Mini-story: One Silver Shilling

Wednesday, 11th April, 1821 My dear friend William, I hope this letter finds you in both good spirits and rude health, and I must convey my most sincere apologies for the unavoidable delay in sending it. I find myself at last back on the mainland, and have dispatched this letter from a small town but scant miles from the port where I spent last night. Our ordeal in reaching it was considerable, and it is on that topic that I wished immediately to write to you, lest with the passing of further days it might begin to fade from my own memory. Committed to ink and paper, and thus shared with you, perhaps I can begin to find peace with the experience I have had. But you must wonder at my hesitant words. Let me start at the beginning, save to say this: Those islands to the north are a haunted place. My story begins several weeks ago, when our fine ship the Hamnavoe, having sailed from Bergen and crossed much of the North Sea, came within a half-day of our destination — that being the busy…