Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1) (23 page)

Read Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1) Online

Authors: Fletcher Best

Tags: #science fiction, #free, #pirates, #time travel, #fiction action adventure

BOOK: Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1)
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Jeff saw Esmerelda emerge from her
quarters and make a beeline towards them. “You are about to have
company,” Jeff said to Jenny as he nodded at the approaching
blonde.

“What can I say, she just can’t get
enough of me,” Jenny replied with a smile.

“Thar ye be! Ye snuck out in the
middle o’ the night. I be so lonely when I awake!” Esmerelda said,
wrapping her arms around Jenny from behind and cradling her head in
her ample bosom.

“I did not want to disturb your sleep,
so when I awoke at dawn, I slipped out as quietly as I could,”
Jenny explained.

“Oh, ye be too good to me!” Esmerelda
said squeezing Jenny so hard that she had to gasp for
breath.

The bacon and potato hash
was now being delivered in large bowls and a mish-mash of bowls,
jars, and other containers were brought out for everyone to serve
themselves. When everyone had finished eating, the Captains called
everyone to attention and asked for the women in attendance to
leave so as not to provide distractions from the business at hand.
Esmerelda, who had been perched on Jenny’s lap since they had
finished eating, gave Jenny a kiss before she reluctantly stood up
and walked to her quarters. When all the party women were gone,
Captain Coxen spoke up, “Captain Jamison and I have decided that it
would be in our best interests to secure a full-muster crew for
the
Grand Booty
before continuing with our raids. Smitty has informed us that
patrols by both the Spanish and British fleets have been
increasing, and it would be foolish to proceed without adequate
crew on all three ships.

While Port Royal proper in Jamaica
would be the easiest place to recruit seasoned crewmen, as you know
the pompous arse governor of Jamaica has issued a writ for my
arrest, which would make recruiting there difficult at best. While
the prospects are much fewer there, the closest place where we can
reliably recruit the needed men is Port Royal on Roatan. You have
one hour for recreation and then we shall head to the
longboats.”

The men quickly scrambled to grab one
of the available women and Esmerelda quickly swooped down to claim
her time with Jenny. Within minutes, Jeff and a just a handful of
other men, mostly the older members of the respective crews
remained in the dining area. Jeff sat around making small talk for
the next hour and as the men started to reassemble, Jenny managed
to pry herself away from Esmerelda and she sat down at his side.
“Did you have fun?” Jeff asked.

“Well, I find her amusing, but she is
beginning to become tiresome. I am glad that we will be leaving
soon,” Jenny replied.

Soon the Captains called the men to
order and led them out of the fort to the longboats. They made
their way quickly to the ships and made preparations to sail. Jeff
approached the Captain who was standing at the wheel. “Begging your
pardon, Captain, but aren’t you worried about those Spanish ships
back at Port Royal?”

“No, Mr. Greene. To begin with, it is
now a matter of three ships to three and we are more than a match
for them. If we did have to fight, I am confident that we would be
victorious, but I do not believe we will encounter them. They will
have been repaired and no doubt have been in pursuit of us on our
course to the North. We shall be on a course that takes us the long
way around the island, so it is unlikely that our paths will cross.
Now, I must take my leave as we are about to set sail.”

Jeff made his way back down to the
main deck and was careful to stay out of the way of the crew as
they hauled anchor and unfurled the sails. He walked down to the
galley and as usual, Jenny was busy preparing food and after
stealing a quick kiss, she shooed him out. Jeff tried to engage a
few members of the crew in sword practice, but everyone was so worn
out and hung over from the debauchery on Utila that all declined.
Jeff finally decided to spend the short sail to Roatan reviewing
the guide to the remedies in the medicine chest once
more.

