"Well, nobody canquarrel with you there," Menedemos said generously. He raised his voice toa shout and hailed the akatos ahead: "Ahoy, the Aphrodite!"

Carpenters in chitonsand naked sailors aboard the merchant galley waved to Menedemos and Sostratos."When do we go out, skipper?" one of the sailors called. "We'vebeen stuck in port so long, my hands have got soft."

"We'll fix that,don't you worry," Menedemos said with a laugh. "It won't be long now,I promise." His sharp, dark-eyed gaze swung to a carpenter at the poop ofthe forty-cubit vessel. "Hail, Khremes. How are those new steering oarscoming?"

"They're just aboutready, captain," the carpenter answered. "I think they'll be evensmoother than the pair you had before. A little old bald man sitting in a chairwith a cushion under his backside could swing your ship any way you wanted herto go." He waved in invitation. "Come on up and get the feel of 'emfor yourself."

Menedemos tossed hishead to show he declined. "Can't really do that till she's in the water,not hauled out to keep her timbers dry." Sostratos following him, hewalked toward the bow of the ship. The Aphrodite had twenty oars on eitherside, giving her almost as many rowers as a pentekonter, but she was beamierthan the fifty-oared galleys so beloved by pirates: unlike them, she had tocarry cargo.

Sostratos tapped thelead sheathing the Aphrodite below the waterline with a fingernail. "Stillgood and sound."

"It had betterbe," Menedemos said. "We just replaced it year before last." Hetapped, too, at one of the copper nails holding the lead and the tarred woolfabric below it to the oak planking of the hull.

Up at the bow, anothercarpenter was replacing a lost nail that helped hold the three-finned bronzeram to the bow timbers inside it. He must have heard Menedemos' remark, for helooked up and said, "And I'll bet you were glad you finally could do ityear before last, too."