"Elizabeth's Secret Chapter 7: USCGC Castle Rock"
Wednesday
After their walk around the grounds, Erskine and SADV return to the manor. Erskine asks if he may say goodbye to Carolyn. Elizabeth leads them to the tower room. The three of them notice that the window sills are lined with dolls and stuffed animals.
"Goodbye, Carolyn," Erskine says. "We will keep looking for your Daddy."
"Thank you, Mr. Erskine. Goodbye." Carolyn turns back to the window, back to looking for her Daddy. She is fighting not to cry.
At the front door, Erskine says "Mrs. Stoddard, please remember what I said yesterday ... about what to do if McGuire ever comes back here."
Erskine hates lying to Mrs. Stoddard, pretending that he thinks McGuire is still alive, still a threat to Mrs. Stoddard and her family.
"Thank you, Mr. Erskine."
Special Agent David Vincent says, "Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Stoddard."
"You're welcome, Mr. Vincent."
"Lewis is driving back to Boston, but I am staying for another day or two."
"You are?" Elizabeth can not keep the surprise out of her voice. She hopes she is keeping the fear out of it.
SADV was half-hoping, but certainly not expecting, an invitation to stay at Collinwood. He is neither surprised nor disappointed to not get one. He says, "Yes, Ma'am. If I learn anything about your husband, I will let you know. I hope he comes home safely, and soon."
To himself, SADV says, "I want your husband back safely and soon for the sake of you and Carolyn, Mrs. Stoddard. But I also want to ask him what he has to do with Innsmouth."
"Thank you, Mr. Vincent."
On his way back to Boston, Erskine stops makes two stops in Portland. The first one is at the FBI's Resident Agency to send the teletype to the Boston Field Office.
SADV drives to the Sheriff's Department. He thanks Malloy for his cooperation and tells him that he will be staying for another day or two. Then he drives to the Collinsport Inn.
Carolyn spent most of Tuesday in the Tower Room, watching and waiting and praying for Daddy to come home.
On Wednesday morning, she thought, "Maybe Daddy will come home if more of us are in the Tower Room watching for him." So she carried all of her dolls and teddy bears and other stuffed animals, two by two, up to the Tower Room and lined them up on the window sills to watch for Daddy.
When Daddy did not come home on Wednesday, Carolyn thought, "Maybe all of them were too many. Maybe they scared Daddy away." She did not like thinking her Daddy could be scared away so easily. "So tomorrow, I will take up just two at a time. They must take turns in the Tower Room with me. They will stand watch with me, the way Grandpa and Mr. Willie stood watch on their Navy ship."
On Thursday morning, Carolyn carried her favorite doll and her favorite teddy bear to the Tower Room. After a while, she carried them back to her room and then carried her 2nd favorites up to the Tower Room. And so on.
The windows in the room across the hall from Carolyn's room look out to sea. She is exiting her room on a trip to change the watch when she sees something through those windows. She moves closer to get a better look, and then freezes in astonishment at the sight. She drops the doll and the animal and runs out the door.
Elizabeth is in the drawing room, staring into the fire. She did not sleep at all Monday night, she slept very little on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. She has an appointment with Dr. Lang this afternoon. For the first time in her life, she is going to ask for a prescription for sleeping pills.
"Mommy! Mommy!" Carolyn cries as she runs into the drawing room.
"What is it, Carolyn?"
"There's a big white ship outside!" Carolyn points one hand towards the windows behind her Grandpa's desk while her other hand pulls on Mommy's hand.
"What?" Mommy stands and turns to look out the windows. Her blood runs cold at the sight. Hand in hand with Carolyn, she walks slowly to the windows for a better look.
"She has a gun, Mommy, so she's a Navy ship. But she's white instead of gray like Grandpa's ships. Why is she white, Mommy?"
"Because she is Coast Guard, not Navy."
She is also about one mile out. Her bow is pointed Southwest, into the direction of the prevailing winds.
"What's the Coast Guard, Mommy?"
"In time of war, the Coast Guard fights for us, the same as the Navy does. That's why this ship has a five inch gun on the bow. In peace time, they rescue people in trouble on the water, maintain buoys, and things like that. Let's get the binoculars and take a closer look."
Carolyn's Grandpa gave her a pair of real binoculars that are light enough for a little girl to hold up. Because they are real binoculars they are stowed in the drawing room alongside Grandpa's heavier duty binoculars, not in Carolyn's toy box.
