Every Saxon-era series needs a book where the primary location is a ship and Storm of Mercia sees Icel and some of his allies on board a Viking ship. And it’s not willingly done.
‘If these bastards think they’ve found strong men to row their ship for them, they might be right. If they think we’re going to be any good at it, they’re very, very wrong.’
As someone who doesn’t necessarily like boats/ships, this was a bit of a stretch for me. Not only did I have to ensure I knew which was my bæcbord (left) and which my steorbord (right) and why that might have been (which I did learn for the book and kept on a sticky note). I did have some fun with my characters trying to learn and explain this to one another.
‘I suspect you don’t know your stem from your stern, or your bæcbord from your steorbord.’
‘Why can’t they just use bloody right and left?’ Oswy complains loudly.
I also needed to draw on some of my less pleasant experiences on a boat. Last year I endured a ‘slightly’ rough crossing from Orkney to Mainland Scotland – which took me the whole road journey home to recover from (about 6 hours). But, perhaps my most hated memory is of a trip to the Norfolk Broads in 2024, not my idea of fun. Those long river craft are a nightmare to ‘park’ as it were, not helped by the fact I don’t know my left or my right when under pressure, let alone my bæcbord and steorbord. I can’t take directions, or indeed, provide them. (The bugs were also a nightmare, and that element of the experience made it into the Dark Age Chronicles).
One of Icel’s comments about ‘parking’ his boat is taken directly from my ‘holiday.’
‘The ship’s once more been run aground. I’m starting to think there’s no skill at all to disembarking. Well, aside from trying not to hit something that pierces the ship’s wooden hull.’
That said, the storm which my characters endure isn’t based on my experiences at all but rather on those of a former fisherman turned artist I met in Orkney and whose paintings now adorn my walls. His depiction of the black/green of a terrible storm saw me through those scenes. While I would have been terrified, I suspect he was a little more used to them when he was younger. Go check out this beautiful picture to see how a former fisherman would visualise a terrible storm blowing in. https://www.seascape-art-orkney.co.uk/gallery/eye-of-the-storm/