Third Mate Cecil Lawrence brings the new midshipman, James Douglas, on board the August. Douglas meets Teague and Maddox, and gets accustomed to ship life. The next night as the ship gets underway, the officers regale Douglas with tales of a disastrous past voyage.
A tale of queer love and mutiny on the high seas! Tune into the Voyage of the August, a nine-episode serial radio drama chronicling the final voyage of a merchant ship bound for England in 1717, whose crew takes their fate into their own hands. The story centers around the August’s first mate, Robert Maddox, a well-respected officer with frustrated ambitions; Dr. Leon de Isla, a surgeon with an unhappy past who follows Maddox to sea for reasons of the heart; and Sophia Montague, the willful daughter of the shipping line’s owner. Exploring 18th century nautical culture, queer history, and shipboard conflict, this work of historical fiction will be be released in nine weekly installments starting August 1st, 2020. Find episodes weekly on our website and also on the Electric Lite Collective Youtube channel.
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Cast (in order of appearance)
Caraid O'Brien as the Intro Voiceover
Sebas Ward as Robert Maddox
Tiz Rome as Leon Francesca de Isla and Harold Blackwall
Daniel Haas as Richard Montague
CJ Humphries as Ambrose Teague
Minna Gorry-Hines as Cecil Laurence
Ernie Alugas as James Douglas
Memphis Washington as Sophia Montague
Katie Faust-Little as Silvia Montague
Special thanks to Jim Wald, Will Ryan, and Ezekiel Baskin.
Voyage of the August is written, directed, and sound designed by Wynn MacKenzie and Sean French-Byrne, with shanties arranged and directed by Wynn MacKenzie and acoustic tracks written and performed by Sebas Ward. Sound effects courtesy of the community of freesound.org.
Full sound attributions below:
“Canadian Horse Carriage.wav” by vero.marengere (www.veromarangere.com) of
Freesound.org
“CannonFireFromAlamance.wav” by CLaforet of Freesound.org
“porto 22-05-14 waves during a storm, wind .1.wav” by bpayri of Freesound.org
“Waves and seagulls.wav” by justkiddink of Freesound.org
“03 Whales Slowing Down.aif” by listeningtowhales (Paul Knapp Jr. © 2011 Compass Recording) of Freesound.org
CECIL and DOUGLAS walk through the fray, carrying a satchel of maps, charts, and navigational equipment, and DOUGLAS’ small chest of personal effects.
CECIL: Ever sailed before, lad?
DOUGLAS: No.
CECIL: You’ve done well to start with the August, she’s a fine ship. I’ve sailed with her for many a year. Mind that crate, there. Have you family in the trade?
DOUGLAS: No. (Beat.) Where are we bound for?
CECIL: Well... we’re picking up cargo here--tobacco and the like, things from the colonies--and stopping by in England before we go south ‘round the Horn and onward to India.
DOUGLAS: ‘Round the Horn? Cape Horn?
CECIL: No, Mr. Douglas, the Horn of Africa. Your Cape Horn is South America, on the other side of the world. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories even if you haven’t managed to set foot on a ship in your- what, seventeen years?
DOUGLAS: Sixteen. And, well, sometimes the old sailors say there be sea monsters and leviathans and things round the Horn. White whales and cursed beasts.
CECIL: The only beasts we’re liable to find there are the Dutch, maybe some Frenchies. They’ve a formidable colony on the Cape of Good Hope.
DOUGLAS: And I’ve never managed to leave Boston.
CECIL: Here we are, the August. (to himself) Home again.
TEAGUE: Hoy, Mr. Lawrence!
CECIL (yelling) Mr. Teague! Excellent to see you, sir!
TEAGUE: Is that a new midshipmen I spy, Mr. Lawrence?
CECIL: Yes, sir! He’ll be a bright one. Could you send a man for his seachest?
TEAGUE: (distant) Tom! Fetch the boy’s luggage, will you?
SAILOR: Aye, aye, sir!
DOUGLAS: I can carry it aboard myself.
CECIL: If you insist. Belay that, Mr. Teague!
CECIL: Over the side like this, see, you’ll get the hang of it. Mind the cannon. Careful of your footing- it’ll take a bit to get accustomed to the movement of the ship.
DOUGLAS: Aye.
CECIL: A word of wisdom: calling your superior officers ‘sir’ assures them you aren’t getting airs. (tongue in cheek) Midshipmen are only junior officers, after all.
DOUGLAS: Oh, my apologies, sir.
CECIL: (with a laugh, but not unkind) “Mr. Lawrence” will do just fine.
DOUGLAS: Alright, Mr. Lawrence.
SAILOR: Captain and Mr. Montague’s aboard--
CECIL: (excited) Mr. Maddox! You’re back!
