Crtd 05-12-12 Lastedit 15-09-14

Picture: Comprehensive Account of my Short Career as a Business Man, Part II
(click here for Part I)

Last time I charged TSh 15 000/= per box of 100, because that had been the fake price Daniel had quoted asking me for money to buy them. I had refused and by way of teaching him not to lie - I still believed I could - had offered to sell him for that price, which meant I had a 125% profit. He of course felt forced to accept but tactically came back to it later (see last time). Now I limited my profit margin to 80% only, which is quite modest, considering that it is a credit to a broke and profoundly dishonest shipbuilder, morally rotten until deep in his bones. But then, I want my dhow.
Alas, I trusted Mwanza's best hardware trader, the Indian Mandji and took off with the boxes sealed. At the yard his "gross" boxes were ruthlessly counted. They should have contained 7 times 144 = 1008 screws but were 20% low. I had to get back to Mandji, reclaim 20% of my price,  TSh 14 000. Mandji's son refused but fortunately his father entered and turned the case my way. After that, I had to buy 200 2.5 inch copper screws elsewhere (I had bought Mandji's full stock), and fulfill my obligations as specified in the receipt above, already signed by Daniel.
The really good news was that Feleshi had managed to get wood for Daniel on credit. I was counting the newly arrived logs and concluded we were not far short of all we would needed for the deck and the floor. I repeated to Feleshi that we already had had all the wood in May but lost 19 logs to unauthorized covert use for other boats or illicit sales by Daniel. I emphatically put Feleshi in charge of securing the wood. He understood and agreed. I expected the lack of wood to be a good motive to involve the Immigration mafia in disciplining the yard, but since wood for floor and deck was now available, that had to wait for the next major incident.
That might be the following: if you shake the ship at the stern, you can make the boards enter into a true wave, suggesting we need to drastically fortify the hull. Daniels hull plank thickness is 25% below the contract value. That explains a part of the problem. Another part is frame thickness, and the absence, thus far, of the lebeko that I was told by my dhow trip hosts to be essential. More things should be identified by an inspector. Now I dropped my inspector Tumaini, and renewed an old friendship, that with Nkaka, whom I first chose to build my dhow, starting from an existing hull. I dropped him for wild financial claims by him and the owner of that hull. Nkaka speaks English and was in The Netherlands to study shipbuilding. Nkaka was willing to be my hull inspector. I told him my doubts about hull stiffness. He told me working of screws was not even the worst problem. I might get real wood crack due to torsion at short notice. I suspect neither Daniel nor Gabriel will be serious discussion partners on the issue whether and how to fortify. They are likely to play down the issue. I will have to be strict and strong. I might even hire Nkaka to supervise if not even to execute that operation. On Daniels cost, if he gets stubborn again.

Though in my view these stiffeners are necessary to make my dhow as I already paid for, I decide to supply the necessary wood, nuts and bolts for free and to give them another week for the work. That puts us at the end of the first week of Februari for delivery. But as for today, not even the hull is ready. I will refrain to put a new point on the Perfect Inertia chart before we are ready for painting (latest version of graph of PE).
On the way back Nkaka tells me Gabriel told him to have pity with them, they did not want to go to jail. So Gabriel does not only fear jail for Daniel but also for himself. That speaks for Gerald's hypothesis that Gabriel indeed has been with Daniel in a shady business with my money. And with this fear established by my contract (see Grand Finale) I conclude, I must have reached the absolute maximum speed of an African shipyard. And the fear does not reach to stop Daniel from failed attempts to cheat every day. What a good thing I did not know this when I decided for this entreprise of dhow building!

After having brought Nkaka back to his own ship yard I consider again that we had an inspection of the hull 4 weeks ago. According to the contract it should have been ready. It was not. Today is the second inspection. It is still not ready. We shall surely need a third. But this Nkaka is a positive arrival on the scene. He is around sixty, I would guess, and able to bring home impopular messages to my dhow yard boys with a natural authority (in his presence I would almost forget that I am not really far from being "around sixty" too!).