MasterFisher Geyana

Colors: Sea-blue and white.
Emblem: Sea-blue fish on white background.

Main Crafthall Location: Island River Hold.

SeaCrafters learn shipbuilding and maintenance, navigation, and under the wind and sea currents. Journeymen make maps, both of sea and river, though Sea Captains always travel with charts of their own crafting. Apprentices begin by learning to tying lures, coiling ropes, scrubbing, repairing nets, gutting and cleaning fish, and polishing the ship's wood and brass. Net repair, lure construction are also taught.

On SouCon, the SeaCraft is based in the Unified Crafthall and is under the direct auspice of the Craft Wizard. To become an Apprentice, Journeyman or Master please read through NEWS CRAFT JOINING. Characters may also request a posting to any open Hold or Weyr.

The SeaCraft comprises of many specialties, there are Master Captains, MasterCraftsmen, and then under them there are Captains who rate their journeymen according to tradition: seaman, able-bodied, second-mate and first mate. Apprentices act as cabin boys.

The specialty of Shipbuilding includes both the construction and the maintenance of vessels. Furthermore, they are responsible for improvements on lines and sheets and choosing materials for sails. Seamanship, another specialty, includes basic navigation and the understanding of the wind and sea currents. The study of individual coastlines, underwater reefs, particularly in the Southern Continent waters, and navigable rivers also rest under this SubCraft's jurisdiction.

Journeymen are taught to make maps, both of the generally acceptable trade routes and of the location of the moorings best sheltered from the winds. Charting is however a precise SubCraft and only those who have neat, tidy hands as copyists are trusted since many lives depend on them. The charts that the SeaCraft possess are known to be incredibly accurate and have been handed down from the very first SeaCrafters on Pern. They are extremely detailed, particularly of the coastal waters. They are original fax pictures taken by the atmospheric probes, although that information is unknown to the SeaCrafters. Sea Captains travel with charts that they themselves have copied. They also keep archives that include their sailing dates and the cargo carried on their ships.

The SeaCraft's detailed charting and record keeping helped F'lar solve the mystery of Threadfall after the long interval. F'lar found that by studying the number of clear sailing days the Sea Captains had reported during the previous Pass he could found how often and where Thread was to fall.

Apprentices begin by learning to tying lures, coiling ropes, scrubbing, repairing nets and polishing the ship's wood and brass. On board, the Journeymen do most the actual work of fishing and sailing. They are the ones that set the nets and haul in the catches, though both Journeymen and Apprentices have the messy job of cleaning the fish. A MasterFisherman knows how to judge where and when a school of fish can be found and will Captain a crew to bring in the catch.

Apprentices also learn in skiffs. Journeyman will teach them how to work the equipment, tending the sails and how to cast nets and drag nets. Around Southern the coastline abounds with shore-hugging fish that are easily caught from small boats.

On board a ship the personality of each SeaCrafter needs to mesh. Generally a crew that builds a ship, usually sails her as well. Indeed, this way the crew knows the ship inside and out: from every ring, spar and board. This helps save time that would otherwise spent learning her quirks, and thus their own lives depend upon their own work. The wood for the ships is carefully chosen from available stores. Sailmakers, sheet makers and chandlers custom-fit new ships or make replacement goods for the existing fleets. Tar and pitch come from Tillek or High Reaches' conifer forests in the North, and Suweto and South Bend in the South.

Although ships can be made on the beach during an Interval, this is not possible during a Pass. Instead they are made indoors within tall caverns with a slip for moving the finished ship into the water when finished. In the Turns before a Pass all the ships are retrofitted in dry dock. These modifications include altering the bilge pumps to flood the decks during Threadfall, ceramic instead of wooden joints, and a thin layer of stainless steel, which is hammered around the mast and spars. A canopy of thin metal is also kept aboard, and during Threadfall it is drawn over the exposed parts of the ship as it passes through the leading edge of Fall. Standard procedure is therefore to flood the deck and sail straight into the Fall towards the following edge. It is terrifying even for the bravest of men, even if the ship is not vulnerable for long in the midst of the sea.

Shipfish, or Dolphins, are respected as another intelligent species, although no one seeks them out. SeaCrafters are taught not to bother them, and if caught they let them go with apologies. Shipfish are never eaten, and even though generations of them have tried to reestablish communication with humans, but the Dolphineers are long dead. No one at present knows the language, though they are known to help becalmed or shipwrecked Seamen.

SubCrafts

CrossCrafts

MasterFisher Geyana:

In her late forties, Geyana is from a long line of SeaCrafters. The third of three children, she, like her brothers, entered the SeaCraft at the age of fourteen. Her first posting was aboard the ship captained by one of her father's closest friends. Always competent, Geyana walked the tables to Journeyman rank at the age of nineteen, and was posted to assist old Master Krewn, an old seadog with more time on the oceans than the land in life, while she began the work on her mastery. It was during her time as a Journeyman that her skills as a teacher were first discovered and then encouraged, especially by Krewn. On her way to Mastery, she married another SeaCrafter and had two children before attaining that large know of a Master. Shortly thereafter, the plague hit. Geyana lost her husband, her father, her brothers and one of her children to the disease. When the remains of the Craft were assessed, it was decided that she was the best replacement for Craftmaster, due to her leadership and teaching abilities. Emotionally hardened by the loss of so many, Geyana has thrown herself into her work and indeed, it is rumored that only her son can make her even smile.

Basic Sailing Safety (Varek)