Chapter 12: A Pirate’s Life

Jeff awoke with a start. He sat up at
the table in the infirmary and quickly realized that he had fallen
asleep reading the medicine guide. As earlier in the day, he was
stiff and sore from being in such an awkward position for so long.
He groaned to himself as he stood up and stretched. He could hear
the sound of the anchor being lowered and he stiffly walked out on
deck. They had arrived at Port Royal once again and the Captain was
preparing a landing party. Coxen waved him over, “Mr. Greene, you
are welcome to join me, but I do not think you shall find the trip
very stimulating. Captain Jamison and I are merely going to recruit
some additional crew as quickly as possible and return to the
ships.”

Jeff noticed that Jenny was not among
the gathered landing party, so there was not going to be a chance
for another visit to the cave. “I’ll just stay aboard then,
Captain. Thank you.”

“As you wish,” Coxen replied as he
turned to the rail and climbed down to the longboat.

After the landing party left, Jeff
finally found some sparring partners for sword practice and filled
the time honing his rapidly improving skills. At Harrison’s
recommendations for his continued training, Jeff was even becoming
quite good with his left hand and was comfortable fighting with
either hand against assailants using either hand or both
hands.

By the time the landing party returned
and the new crewmen were assigned to their positions, the sun was
low in the sky. For the next few days, the new crewmen were trained
in a variety of skills, and Jeff was even called upon to spar with
them as Harrison and his master of arms counterpart from Jamison’s
crew brought them up to speed on hand to hand combat. When the
Captains were satisfied that the crew was adequately prepared to
fulfill their duties, they made plans to set sail the next morning
for the first raid since Captain Craig’s failed
betrayal.

The next several weeks blended
together in Jeff’s perception. Sails spanning a few days would lead
to a nighttime raid on some small Spanish colony along the coast.
The Captain refused to let Jeff join the raiding parties, so he
would wait impatiently on the ship for the longboats to return,
actually hoping someone would get hurt just enough that he could
make himself useful. Usually there were some minor injuries for him
to attend to after each raid, but most of the time, he didn’t
really have much to do. He did enjoy the occasional liaison with
Jenny in the cargo hold, but they really couldn’t get away with
that all the time, and she stayed busy most of the time preparing
meals for the Captain and crew.

Jenny finally put him to work fishing
to try to keep him occupied. Jeff was initially excited by the
prospect, because he really enjoyed fishing, but with the primitive
line and hooks that he had available, the fish were very slow to
bite, so even this became tedious pretty quickly. Periodically, his
pulse would quicken when there was a rumble of thunder or a flash
of lightning, but the storms were always a good distance off, and
none that he saw displayed any signs of the particular lightning
and cloud formations he was looking for.

Early one afternoon, Jeff was in the
infirmary changing the dressing on a wound that Crabtree had
sustained in a raid a few nights previously when yelling erupted on
deck. Jeff hastily finished up the dressing and the two men hurried
out. Stevens was in the crow’s nest peering through a spyglass
shouting down to the Captain, “Spanish colors! Five ships…No,
six!”

The Captain yelled to Crabtree,
“Signal the other ships! We have six Spanish man o’ war approaching
from the Northeast!” Jeff watched the crews on all three ships
scurrying around to try to get as much speed as possible to try to
outrun the Spanish. Jenny came out from below deck and stood next
to him watching the scene unfold. Initially it looked as if they
were putting distance between them and the patrol ships, but the
pirate ships were heavily loaded from their raids and soon the
Spaniards were closing the distance. “Make ready the canons and
load the aft guns with bar and chain!” the Captain
ordered.

“Bar and chain?” Jeff asked
Jenny.

“Cannon balls connected with a chain.
We use them to try to damage the masts and rigging to disable the
ships,” she explained.

Captain Coxen had Crabtree
at his side relaying messages to and from the other two ships.
“Aye! Split now!” he yelled across to
The
Crow
,
which had pulled alongside and was now sailing in the middle of the
three pirate ships. Coxen turned the wheel and the
Wandering Wench
veered
off to the left. At the same time, the
Grand Booty
turned to the right
while
The
Crow
remained on its heading. As the
three ships separated, they each drew two of the Spanish ships on
their course. The direction of the wind was least favorable to
the
Wench
, and
her pursuers were quickly growing near. Jeff watched intently as
Captain Coxen actually turned around to watch the approaching ships
and steered with his arms behind him.

