Chapter 4. Famous Watches
Lieutenant Commander Raquel Cross, captain of the transport Charles Joss, was a large, black man with a bald head and a full beard, about forty years of age.
As far as the original body could remember, this was the first black American officer Elrond had ever known, blacks in this day and age would have been discriminated against in the American military, so Elrond was surprised that a black man could serve as an American captain, but Brazil was full of blacks and Elrond knew how to deal with them.
Seeing that the messenger had finished conveying the order, Elrond made a standing salute and was just about to open his mouth to report when he was interrupted by Major Cross's outstretched right hand, seeing the other's outstretched right hand, Elrond hurriedly put his hand over to it and clasped it tightly.
"Hello Ensign Elrond, no need to be too formal on board, welcome aboard the Charles Joss." He said and patted Elrond's right arm with his left hand in an enthusiastic manner.
"Hello Major Cross, I am Elrond of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force, and I am honored to be studying aboard your ship."
Cross was able to see in Elrond's expression that Elrond was rushed, but there were no other white soldiers who saw something different in him, and apparently didn't express displeasure that he was black.
Since it was Commodore Jackson who directly arranged to get on the ship to let himself assess the other party's sailing skills, and it was a young man whose age looked to be less than twenty years old, Cross felt that this person should be a relation no matter how he thought about it. So in terms of attitude, he did not take out the officer's frame at all.
"Well lad, since we are all going to be living on the same ship for the rest of our lives, we are all brothers, so I'll have the first mate set you up with a bed, and then I'd suggest that you, today, grab some time to go on a big shopping spree, because we have a large number of empty billets on the return trip on our ship, so maybe you'll be able to strike it rich when you get to the United States." Hearing such direct words from Major Cross made Elrond's heart skip a beat, wasn't this just a free transport ship? One needed to think hard about what there was that could be sold from Italy to America that could be sold at a profit.
"Captain, won't we be penalized for using a military ship to transport personal items like this?" Elrond was still a little worried about being penalized.
"Haha ... Young man, we just bring some of our own personal belongings, it's not like we're going to fill up the boat, what could be wrong with that, there was nothing to pull on the boat on the return trip in the first place! Who cares what you bring. This is the crew's welfare Oh! In the future, your ship will also bring some personal belongings for the crew isn't it?" Major Cross said with deep meaning.
Elrond heard what Major Cross said and it came back to him, he himself was allowed to bring a little personal belongings for his crew on ocean freighters in the modern world, so how come he couldn't react when it came to the military?
"I see, thanks for the heads up sir!" In his mind, he couldn't help but start thinking, what is there in Italy now that can be sold to the US to make money directly? Thinking about the latter days many of Italy's most famous products seemed to be luxury goods, chocolate, and sports cars, but now at this time of the year all of these didn't seem to have grown up yet!
In this way Elrond led by the first mate, settled down, quickly came to the streets of Naples, Italy began to look for goods that can make their fortune, because the time is still early so Elrond is not in a hurry, while enjoying the streets of Italy, while sighing in his heart, these Italians are not able to fight the war, but to do the food is really good, strolling around for so long it seems that the streets of the most The most stores on the streets seem to be restaurants.
This left Elrond helpless; one couldn't bring pasta to sell in America! How could that make a fortune, pizza was even more so, and there were no famous Italian industrial products in this era. It seems like getting rich is basically impossible.
In fact, the front is not the reason why Elrond can not be rich, touched the pocket of their own five hundred dollars of capital, helplessly sighed, the capital is the fundamental reason to restrict Elrond get rich ah! Of course, we should not think that five hundred dollars is a small amount of money, the dollar in this era is worth a lot more than the dollar in the modern world, this money is Elrond saved for a long time of military pay.
Elrond wandered surprisingly into an alley behind the Naval Hospital, Elrond realized that most of the people gathered here were military men, American GIs, Italian soldiers, British soldiers, all of them gathered on both sides of this alley talking about something despite their different uniforms.
Elrond thought that there is something hilarious to see, did not hold back the nature of the hilarious, went over. Only to see a few soldiers will be a variety of trophies on the ground, there are German watches, medals, pistols, kettles, helmets, rifles, and so on, and even a BMW 750 motorcycle.Elrond understand, here is some soldiers for the exchange of trophies of the black market.
Stroll with interest, because he entered the battlefield for a shorter period of time, although he also killed a few Krauts, but from Elrond woke up, there is certainly no loot around, touched the five hundred dollars in his pocket, and thought, since there is no opportunity to get rich, then buy some souvenirs to collect, and wait for the value of the value of the future appreciation!
The first thing Elrond wanted to buy was a watch, because right now he didn't have a watch on his hand, and strolled the entire black market from end to end, to be honest, the watches of this era didn't have any style that particularly fit Elrond's aesthetic, and never found a suitable watch for himself, and just when Elrond was ready to give up and pick one at random, a raspy voice copied a not-so-fluent English and said: "Brother, are you looking for a different watch?"
Elrond looked for the sound, only to see a short, stout man with black hair and brown eyes, wearing an Italian military uniform, with no rank or markings on it, making it impossible to tell if he was a real Italian soldier, or a black marketeer. It wasn't until now that Elrond realized that most of the men actually took the obvious troop markings off of themselves. There was also a large percentage of people who didn't mind being known at all.
Seems to look at the Cobra logo on his arm holding a pipe, and doesn't pay too much attention to it, casually replying in Italian, "Yeah, man, but where you I looked and didn't see anything I liked, so, sorry."
The man visibly relaxed when he heard that Elrond was able to communicate in Italian, clearly English was still a language he was just learning for him and was not easy to use. Responding in Italian as well:
"Haha .... Brother, I can't believe you can speak Italian, this is really great, if you want to change your watch, I think you have to look at my collection to do so." Said, directly lifted up his left arm, revealing the seven or eight watches with full arm.
Looking at the man's arm full of watches, he couldn't help but stare and couldn't help but be interested, walking up to look at them, one of the stainless steel case watches particularly catching Elrond's eye.
The man apparently noticed Elrond's gaze as well, and directly removed this stainless steel case watch and handed it to Elrond, saying, "Brother, this is a high-class wristwatch taken from the hand of a German general, take a good look at it."
Elrond took the watch in his hand and examined it, recognizing it instantly as a Patek Philippe 1518 Perpetual Calendar, in stainless steel, which is a rare commodity.
"I'm sorry I don't know much about watch brands, can you tell what brand he is? He sure is pretty." Elrond asked pretending like he didn't recognize the brand of the watch.
This era can only be advertised in newspapers and radio, so the transmission of information is still far less developed than in later generations, and the current Patek Philippe is far from becoming a top luxury brand in later generations, just circulating among a portion of the top aristocratic royalty.
"Uh! I don't recognize this one either, but believe me this watch was really taken off the hand of a German general." Elrond's question poured cold water on the dude's attempt to raise the price.
"Well then, may I know how much you are prepared to sell me?" Once he saw that this Italian actually didn't know this brand, Elrond's heart was ecstatic, knowing that he might be picking up a leak today, his face didn't move and he said.
"How much? No, I don't want money!" The Italian was happy to hear that Elrond wanted the watch, but refused outright when he heard that he would have to pay for it.