Flowing Sheet II

The End of Time (1) by Rowen

The frigate, closely followed by a uncommon fast, trim clipper, beat into the channel with a clear ferocity, surprising the wheeling flocks of seabirds used to the relatively calm, unfocused hubbub of work parties loading stores, small boats plying up and down with mail and messages, bum boats. Officers and men alike were busy, even in the increasingly driving wind and rain, with urgent repairs, putting the squadron to rights in preparation for tomorrow's expected fair wind. Briseis had finally arrived and it was no secret that Commodore Aubrey intended to sail with the first tide.

A Boat at the Pigtail Steps (2) by Warren Godfrey

Save for the sometimes whir of the refrigerator and the tick clack of the patented baseboard radiator along the far wall the room was quiet, and dark where no light seeped from the streets below.
Far off a nighttime muffled voice bid someone 'Goodbye' or 'Hello' and a car door slammed once and again. Someone home or gone home.

Captain pro tem (3) by Anthony Patton

The same pilot had returned and so too his soliloquy of unwise ships' masters arriving or departing Gibraltar, the difference weighed between the cost of a ship and a pilot's fee (his hands leaving the wheel to illustrate), and the obligatory demise of these ships of inopportune thrift, stories chock full of gore.

Other entries

The Adventure of the Cutty Sark by Eric S. Raymond

Blue, Only Blue, and Just Blue by Annie Roberts

Captain Jack Aubrey Carries Out His Daily Custom Upon Arising at Sea in Good Weather and No Sharks Being Apparent by Bruce Helmboldt

Clash of the Titans by Greg Menke

A Conversation in the Foretop by Ted Browne

The Floating Sheet by Martin Watts

A Great Reform by Martin Watts

The Hidden Heart by Jim Reilly

Kensington, 1824 by Mary M. Stolzenbach

The Leeward Shore by Bill Holmes

Meeting At Downing Street by Keith Peterson