MADDOX: Cecil! Mr. Lawrence! Damned good to see you. Is that a new lad behind you?
CECIL: Yes, sir, may I present James Douglas, the newest member of our company. Don’t be shy, Mr. Douglas!
DOUGLAS: Hello, sir.
MADDOX: Fine to meet you, lad! Have you your sea legs?
DOUGLAS: Well, I just came aboard, I reckon they’ll come in time.
BLACKWALL: Not a moment to waste, Mr. Maddox.
MADDOX: Right, right--keep a weather eye, we’ve some precious cargo coming aboard. Don’t be slacking, Douglas!
MONTAGUE: Come now, then.
There is a moment of quiet (normal outdoor ship ambience) as Maddox, Montague and Blackwall walk away.
DOUGLAS: Who was that, Mr. Lawrence?
CECIL: That’ll be our Mr. Maddox, he’s the first mate. And...Captain Blackwall. And the rich-looking fellow was Mr. Montague. He owns this ship, and a few more besides.
DOUGLAS: I see. When will we be sailing?
CECIL: We’ll cast off tomorrow morning, before first light.
(Fade into transitional music bringing us to the next night.)
The wardroom of the August, normal indoor ship ambience. The faint sound of glasses clinking and indistinct conversation. MADDOX makes his way through the stuffy room and sits down next to TEAGUE, CECIL and DOUGLAS.
MADDOX: Fair winds today and a red sky, boys. ‘Twill be good to be on a lucky ship.
TEAGUE: Aye, you’ll be our good luck charm! You and your red head.
CECIL: The captain didn’t see fit to invite you to share his table tonight, Maddox?
MADDOX: No, I believe he’s busy entertaining Mrs. Montague.
CECIL: Mrs. Montague? Not also the Miss?
MADDOX: I believe so. Who can say. Captain’s as inscrutable as old Mr. Montague, sometimes. It isn’t hard to imagine why they got on in the first place.
TEAGUE: Entertaining Mrs. Montague, you say?
MADDOX: (good-natured) None of that, Teague. She’s a lady and we’ll speak of her as such.
TEAGUE: Oh, aye, whatever you say, Maddox.
MADDOX: Wish I could share a game or two of whist, but I’d best get up to my post.
This is the tail end of the evening meal, and conversation is trailing off as people go to their watches or turn in for the night.
The sound of cards slapping on the table.
TEAGUE: (good natured) Made a fool of me again, Cecil. Caught me on the lee shore, you have.
CECIL: And I’ll do it again and again, until you let me teach you the craft.
TEAGUE: I told you, I don’t need lessons in whist from a boy like you.
CECIL: I learned my game in the Navy, Ambrose. There are few places where a man learns better.
(Beat.)
CECIL: Are you alright there, Mr. Douglas?
DOUGLAS: I’ll be fine, Mr. Lawrence.
TEAGUE: You’ll get your sea legs in time, lad.
CECIL: Even seasoned sailors lose their sea legs with lack of use. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but the sea is a cruel mistress who will make you pay for your lapse.
TEAGUE: (with a laugh) Like you’d know a thing about a mistress.
CECIL: Better to chase the wind than chase skirts. I recall on the Falmouth you were indisposed for a week out of port, Ambrose, and not just from seasickness.
DOUGLAS: You’ve sailed together before?
TEAGUE: Aye, on that cursed ship. The Falmouth. Barely worth speaking of.
DOUGLAS: (perking up) Cursed? What do you mean?
(Beat.)
CECIL: I reckon we’re the only two who managed to complete that voyage in full health. We were bound for the Netherlands. A plague, an ague of a sort, struck us on the voyage back to America.
TEAGUE: A few days out of port, one of the lookouts caught sight of a great scarred beast following in the Falmouth’s wake. The fin alone must have been the height of a horse. Now and then, we caught a glimpse of its ugly maw, grinning up from the water.
DOUGLAS: What? A leviathan?
CECIL: (dry) A shark followed us, as sharks are wont to do. The cook throws scraps overboard; the shark gets a good meal.
TEAGUE: (getting really into the story) It followed us for seven days and seven nights, and on the seventh night the captain fell ill. He was dead before sunrise.
CECIL: It took the man the better part of week to die, Ambrose.
TEAGUE: But die he did! And the first mate Mr. Maddox had to step into command.
TEAGUE: But that was only the start. A few days in, half the crew had fallen sick, and then half of them were dead, or on the way to it.
TEAGUE: And to make matters worse, the shark was joined by a French frigate, armed to the teeth with twenty-pounders and ready to take us straight to the devil.
CECIL: (getting into it a little) Even I believed we were bound for the blue hell.
TEAGUE: Mr. Maddox had every man who could stand stretch every bit of sail, so we could make it to America before the plague or the French left us a ghost ship...adrift...
