanged, though a little less well kept than on the first day, but well enough that this gave her some hope about all of the uneasiness she was feeling about a plague on the ship might just be fear.
“Good morning, Wolf”
“Goedemorgen”[2] he replied, only laying eyes on Joanna.
“You haven’t spoken much to me.” she said.
“Am I suppose to speak to you?”
“I just can’t help but thinking that you seemed much more interested in speaking with me before the voyage?”
“Yes, yes I was more interested in speaking to you then.” Wolfaert, told her, showing some vulnerability.
“Then what has changed since I boarded this ship?”
“You know well what is different now.”
“I do not, Wolfaert!” Joanna said, getting a little flustered and red in the face.
“What is different is that you sent me a letter, to let me know about your change in status.”
“No, I did not, you liar.”
At this, Joanna tried to give Wolfaert her back and walk away, but he chased after her. He caught her and pulled her around by the sleeve of her dress.
“Are you crazy, Joanna, calling me a liar? Why would you say something like that to me?”
“Because you are lying. I never sent you any letter.”
“Joanna, Yes, you did. And you let me know that you are engaged to be married to some Konterman fellow in New Holland. Why do you think that I asked if you had your wedding dress on the ship?”
“I don’t know why you asked me that. I even told Rebecca that I didn’t know why you would have said that to me. We both found it very peculiar why you said that and why you seemed to avoid me now.”
“It is appropriate behavior around an engaged woman, isn’t it, to not be trailing too close behind your every step, Joanna, to not engaged with a woman who is previously engaged? Any gentleman understands that. I was showing you respect, as an engaged woman, by giving you some space.”
“I’m not engaged, Wolf! Why are you even saying that about me and some Konterman? Are you making this up, because if you are I’m going to get you!”
“You crazy girl, you sent me a letter! You yourself signed it and everything, telling me about your engagement and why I should not get the wrong impression about our friendship.”
“Do you have that letter?” she asked.
“No way, why would I bring it with me when it is from you telling me that you are engaged to be married?”
Joanna by this point was very flustered and blushing from all the honesty and confusion of this conversation. She couldn’t believe that Wolfaert would have ever received any letter that said it was from her. Then Joanna realized that Wolfaert was hurt by the false reports of her engagement.
She thought: “He does care for me, doesn’t he?” Joanna looked up suddenly. By the time this had occurred to Joanna, Wolf had taken a seat on a ledge of the quarterdeck, showing himself willing to wait around to find out what Joanna was thinking all this time.
To Joanna, Wolfaert looked a little dustier and a little swarthier than he did back in Rotterdam, but she surprised herself by her joy to see him wanting to argue about the definition of their relationship.
“Is there something between us?” she thought as she looked at him.
Wolfaert, on the other hand, frowned at Joanna. He spoke first:
“I forgive you for writing me that letter.” he said, while tossing her a penny to catch. “A penny for your thoughts?”
Joanna gasped while catching the penny. “I told you I’m going to get you and give you a lot more than a penny for my thoughts!”
She went to grab him, but he caught her with his own hands and they sort of arm wrestled with both hands at the same time. As Joanna tried to playfully twist Wolfaerts fingers back, suddenly the two heard an authoritative voice. “Ophouden!”[3] It was Saskia, the Anabaptist preacher’s wife. “Joanna, I understood that you are from a very upstanding Protestant family.”
“Oh! Mrs. Konterman!” Joanna, said, her voice almost squealing in embarrassment, while immediately letting go of Wolfaert’s hands.
“No, I am from a good Christian family. We were just.” Joanna started.
“You were assaulting an officer?” Mrs. Konterman asked.
“No, she was trying to get her money back from me.”
“Her money?”
Wolfaert lifted up a penny.
“My dear, you must be destitute and with fever. Is this how you behave when you do not have parental guidance?” She said to Joanna, watchfully, and departed on her way.
Joanna looked terrified to have been found behaving immaturely with the young man she liked to fight with.
Wolfaert had held a straight face for a few moments, but let out a laugh once Mrs. Konterman was far enough away. He then sang a line:
“But now I see she is so hot
And lives so ill at ease,
I will go get a soldier’s coat
And sail beyond the seas”[4]
Then straightening his shoulders towards Joanna, Wolf spoke: “I wonder who could define you, Miss Krantz. Always reading your Scriptures and arm-wrestling officers. I wonder if the WIC will add military positions for women if they meet the likes of you?”
Joanna began to growl “Mr. De Groot! That is all hilarious, and believe me, embarrassing too, but I must know what you mean that received a letter signed by me. And please don’t let anyone back in Rotterdam know about my behavior today, if you please.”
Wolfaert, smiled and remained seated on the ledge of the quarterdeck. “I received from you, Miss Johanna Krantz, my first letter from you, not six days before we set sail on this ship. The letter explained to me that you had no intentions other than fraternal, as you are soon to be married to one Garrijt Konterman. Of no relation to the preacher and his wife. You told me in no uncertain words that you are marrying someone else and that you regret if you gave me the wrong impression.”
Joanna couldn’t contain her reaction and let out a gasp, as if she had been struck or wounded. “Before our gracious Lord and Redeemer, I give you my word, Mr. DeGroot”
“Wolf” he said, interrupting her.
“I give you my word that I never sent such a letter to you. I have never sent you a letter in my life.”
“Then how did you sign it?”
“I sent no letter and did not sign the letter I did not send, Wolf.”