“Prepare to fire the port aft gun on
my order!” he yelled. Just then, a shot was fired from one of the
Spanish ships and the cannonball splashed harmlessly into the water
several feet from where Jeff and Jenny were standing.

“Perhaps we should find cover,” Jeff
suggested.

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen the Captain do
this a hundred times. You’ll want to see this,” Jenny assured
him.

The Captain slowly turned the wheel to
line things up and then shouted out, “Port aft gun,
ready?”

“Aye!” came the reply.

“Fire!” the Captain yelled. A moment
later a loud blast came from the rear of the ship and Jeff felt the
deck shiver below his feet. The shot found its intended target and
a moment later the front mast of the closest Spanish ship listed
sharply to one side and then slowly collapsed over the left side of
the ship with the sails dipping into the sea.

The second Spanish ship
had been close behind the first and her Captain was too slow to
react to the sudden loss of speed of the ship in front. The two
ships collided with a loud crash. Men were yelling on both ships as
they struggled to separate themselves. The
Wandering Wench
pulled away and had
made quite a bit of distance before the second ship was able to
resume the pursuit. But the Spanish ship was not gaining ground and
soon Jeff could see why. The collision had apparently opened up the
hull and the Spanish ship was sinking.

Coxen laughed heartily as
he turned to face the wheel and set a course toward
The Crow
and her
pursuers. “Amazing,” Jeff commented to himself as much as to Jenny,
“Two birds with one stone, eh?”

“Aye,” replied Jenny. “I’ve seen the
Captain take down many a ship that way. Usually it is just one at a
time. That’s the fourth time I’ve seen him get two.

“Really?” Jeff asked
incredulously.

“Aye. Captain Coxen is one
of the most feared pirates on the Spanish Main for good reason.” In
the distance, the sounds of cannon fire from the other ships could
be heard. As Jeff squinted against the sunlight reflecting off of
the waves, he could see the flashes and smoke from the Spanish
ships in pursuit of
The
Crow
.

The
Wandering Wench
was gradually
closing the distance and it appeared that Captain Jamison was
changing course on
The
Crow
to allow Coxen to catch better
wind and intercept them faster. “Prepare the starboard guns!
Alternate bar and chain and shrapnel!” Coxen yelled out.

“Aye, Captain!” the men yelled from
below deck.

The trailing Spanish ship
had taken notice of their approach and was now firing at them, but
Coxen was staying just out of the range of their guns. Cannonball
after cannonball splashed into the water within a few feet of
the
Wench
.
“Prepare to fire the shrapnel on my order!”

“Aye,Captain!”

After a volley of Spanish cannonballs
once again fell short, Coxen turned the wheel, causing the ship to
jog just within range. “Fire!” the Captain yelled. A deafening roar
erupted below deck as several cannon were fired at once. A cloud of
shrapnel, consisting of nails, broken glass, pottery shards, and
assorted other sharp objects showered the Spanish ship. Jeff could
hear the screams of the men who had been hit. “Prepare to fire the
bar and chain on my command!”

“Aye, Captain!”

Coxen maneuvered the ship
slightly further out from the Spanish ship and watched. The Spanish
were still firing, but only from two ports now, instead of the
eight that had been firing. Apparently the shrapnel had done its
job and there were fewer hands to man the guns. The two guns on the
Spanish ship fired nearly simultaneously and again the shots were
too short. Knowing that they would be briefly defenseless as they
reloaded, Captain Coxen moved in for the kill. As he moved in close
alongside the Spanish ship, a few men on her deck fired small arms
in a vain attempt to hold off the
Wench
. “Fire!” Coxen bellowed. The
starboard guns roared and four bar and chain shots sailed across
the deck of the Spanish ship. One shot connected on the center
mast, which exploded in splinters before collapsing. As the rigging
dragged in the water, the ship slowed to a crawl and the
Wench
sailed quickly
past.

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