Series

The Remarker is a five-year old four mast merchant trader laid down in Kemeya (and island land near Cycus and home to the power family from which Nazira, Abelard, and Nawaz came from) and sold to a pirate combine at the start of the events chronicled in On Other Shores. She was build from oak using pegged plank-and-rib construction from hardwood harvested on Cycus. The woods used included almahujni alhadidiu (ironwood or mahagony), zayt al'arz (red oil cedar) and khashab albaluwt alramadiu (spider oak). Some of her structure was replaced after strom damage with an unknown oine variety. Unlike longshore traders, which are made from cheaper spruce or gum trees, the Remarker's combination of wood variants serve to cancel out defects found in individual lumber variants. The one noted weakness of these designs os that fire can catch the upper decks, whose cedar is oily and burnable.

Also different from long shore traders, the Remarker is designed to carry a full topside crew, its own cargo hands, and a significant number of marines. Longshore traders rely on cargo hands from the ports they serve, are not able to rapidly reconfigure their sails, and rarely ship oars. They generally lack galley crew, and dispense with navigators and cockswains. Longshore traders carry bulk items between a small number of ports with a small profit margin and lack the sails to maske weigh against the wind. In fact their name, long shore traders, is a reference that they generally use the currents that run along islands along with those between close by lands to allow progress on their journeys.

Remarker is a different beast, which made her both an ideal pirate, and later, a powerful tea trader. She carries four masts, two drivers midship forward and aft the galley house whose sails are designed to catch the maximum wind possible (making her capable of sustained speeds of up to 17 kilometers per hour) and two steering masts whose sails allow close hauled tacking and considerable agility in handling. Using tolan navigation this combination of both lanteen and square sails allows teh ship to appear to sail upwind, which in reality is a manuever called "close hauling on the tack." Despite this, no ship on Ocean can successfully fight teh strongest currents and winds. Knowing where the currents and winds are in what season is key to getting to where you are going for a merchant. Captain's jealously guard their tolan-books, sometimes called rudders, which use statistics to estimate the best way to navigate a particular ship given the time of year they are trying to make a given port.

No ship, even a warship, would risk the wrath of the gods and god's fire by mounting permanent cannons to their deck. Instead they rely on a combination of firelocks, wooden stocked cartridge firing rifled weapons, and larger human-portable weapons called serpents (because of their striking power) or cone-rifles (named for their larger conical shells that contain flammable and combustable materials). They are always stored under deck unless they are needed and never brandished.

The great wealth of the tea trade allows ship's like the Remarker to carry crews of 100 - 120 souls. The skills of these crews mean that given wood and time, nearly any ship can be self-repaired if the giant keel and primary frame elements remain intact. Tea merchants also carry a doctor, a singer or chanter, a steward (who acts as a cook) a tea master, and water masters. The crews are crowded, so they usually divide into eight shifts to assure that the sleeping quarters, the galleys, and the space for resting is not overwhelmed. Despite this, sailors on a tea merchant are some of the best paid on Ocean, enjoying good food and enough rest to assure they are in top condition. Most tea merchants can have their pick of crew and even captains, but the best crew do not stay onboard a ship they are not made to feel appreciated on. This attitude of superiority sometimes causes long shore and team merchant crews to clash on dockside.

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