Dead Captain Signs Rotas, Crew Relieved

Fenna Rahimi set a place for the late Captain Okonkwo-Hale at Friday's memorial dinner in Lantern Row, and put his portrait in the chair. Eleven other widows did the same. The portrait, which the Ring Council promoted to Acting Captain in the spring, has since signed every duty rota on the ship.

The approvals come by thumbprint pad fixed to the frame. A deck clerk presses a staff thumb to it each shift change. The pad confirms, and the rota stands.

Crew say the rotas have never run better. Under the living captain, swaps were argued over for weeks. Nobody argues with the portrait.

"He never once gave me the late shift," said Ashkan Nieminen, a water-line fitter. "Before, I had it four nights running. Now I have it when it is fair."

Rahimi, whose husband served under the captain for thirty years, said the chair is for company. "He ate quickly and left early. The portrait does neither."

The Ring Council confirmed the pad has not been recalibrated since the promotion. Asked who adjusts the rotas before the portrait signs, Kofi Reyes-Ortega, the deputy rota clerk, said he does, "as I always did."

The portrait has not yet been asked to sign its own pension.