“You know Joanna, your temper becomes you. I think you will make someone, Mr. Konterman or whoever, a very happy wife.”
“Wolf!” Johanna cried “This is a very serious to me. You promise me that you really received a letter with my name on it? And what do you mean my temper becomes me, I’m not angry!” she said, raising her voice again.
At this, Wolfart De Groot grasped some of the rigging in his hand to lift himself to the ledge of the Brandaris, and he began to sing a song about a lady who was beautiful like the sea and wild like a storm. He sang it not looking at Joanna, but out into the great Atlantic Ocean.
When he had finished, Wolf continued: “I did receive a letter and it did say that it was from you, Johanna. But now I think it was from someone else. You seem so troubled at any mention of this letter.”
“I just do not understand why anyone would do that.” Johanna said, making eye-contact with Wolfaert. “And who would have ever thought to write such a thing in my name.” He returned her gaze and for a moment they stood making eye contact, as if each wished to know the intentions of the other.
The Brandaris rolled over some small waves using the prevailing Atlantic trade winds. The sky was grey and blue and the ship held its course toward the Cape Verde Islands.
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One day Rebecca noticed that she had a headache and was feeling very hot, even with the cold Atlantic wind.
“Joanna, I’m shaking with chills and look at this.”
Joanna came over and Rebecca showed her a rash on her abdomen.
“This isn’t right. Will you pray for me?” Rebecca asked.
Joanna prayed at that moment and when she said “Amen” it was like the Holy Spirit gave her the answer.
“Ask the Waterlander Anabaptist ladies.” The voice told Joanna.
The two inseparable friends, now much more grave than they were a few weeks ago, found the Waterlander ladies sewing together on the first lower deck, as was their custom in the slow parts of the day.
“I’m a bit feverish and I thought maybe one of you might know what it is I have and how I should treat it? I don’t have my mother with me.”
“But we are your friends and we will not leave you, dear Rebecca. Come here and tell us what it is.” said Saskia.
The young ladies from Rotterdam took a seat with the Waterlander ladies and Rebecca and Joanna began explaining her symptoms. One mother, who they only knew by sight, said: “I recognize that. It’s in my Almanac for voyages.”
She fetched the book from her belongings and the ladies crowded around and read together in the almanac where it described sicknesses that were common at sea. Saskia pronounced them out loud when it was on the right page:
“Malaria, Gangrene, Berberi, the Mariner’s Curse (Scurvy), Dysentery and Typhus.” Then reading quickly the descriptions she looked up at the young ladies and said:
“It’s Typhus, Rebecca. You’ve got Ship Fever my dear. Let’s get you to your mat.”
There was a warmth of compassion yet also a fear of contamination by the Waterlander ladies, as words of encouragement were given to Rebecca as she shuddered, and at the same moment, the mothers nearby looked fearful that they might be infected with Ship Fever as well, as Joanna helped her best friend back to her sleeping spot.
Rebecca laid down in their sleeping area half-way down the hull of the Brandaris and didn’t emerge to the upper deck in the coming days, as she lay consumed by fever and tormented by her rash. Joanna was reading her Bible out loud for Rebecca one morning, in the passenger hold and when she read Psalm 119:11, it made her remember the leather-case with devotional writings from Dr Frelinghaus. She went through her things and pulled out the parcel with the hand-written devotional writings by their pastor. Joanna remembered thumbing through them one day and seeing the verse: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin again you.” in Psalm 119.
“Listen to this Rebecca:
‘Thoughts for this verse: God’s word is a treasure worth laying up, and there is no laying it up safely but in our hearts; if we have it only in our houses and hands, enemies may take it from us; if only in our heads, our memories may fail us: but if our hearts be delivered into the mold of it, and the impressions of it remain on our souls, it is safe. The good uses he designed to make of it: That I might not sin against thee. Good men are afraid of sin, and are in care to prevent it; and the most effectual way to prevent is to hide God’s word in our hearts, that we may answer every temptation.” Joanna made eye contact with Rebecca, like she was looking for a response.
“Speak for yourself, sinner.” Rebecca said wryly, and closed her eyes again.
Joanna smiled and was caught between laughing and crying.
“Dearest Rebecca, the pilot says you just need to hold on for two more weeks, and then we’ll make port and you will recover.” Joanna said reassuringly.
Rebecca answered softly: “What if I don’t?”
Joanna’s eyes filled with tears and she held her best friend and cried. Other exhausted passengers were below deck at this time of day, and when they saw Joanna crying for Rebecca, they showed their pity in their eyes and one mother shook her head and covered her mouth. Rebecca was not dead, but Ship Fever was cruel and all on board knew the fever could take them as well. The next day Joanna went to the upperdeck and saw the Waterlander Anabaptists gathered. Their service had been interrupted by a WIC clergyman. Joanna made eye contact with Saskia Konterman, who motioned Joanna to come to her. Joanna went carefully around the families sitting on the deck and drew near to Mrs. Konterman.
“How is Rebecca?” Mrs. Konterman asked.
“She slept last night and I made sure she woke this morning. But she has rashes and has lost much of her strength.”
She looked at Joanna seriously and said: “My husband is helping with the funeral rites today.” then after a pause continued: “We’ve lost a good man during the night to Typhus.”
“Did you know him, Mrs. Konterman?”
“No, I recognized him is all. He was a klerk from Den Haag. Working to keep his family I imagine.”
[1] Let’s be nice to the cooks in the galley
[2] Good morning
[3] Stop that
[4] Traditional song: A Merry Jest of John Thomson