Third Session Notes

Dave emailed to say he'd have to miss this session. Dan got to bed early the night before, called at about 12:30 to say he was running a bit late but would be there, then fell back asleep until 5.

On the evening of September 8, 1933, Damon and Julia planned to go to sleep early on board the SS Gabrielle.

Julian: This probably means that Damon plans to go to sleep early but winds up doing last minute work instead.

Alicia decided to have a ladies' night out with Erica.

At about 10 pm, Damon and Julia were woken by noise and shouts of "Fire!" They raced above to see that the dock warehouse for the expedition was on fire, there were three guys unconscious or dead just inside the warehouse, and there was a crane suspending gallons of fuel above the ship, with the flames rising ever higher.

Starkweather called for someone to help him with the winch to hoist the fuel to safety. Damon said he'd handle that and told Starkweather to organize the skeleton crew and generally do what Starkweather does best. Starkweather saw the logic in that, and once he had things under control, or thought he did, grabbed one of the hoses to spray the containers of gasoline with. Julia went to help him, as the hose was too unweildy for one person. Alas, it proved too unweildy for the two of them.

Damon grabbed a sailor and they went to work on the winch, getting two shots. Despite three amazingly bad rolls -- I rolled a 99 for the crewman's first try, somehow managing to get injured doing this -- they did manage to swing the gasoline to safety, I think into the hatch or at least on deck, away from the fire.

Alicia saw the flames as she and Erica staggered back towards the ship, and she spotted a man with a gasoline can running away. She ran after him, screaming for help, saying, "There's a man with a gasoline can!"

Damon ran off the ship to help her, as Starkweather and Julia dodged an out of control hose, and the crew cast off so that the ship would be further off in the water, away from the burning dockside.