Sauncho Smilax and the schooner Preserved

Sauncho Smilax and the schooner Preserved are linked by a growing attachment that turns a pursuit at sea into a possible future claim. Sauncho follows the vessel with Doc, recognizes its peril near St. Flip of Lawndale, and learns that its abandonment could open a legal path toward ownership; by the end, he admits that he may have insured it and intends to participate in any litigation. The ship remains in government custody rather than becoming his, leaving their relationship poised between affection and an unresolved legal possibility.

From the Golden Fang to Preserved

In Doc’s interrupted dream, the schooner Golden Fang has reassumed both its old working identity and its real name, Preserved. The dream imagines the ship as cleansed of the dark traces of blood and betrayal and its dead passengers finally at rest. This change of name and imagined restoration recasts the vessel not only as a compromised ship associated with violence, but also as something that might be recovered and given another life.

Sauncho’s connection to the vessel becomes visible on the water. As he and Doc round Palos Verdes Point, they see the schooner sailing out from San Pedro with her staysails and jibs set. Sauncho’s expression registers an attachment Doc recognizes as unrequited. Doc has previously seen Preserved under full sail only during an acid trip; seeing her again without that experience’s altered state gives the encounter a different weight, though the ship still seems to summon associations beyond ordinary observation.

Following the schooner

Doc and Sauncho fall in astern and follow Preserved. As their radar picks up approaching vessels, Sauncho watches the schooner through binoculars and sees that she has noticed them. She switches to diesel power, and Sauncho concludes that the pair will not be able to keep pace. The pursuit places their personal interest in the ship alongside an official one: federal authorities and the Coast Guard are also closing in.

The route leads toward St. Flip of Lawndale, the mythical break also known as Death’s Doorsill. With the schooner heading straight into it, Sauncho tracks her course on the radar with a yellow grease pencil and cannot tell whether the crew is courting disaster or committing a maritime offense. His response is practical as well as emotional: he is following the ship closely enough to see the danger, and he wants to know why she is not turning away.

Abandonment and maritime law

As the schooner fades amid the spray, she looks older and more battered to Doc, resembling the ship from his dream of Coy escaping with his family to safety. Sauncho cries that the crew has abandoned her. The apparent abandonment does not immediately make the schooner his: the Coast Guard boards her, reduces sail, prepares lines and storm anchors to keep her oriented into the wind, and awaits an oceangoing tug. Sauncho’s concern is that she be brought back safely rather than stranded in the dangerous waters.

He explains the legal condition on which a later claim might depend. If the schooner can be brought into safe receivership and no owner claims her within a year and a day, she will be officially abandoned; the question of who then receives ownership depends on maritime law. The interval matters. Even after the Coast Guard takes charge, Sauncho recognizes that any prospect of acquiring Preserved will be subject to time, competing claims, and legal procedure, not simply to his affection for her.

A possible claim, not a settled possession

After the Coast Guard operation, Sauncho handles paperwork at the Terminal Island base and arranges overnight moorage for their inboard-outboard. Later, he cautions Doc that a year and a day leaves room for multiple insurers, particular-average claims, former partners, and other claimants to appear. He considers a hypothetical marine policy under which ownership could revert to the underwriter, then blushes when Doc guesses that he may have taken out a policy himself.

Sauncho admits that he will be involved if litigation follows, while allowing that a wealthy acquaintance of Doc’s could instead take the ship at auction. His admission makes the attachment materially consequential: he has not merely followed Preserved and mourned her abandonment, but may have taken steps that could place him in the legal contest over her future. The evidence does not establish that he owns her or will ultimately obtain her.

Doc tries to embrace Sauncho and says that the boat and lawyer belong together. Sauncho deflects the sentiment with a joke, then sings a song about being together. The exchange turns his otherwise practical involvement into an openly personal bond, though his habitual flinch from Doc’s hug and his comic reply keep the moment from becoming a declaration of certainty. Preserved remains at the center of a possible future, and the relationship ends with hope still conditional on a year and a day, the law, and whoever else may claim her.