Elizabeth gives Carolyn her binoculars, and then hangs her father's binoculars around her own neck. They go out on the terrace and look at the ship. It is cloudy and chilly today, with intermittent rain. They will need their coats if they stay out here very long.
"Mommy, what does the writing on the ship say?"
"W three eight three."
"What does that mean?"
"If we had a copy of Jane's Fighting Ships, we could look up that number and tell exactly what ship she is."
"Who's Jane, Mommy?"
"In this case, 'Jane' was the last name of a man, not the first name of a girl. He wrote the first edtion of the book. The book lists all of the warships in the world. The library has a copy of every edition of Jane's Fighting Ships. Would you like to go there later and see?"
"Yes, Mommy! Yes!"
The Collinsport Public Library owes its complete collection of Jane's Fighting Ships, and a lot of other things, to Angelique.
The telephone rings. The first telephone at Collinwood was installed in the time of Elizabeth's grandfather. But he hated and distrusted the very idea of the thing. So it was installed in the corner to the left as you come in the doors of the drawing room. It meant getting up from his desk every time the damned thing rang, but that was better than having it near him.
By tradition, every succeeding phone has been installed in the same spot, in spite of the inconvenience. The last new phone was a Western Electric Model 302 installed in 1938, the year dial telephone service came to Collinsport. It is still there, but now there are extensions in the kitchen and Elizabeth's parents' room. The 302s will still be there, and still working, in 1972, when Angelique sets fire to the manor.
Carolyn follows Mommy when she goes back inside to answer the phone, and save Mr. Willie a trip from wherever he is in the house. Carolyn's hope that it is her Daddy calling far outweighs her excitement about the big white ship.
Elizabeth picks up the receiver and says, "Collinwood."
"Mrs. Stoddard, this is Jonathan Drummond at the Star. Is there a Coast Guard cutter visible from your windows?"
"Yes there is."
"I'm sending a man out in a boat to get some pictures. But Collinwood has a bird's eye view of her. May I send Bramwell out there to get some pictures from another angle?"
Jonathan Drummond is the publisher and editor of the Collinsport Star. He and his wife Rachel recently bought the Collinsport Inn. Their son Bramwell is preparing to take over as editor when Jonathan retires ... if he ever does.
Jonathan and his wife Rachel bought the Inn to have something to do when Jonathan retires ... if he ever does. Rachel is having a ball running it right now, without Jonathan looking over her shoulder. Such a ball that part of her hopes that he will retire completely when he retires from the Star ... if he ever does.
It occurs to Elizabeth for the first time that a Coast Guard cutter off the coast of Collinsport is a big deal to everyone in town. They are accustomed to the town's few members of the Coast Guard Auxillary teaching boating safty, performing vessel safety checks, and rescuing damn fools "from away" who went out in bad weather and had the bad manners to sink near Collinsport. But a cutter this close to town is something else entirely. And Elizabeth appreciates the fact that Mr. Drummond called personally, and wants to send out his son rather than send some mere underling.
"On two conditions, Mr. Drummond. One: Bramwell is to ask NO questions about ... anything else."
"Certainly."
"Two: call the library and ask them to look in Jane's Fighting Ships and find out what her name is. The only markings visible from here are W three eight three on the bow."
"I already called the Sheriff and asked if he knows anything about this. He said the South Portland Coast Guard station called him about twenty minutes ago and said USCGC Castle Rock was on her way here to test some new diving equipment."
Elizabeth's blood is running even colder as she says, "Diving equipment?"
"Yes, Ma'am." Jonathan is curious about the tone of Mrs. Stoddard's question, but he does not ask if diving equipment means something to Mrs. Stoddard - not after her condition about no questions about anything but the ship.
Carolyn is curious too, about why Mommy has smelled afraid ever since she saw the ship ... and smells more afraid as she says, "Diving equipment?" Carolyn decides it has something to do with the secret that Mr. McGuire is dead, so she says nothing. She must also keep her Supernose a secret.
Elizabeth pulls herself together. "OK, send him. But hurry. She's moving slowly, but she'll still be out of sight soon."
"Yes, Ma'am. He's on his way. Thank you Mrs. Stoddard." They exchange goodbyes and hang up.
"Mommy, who did you say to send here?"
"Bramwell Drummond. He's going to take some pictures of the ship to put in the Collinsport Star."
"Pictures taken at Collinwood in the Star!"
