Excerpt – The White Ship Disaster by Calieb Corvinae

Calieb Corvinae was the grandson of Chancellor Ravern Corvidae, who was first amongst the Lords General of Albion who ruled as council in the Anarchy that followed the death of King Frederick. A studious man, he compiled many works on the histories of the realm, including this treatise on the loss of the White Ship. His claims in the work about the nature of the storm led to fierce arguments at court, and were mostly shouted down as rumour-mongering at best, and war-mongering at worst:

“What we do know for certain is that the White Ship was perhaps the best ship of its time. The most well-built, well-tested craft in the entirety of the fleets of the Heartlands, the craft which went into the construction of this vessel was as close to art as shipwrighting gets.

The captain of the White Ship, Thomas FitzStephen, was a man who had served at sea from birth, and a third generation sailor. He had been hand selected to captain the King’s vessel, due to his experience, and he had brought together a fine crew of able sea hands who had all served many years before the mast.

We know also that the day that the ship set sail was fair by all accounts found on any side of the waters – from Estragales, Lyonesse, Albion, and Cymria, accounts and reports of the weather of the day have been collated, and the evidence shows us that the day, by all accounts, was fine weather, with a fair wind.

All these things together, there should have been nothing of note about the voyage. A fair wind, a good ship, and a skilled captain – and yet, the ship was lost with all hands and its precious cargo. Destroyed or sunk, we are told, during a storm.

Where then did the storm come from? Of course the weather is subject to change, and often swiftly and dramatically does so, but what evidence we can see of this storm leads to the idea that it was not a natural storm.

No natural storm could swell so fast, nor be seen so far, for the pillar of dark clouds appearing in the sky is reported as far north as Chesterfield in the annals of the time. The closer to the storm you find reports, the more talk of flashes of lightning that were more purple than white, and of clouds that swirled and pulsed.

It is the opinion of this scholar that the storm itself was magical in nature, and maliciously summoned.”