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.He authored and coordinated the Fleet’sfirst educational system, its first meteorologicalcenter, its first data library.Nor were the crewmembers slackers when it came toinnovation.They looked at what they needed, theylooked at the lives they wanted, and they built.Theybuilt cafes and theatres, they created markets andshower facilities and drydocks and gardens, theycreated a life.By the time the Fleet began it’s second “cycle” theword had gotten out.Curious cruisers came to join theraft to experience the crew ‘experience’.Carlincharged them a nominal dockage fee, in euros or dollars,then used the money for more supplies.Some fell inlove with the lifestyle and dumped their resources intothe fleet, growing it in number and in wealth.By the endof the cycle, Carlin was forced to design fast patrolcraft to steer the curious to appropriate dockage (andto make sure they weren’t coming with ill intent) andcreated the first of the “Vesper” class of sharpies.Drunks, two attempted rapes, a robbery, and onep.109looney-tunes attempted takeover caused the rapidexpansion of the constabulary under the office of theQuartermaster.By the end of the third cycle, the Fleetwas nearly 700 vessels, over 1700 crewmembers, fiveradio stations, two television stations, and 135 bars.Still, trade came hard.No one recognized the fleet’spassports, and ships were forced to change colors anduse American or Commonwealth passports to come intoports for supplies.Ironically, it was a storm that bought the Fleet amodicum of respectability.On the Fleet’s seventhcycle, right at the tag end of the storm season, a small,very fast hurricane had clobbered Guadeloupe andDominica, and Admiral Carlin had offered some of theexcess facilities he still was towing in storage to help.With permission of the Dominican government, a smallflotilla had come into Prince Rupert Bay and up themouth of the Indian River.The Crew members ranpowerlines ashore, provided a water station for thecitizens of ruined Portsmouth, and had forged ashorewith tools, tarps, and temporary structures, includingmany of the self assembling domes that Carlin had beendragging along for a decade.A smaller group ofCrewmembers set up a field clinic in St.Barths, atGustavia.While their former colonial parents ditheredand the Americans beat the drum of how much theywould be giving--donations that would only go to UScompanies to rebuild their own overseas subsidiaries--the Fleet was actually on the ground and helping folks.Dominica recognized the fleet outright.The Frenchoverseas office and the Dutch government on St.Maartins quietly concluded mutual assistanceagreements.The Cubans, always happy to anger theYankees, recognized them as well.The Fleet, in anastonishingly short time, was becoming more than just a curiosity.Admiral Carlin’s remarkable tenure with the fleet wasnot to be long lived.In the spring of his fifth season asAdmiral he suffered a mild heart attack.Ignoring theadvice of his doctor and friends, he refused to slowdown, keeping up the dizzy pace of work he’d alwayssubscribed to.Two months later, he was found dead inhis cockpit, a page of elaborate notes still in his hand.His burial at sea, just south of Grand Cayman, wasattended by emissaries of many of the Caribbeanstates.With his passing, the connection with WilliamBowles, the Foote Princes, and much of the past ended.The future was now a blank slate.Carlin was succeeded, on second vote of the Council, byhis far more steady Quartermaster, Marcus of theDragonfly.Marcus was regarded as a good man bymost--steady, though far short of the brilliance they’dseen in Carlin--but his irritating wife grated a lot of thecrew the wrong way.They had no idea how well they’dchosen.The Fleet continued to grow by leaps and bounds, a kindof punctuated equilibrium driven mostly by theincreasing insanity of the American government.TheU.S.invasion of Bolivia brought a surge of refugees andanti-war protesters [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]