"Yes, Carolyn. And I have other news too. W three eight three is United States Coast Guard Cutter Castle Rock."
"Castle Rock?!" Carolyn cries. "She's named for Castle Rock, Maine!"
"I doubt that she's named for Castle Rock, Maine, Carolyn. Navy cruisers are named for cities. There was a cruiser named Portland during the War. But a Coast Guard Cutter is not a cruiser. And Castle Rock, Maine is too small to have a cruiser named for it. There is an island named Castle Rock in Massachusetts. Maybe she is named for that."
"Mommy, may we go down to the Seawall to look at her?"
"Carolyn, it's chilly out there, and it is going to rain again."
"Please, Mommy, please!"
Carolyn has been happy only two times since her father left. She was happy on Tuesday when Mommy told her McGuire was dead. And she is happy, or close to it, now.
"All right, Carolyn. You find Mr. Willie and tell him where we are going. Tell him to send Mr. Drummond to the Seawall when he gets here. I'll get our coats and meet you here."
"Yes, Mommy! Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!"
The word "seawall" usually refers to a man-made structure built to protect the works of man [or a sandy beach on which man plays] from the destructive [as man sees them] forces of waves and tides.
At Collinwood, "the Seawall" is part of the low stone wall that surrounds the house and its lawns. Beyond the stone wall, Collinwood is mostly surrounded by woods. But there is a gap in the woods behind Collinwood. In that gap there is a long slope of bare black rock ending in a cliff above the sea. Seven years from now, Dr. Julia Hoffman will react badly to the sight visible through that gap.
At Collinwood, the Seawall separates the rear lawn from that long slope of bare black rock.
The petite foyer is the small room into which the front doors of Collinwood open. The grand foyer is the much larger room beyond the petite foyer. Ten years from now, the grand foyer will be the scene where:
1. Elizabeth and Victoria first meet.
2. Barnabas first meets David and Carolyn.
3. Elizabeth and Barnabas first meet.
4. Barnabas first meets "Angie," much to his horror.
5. The townspeople dance and drink at the Collinwood Happening.
Elizabeth gets the coats from the closet in the petite foyer and then returns to the drawing room. Carolyn soon returns, crying, "I told Mr. Willie, Mommy. May we go now?"
"Yes, Carolyn. Put your coat on."
They put on their coats and then go out the glass doors to the terrace, down the stone steps, and across the lawn. As they approach the Seawall, Elizabeth says, "Carolyn, what are the rules about the Seawall?"
"Never climb over the Seawall. Never stand on the Seawall. Never sit on the Seawall unless a grownup is with me."
"That's right."
Mommy helps Carolyn up to a sitting position on the Seawall. Carolyn could have gotten up there by herself, but she does not want to reveal how strong she is, not after the way people reacted to her Superears.
Mother and daughter turn their binoculars on the ship just in time to see her starboard anchor drop.
"She dropped anchor, Mommy! She dropped anchor!"
"Yes she did, Carolyn." Elizabeth's blood is now the coldest it has ever been.
NOTES
1. "Seven years from now, Dr. Julia Hoffman will react badly to the sight visible through that gap."
Please see my story "Dr. Hoffman's 1st Trip to Collinwood" to learn more about her reaction to that sight.
2. As I interpret Tim Burton's version of Dark Shadows, Jonathan Frid and Kathryn Leigh Scott played Jonathan and Rachel Drummond, Innkeepers, in the Happening scene. This is inspired by the "backstory" Ms. Scott devised for her character in Burton's Shadows. You can read it on pages 35-36 of her book Dark Shadows: Return to Collinwood [Pomegranate Press, 2012]. If Ms. Scott ever reads this, I hope she will forgive the liberties I have taken with her backstory. At least I gave her the name of a character that she did play in the original Dark Shadows.
The original Dark Shadows did time travel stories. It also did stories set in "Parallel Time," what some franchises would call an alternate universe or alternate time line. In Parallel Time, Bramwell was the son of Barnabas and Josette.
3. United States Coast Guard Cutter Castle Rock
[originally United States Ship Castle Rock]
was a real ship. She was named for an island in Alaska, not for the island in Massachusetts, and not for the fictional Maine town in the works of Stephen King. For one thing, the ship was built before Mr. King was even born. But the name Castle Rock is the reason I selected her for the mission in this chapter, to be continued in the chapters that follow.
