Honeycutt’s Warehouse No. 2 (Petrichor 365)

Port Imperial is foremost a port and ports thrive on in import and export of goods, good need a place to be stored after they arrive and before they are transshipped to their final destination.

Petrichor has only recently started producing reliable exports but it, and especially Port Imperial, are primarily a consumer of imports.  From the food they eat, to the clothes they wear, most of it comes from outside of the island (though it is becoming more and more self-sufficient).

Because of that, staple foods are warehoused before being sold on to local merchants and consumers.  One of the largest is that owned by Augustius Honeycutt, a Visse merchant who may have been partly financed by some members of Imperial Bureaucracy (in fact, yes he was, supported by cousins and other relatives who saw the potential money to be made).

The majority of the warehouse was transported in two ships in partly prefabricated sections.  It replaced an earlier structure, which was a reinforced tent, thus Warehouse No. 2.  The floor of the warehouse started as packed earth and is slowly being replaced with laid bricks as they become available, so far about two-fifths of the floor are covered.  The walls have been reinforced after some ambitious thieves cut their way in through the wall in the first few months of operation.

There are always guards keeping watch in the warehouse., usually four in the day and six at night, more if something unusually valuable has arrived.  The arrival of large amounts of flour and other foodstuffs is also worth additional guards.

It looks like a warehouse and is large as such structures go.  It is certainly the largest in Port Imperial so far.  The exterior is white-washed and Honeycutt’s Warehouse No. 2 is painted boldly above each door in green paint.  Above the main entrance is also the legend “A Secure Place for your Goods.  Bonded and Guarded.”

Augustius Honeycutt is a stout, middle-aged Visse, who wears well-cut clothes of thick cloth, he is known who helping on the warehouse floor in rush periods.  His light brown hair is thining and worn short and his grey eyes are usually hidden behind a pair of glasses.  He is a hard worker, mostly on the administrative side of the business, but he will help where needed and has, since the warehouse was built, participated in one night watch a month.  Honeycutt is very concerned with making this venture a success and so far it has been but he does not feel able to relax his guard yet.  Once things are stable, he intends to bring his wife and son over.  Two of his nephews (Nelson and Osten) and one niece (Clarabel) help with the paperwork and organization of the warehouse.

The guards are usually larger folk, or at least Gemkine, and their loyalty rests on good wages and Oath Stone-backed contracts.  While the actual labor is hired out to the members of the dockworkers’ group, no point in offending those who you rely upon for your goods to be loaded and unloaded on their transports.

Notes: Things have to be stored and here is a place to do that very thing.  Of course members of the Imperial Bureaucracy were involved in getting it set up, it is perfect ‘honest graft’.

Petrichor 365.  Previous entry:  The Silver Horse Inn  Next Entry:  Tolentok’s Roads and Paths

Image from Jean Beaufort found on PublicDomainPictures.net and is in the Public Domain.