TEAGUE: But no matter how fast we ran, we woke each morning to that grim old fish hanging in our wake, and the French frigate on the horizon.
DOUGLAS: … but you made it, right? You must have.
CECIL: We’re here now, aren’t we?
DOUGLAS: How?
TEAGUE: (reverent) It was all Mr. Maddox. He stood at the helm day and night, with an eye to the French and an eye to America. When there were too many men sick to make sail, Mr. Maddox tacked the lines himself.
CECIL: (to himself) How could he man the helm and tack the lines all at once?
TEAGUE: If ever there was a man that could, it was Maddox. But the curse of that ship followed him as well.
CECIL: He fell ill on the last day of the voyage. And thus ends the tale of the wretched Falmouth.
CECIL: But were it not for Mr. Maddox’s illness, we would be wanting for a surgeon now.
DOUGLAS: How’s that?
CECIL: The Falmouth was begin refitting the first night we were ashore and Ambrose, Maddox, and I went out for pint. We were the last three still hale, until Mr. Maddox started coughing up blood.
TEAGUE: (smacking the table) Right there on the bar.
CECIL: I confess, I was sure he was going to die. So was Teague, though he might not say it. I believe he would indeed have expired, had Leon not been there.
TEAGUE: Damn good thing he was there, but I’m sure it would have been fine. Maddox has the constitution of a bull.
LEON: Hello Cecil! Mr. Teague, Douglas.
TEAGUE: Speak of the devil! We were just recounting to young Jamie here the illustrious tale of how you came to know our man Maddox in Boston.
LEON: What a tale that is. Don’t stop on my account.
CECIL: Yes, well, our good doctor fixed Maddox up, but he wasn’t fit to sail, so Teague and I took a turn on the August come spring. Teague wrote him scores of letters, but we weren’t sure he had made it until we laid eyes on his red head yesterday.
DOUGLAS: You and Mr. Teague sailed with Captain Blackwall, then?
TEAGUE: (bitter) We picked him up in England, on Montague’s orders, on account of him wearing his welcome out with the Navy.
LEON: Really? I did not know...
CECIL: (sharply) Talk like that only gets you in trouble. Pay him no mind, Mr. Douglas, Leon.
DOUGLAS: (mumbling) Yes, Mr. Lawrence.
LEON: Still looking a bit pale there, Mr. Douglas.
TEAGUE: No shame in getting sick, just don’t do it in here. Smells bad enough belowdecks as it is.
DOUGLAS: Aye, sir.
LEON: (distant) Would you humor me in a game of ombre? I find myself missing it, and Maddox is just awful with cards…
TEAGUE: (distant) I’ve never played ombre!...
(The sound of footsteps and voices fading with the transition into normal outdoor ship ambience.)
On deck, the crew are relaxing after the first day of the voyage. DOUGLAS passes them and walks to the stern of the ship.
We hear the sound of the wind and the sea, in the wake of the ship, and distantly, the spout of a whale. The whale calls.
DOUGLAS: (to himself, awed) A Leviathan!
DOUGLAS listens, rapt, for a few moments.
Footsteps as MADDOX walks up to DOUGLAS.
MADDOX: Mr. Douglas. Shouldn’t you be abed?
DOUGLAS: (startled) Mr. Maddox!
MADDOX: Sorry to frighten you. It’s my watch.
DOUGLAS: Well, yes sir, I was just feeling a bit sick and came to take the air.
MADDOX: Ah, that will pass, in time. Like all manner of sickness.
(Beat.)
DOUGLAS: (carefully) Mr. Teague’s been telling me stories.
MADDOX: Ah, Teague, that rascal.
DOUGLAS: He was telling me about...the Falmouth, sir. Is it true? Was the ship cursed? Were you really followed by a leviathan?
MADDOX: Cursed? Probably not. Poorly captained, mayhap, by myself mostly. Teague told you about the sharks, didn’t he?
DOUGLAS: Yes sir, he did.
MADDOX: (chuckling) Were you out here looking for leviathans?
DOUGLAS: Not... as such, sir.
MADDOX: You saw those spouts out to larboard, though.
DOUGLAS: Yes...what manner of beast are they?
MADDOX: Some sort of whale. More than a year’s wages, if we had the skill to catch one.
DOUGLAS: I hear they’re so big, they can swallow a man whole. Like Jonah and the Leviathan.
MADDOX: Not likely, ‘less you’re the unlucky sort.
DOUGLAS: I wonder if any of them has a Jonah.
MADDOX: (laughs) Well, they shouldn’t bother us so long as we don’t bother them. Best get some sleep, Mr. Douglas, I’ll keep a weather eye on your leviathans.
DOUGLAS: Aye sir. Thank you, sir.
(The sound of the sailors singing the first verses Lowlands swells and fades into the end music.)