In the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, a class of ships is a group of ships that are all built to the same design. Ships of the same class are called "sister ships." The first ship of a class is called the "lead ship," and the class is usually named after the lead ship. The cruiser USS Portland was the lead ship of her class.
During World War II, 35 Barnegat class ships were built for the U.S. Navy. Most of them were completed as small seaplane tenders, as originally intended. When the war was over, the Navy did not need nearly that many seaplane tenders, so many Barnegat class ships were converted to other uses.
18 ships were given to the Coast Guard, which converted them to cutters. Casco [named for Casco Bay on the seaward side of Portland, Maine] had the lowest hull number of these 18 ships, so they were called the Casco-class cutters. For more information, see the wikipedia article "Casco-class cutter." There are links from that article to articles about the individual ships, including USCGC Castle Rock and USCGC Humboldt [mentioned by Elizabeth in "Dr. Hoffman's 1st Trip to Collinwood"].
In the article about Castle Rock, the photo of her as a cutter was taken after the Coast Guard's 1967 adoption of the "racing stripe" on its vessels and aircraft. To see color photos of Casco-class cutters with the racing strip, click on the articles about Castle Rock's sister ships:
Yakutat
Bering Strait
To see what Castle Rock looked like in the solid white paint of 1962, [when she appeared in Collinwood's back yard, at least in my ficverse] click on the articles for her sister ships:
Mackinac
Matagorda
Chincoteague
Coos Bay
Rockaway [color photo]
Half Moon
Barataria
Cook Inlet [color photo]
Dexter [ex-USS Biscayne]
The markings on the all white hulls in those photos vary. The Coast Guard section of the article about USS Biscayne/USCGC Dexter includes a photo of her entering San Francisco Bay on August 11, 1958. Tim Burton and Michelle Pfeiffer were born in 1958 - indeed, Tim Burton was born 2 weeks to the day after that photo was taken.
Therefore Castle Rock's hull in 1962 [at least in my ficverse] bore the same style markings as Dexter's hull in that photo. Except the number on Castle Rock's hull was "W 383."
The "W" in the photos of cutters with all white hulls is explained in the "Class History" section of the wikipedia article "High Endurance Cutter."
Castle Rock is also the name of a Gothic castle-style house in Garrison, New York. There is an article about it at wikipedia. It looks like it belongs in Collinsport.
In my ficverse, New Collinwood will look like Casa Loma in Toronto. Another house [probably a villain's] in Collinsport will look like Castle Rock.
My thanks to TorontoBatFan for suggesting Casa Loma as the model for New Collinwood.
Two Barnegat class ships, USS Rehobeth and USS San Pablo, were converted to hydrographic [later oceanographic] survey ships. USS San Carlos was converted to the oceanographic research ship USNS Josiah Willard Gibbs. USS Mobjack was given to the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey, which converted her to an ocean survey ship and renamed her Pioneer.
And in my ficverse, a 36th Barnegat class ship was built: USS Plum Island was under construction at the Boston Navy Yard [where the Barnegat class ships Humboldt and Matagorda really were built] when the War ended. The Navy cancelled Plum Island's construction, the same as it cancelled many other ships that were still under construction when the War ended. Miskatonic University bought her and had her completed as RV [Research Vessel] Plum Island. Guns and other Navy equipment had not yet been installed, so it was a relatively easy process.
To see what Plum Island looked like as a Research Vessel, go to wikipedia and see the photos of:
A. USS Rehobeth and USS San Pablo after their conversions to oceanographic survey ships.
B. USS San Carlos after her conversion to the oceanographic research ship USNS Josiah Willard Gibbs.
C. USS Mobjack after her conversion to the ocean survey ship USC&GS Pioneer.
Except RV Plum Island was painted in MU's colors of red and white [red hull, white superstructure with red trim] instead of Navy gray.
RV Plum Island is mentioned, but not by name, in my stories "Dr. Hoffman's 1st Trip to Collinwood," and chapters 1 and 3 of "Millicent's Lullaby, or 1st Nights at Collinwood."
RV Plum Island will play a major role in a later chapter of my story Dark Shadows 2.
In my ficverse, RV Plum Island [ex-USS Plum Island] is named for the Plum Island in Massachusetts. This Plum Island is mentioned in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft. This is the Innsmouth that Special Agents Erskine and Vincent speak of in Chapter 6.
There is also a Plum Island in New York. See its article at wikipedia for more information, including its roles in other ficverses, A.K.A. "In popular culture."
