The Sea's Lament

About the Book

The Sea´s Lament is the story of two proud young shipbuilders separated by a millennium.

It begins in the bustling little trading town of Birka, on Lake Malar in Sweden. The year is 997 A.D.

Kurt Bergson is a young boatbuilder who lives a few miles from town with his family. Their primary source of income is the boatbuilding business his grandfather, Holgar started fifty years ago.

Kurt´s father, Bjorn, is currently managing the business for Holgar, who is now very limited in physical activities, but no less proficient in designing boats.

Kurt has acquired the necessary skills of boatbuilding, and has begun to establish his own reputation. He is young and ambitious. He yearns for the opportunity to design and build bigger, ocean going ships, other than those used primarily on Lake Malar.

One stormy spring day he is tasked to procure some hardware from Gunnar, the industrious blacksmith in Birka. Upon arriving at his shop soaking wet from the storm, Gunnar suggests that Kurt seek the warm hospitality of the local tavern, while he fabricates his order for him. He says that he will meet him there.

While in the tavern, Kurt becomes enthralled with a young girl who sits at the feet of two very large Vikings. They are seated, playing a game board, while waiting out the storm before they head home to Norway.

The girl has been abducted by one of the two men, young Eric Sveldson, from a monastery that this family of Northmen had raided a week before they had headed north to Birka to trade some of their ill gotten plunder.

Eric pummels Kurt after seeing him eye the young girl, but tempers soon cool and his father, Nori, senses that young Kurt´s skill might please King Olaf Tryggvason of Norway, who is currently building a grand fleet of ships.

Kurt is reluctantly persuaded to accompany Nori to view his ship which is docked at the pier directly across from the blacksmith´s shop. Nori renders Kurt unconscious with a blow to the head and kills the blacksmith. He quietly slips out of the harbor with his crew and sets sail for Norway with Kurt and the girl, Marie.

Kurt awakens on the Viking ship under the care of Marie. The blow to his head has caused amnesia, and he no longer remembers who he is, or where he is from. Marie implores him to continue to tell them that he is a boatbuilder, for fear that they will kill him. She also tells him that the God she had come to know at the abbey is very powerful and that he will help them.

In the North Sea, the ship encounters a great storm. Nori loses his son Eric, and most of his crew overboard, however, Kurt and Marie save his life, but not his right arm. He, in turn, grants them the option of returning to their homes, if they so desire.

Kurt is still unaware that Nori has killed his good friend, Gunnar, so both he and Marie make a compassionate decision to continue on to Norway with him. Kurt´s memory returns on the return journey to Norway, and he and Marie eventually get married and have two children. Marie also becomes very successful converting many of the Vikings to Christianity.

Kurt becomes one of the King´s designers and builders of his great armada, and more specifically the King´s personal ship, ´The Long Serpent´. He also becomes slightly infatuated with the King´s lovely daughter.

She confides in him that the King´s motivations for the fleet are less than pure. He tells everyone that he needs the fleet to spread the word of God, but he is really intent upon intimidating a rogue named Bronislav the Pole. Bronislav is the former husband of Olaf´s wife and still maintains her dowry. Olaf is intent upon wresting it from him and possibly gaining him as an ally.

She also tells Kurt that Olaf has decided that he must also accompany the fleet in case there is any damage to his ships that might require his expertise.

Kurt becomes very distressed with this revelation, but is successful in persuadi

About the Author

The author, Robert Nestor Maki is a third generation Finnish-American born in Gardner, Massachusetts. He graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering and later studied Naval Architecture at M.I.T. He was a Structural Naval Architect at the Boston Naval Shipyard when the U.S.S. Thresher took her last dive, and later accepted a position as Chief of Structural Design with the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, U.S.N. at the Quincy Shipyard. Following the demise of shipbuilding in Massachusetts he completed his career with the New England Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He currently resides in Gardner with his wife, Nancy, and works as a Conservation Agent and plays a little golf when he's not writing.