Pirates of the Caribbean - Island of the undead

It was evening. A late warm evening in the West Indies in the early eighteenth century. The sky was very dark black with few clouds; the sea was calm with little wind and a black ship sailing quietly upon its waters. A smaller boat had just moored alongside it. The smaller boat had two passengers a young woman, Elizabeth Swann and her father. Her father sighed, he recognized the vessel.

'You are sure about this, my dear?' he asked his daughter.

'This is the Black pearl, the vessel of my good friend Captain Jack of you have had the pleasure of his acquaintance!' replied Elizabeth.

'Don't think I haven't fogotten our previous meetings. I can't say I enjoyed them much. I don't know, he just seems a little bit uncouth. I don't think much of his dress sense. And do you know, I'm quite sure there aren't any washing facilities on the ship. I do believe one has to use sea-water. Not quite the done thing, you know!' the old man complained but he still rowed the little boat up to the stem of the Black Pearl.

Looking down upon them, having overheard this entire conversation was Mr. N, currently on watch. He was a young, slim dark-haired 5ft 10 ins with rather scruffy hair it had to be said, man of around 19 and looked down upon the two. 'Oi, you two,' called he at the pair. 'Do you want to come up, or not? If you do, I hope you can afford our fares!'

'Well, we should at least do that!' sighed the old man, referring to the fares.

Elizabeth sighed back at him, 'Look, do you want to carry on rowing to Jamaica? We could do that. It is only 200 miles away or so, it will take us about a week at our speed and I hope you won't mind running out of food on around day six as even with rationing that is about as long as our supplies will last. Or we could hitch a lift here as my old friend Captain Jack is going that way and do this in half the time. What do you say?'

The old man agreed. He and Elizabeth climbed up the rope-ladder to the deck of the Black Pearl as the rowing boat was tied to it. Mr. N looked at them both. He had heard of them and their adventuros ways, and it had to be said that Elizabeth Swann looked as beautiful, if a little tired as legend had made it. He asked her father, 'So, you're going to Kingston, are you?'

'Yes, we are!' said he tiredly.

'Have you been there before?'

'Yes, I do know the place.'

'With your daughter?'

'Yes!'

Here Mr. N tried the oldest joke in the world. Well, he was young! 'Ja make her?' asked he with a smile.

'Don't give up the day job, Mister,' said Elizabeth with a groan.

'Oh, well, yes, do you have your fees!' remembered Mr. N holding out his hand.

'I suggest a farthing!' offered Elizabeth.

Mr. N was impressed. His Captain had given him some advice on negotiation tactics, but at this excitement sent his head clean squiffy. 'Oh, certainly!' said he delightfully, pocketing the small coin in his brown breeches as the dark, night wind rustled the sails of the Black Pearl behind him. A farthing was well below the currant rate for such a passage.

Which Captain Jack knew full well. He crept up quietly behind Mr. N and gave him a cuff around the head. 'A Farthing! A good job I don't use you as a businessman melad! Think you'd better stick to washing pots and cooking. A farthing indeed. And you, Elizabeth my dear, don't encourage him. You can pay the going rate or you're rowing the entire way yourself!'

Captain Jack's flamboyant appearance had changed little since Elizabeth saw him last. His dark breeches were stained with what was probably rum, and the matching waistcoat had seen better days. He cocked a kohled eye at Elizabeth, and the beaded forelock that hung over his red bandana twitched slightly where it peeped out from beneath his battered leather tricorne hat. He wiped a sweaty hand on the front of his off-white shirt, which was open to the waist, as usual. The breeze moved his greasy dreadlocks and he scratched his chin above the twin plaits of his beard as he waited for her to speak.

Elizabeth knew Captain Jack well. She smiled, 'Oh, come on, Captain, how about a discount due to our old friendship and for old; times sake!'

'Old times; sake does not mean much in terms of hard cash. No, I'm afraid your passage is going to cost you. Full rate. So, what have you got?' asked Captain Jack as he looked down upon Elizabeth and her father. A gust of wind rustled his clothes as he looked. He awaited a reply as Elizabeth paused as she considered.

Elizabeth looked up and offered, 'Well, apart from that I have a little lump of cheese!'

'Cheesy!' replied Captain Jack, but he did not look impressed.

'Well, there is a place mat that I acquired from The Sailors Inn at Trinidad!'

'Gibbs, set us sail!' shouted Captain Jack at this offer.

Elizabeth countered swiftly 'Well how about,' said she and rustled amongst her baggage and produced a tempting looking bottle, 'A bottle of the finest Barbadian rum. Currents locally grown and plumed. My final offer.' Well, this was one that was too good to refuse. Captain Jack took a sniff of the bottle. It was certainly the finest rum as Elizabeth had said. And rum was always welcome!

'That will do nicely!' said Captain Jack thirstily.

'With you in charge we should have a safe and uneventful trip!' suggested Elizabeth's father hopefully.

'That is certainly the plan. As you obviously know we were travelling that way. And with my skills we should find a decent port that would be agreeable to all of us!' said Captain Jack with a graceful flick of his hand. He then ordered his crew, 'Raise the mainsail! Set to port! We'll gather the winds and get going. Come on, look lively, lads! We have distinguished passengers today!'

Meanwhile, in Barbados, a British fleet was sailing into port. It was the property of the East India Company. On the flagship sat Admiral Beckett in his main room in the ship drinking coffee after a healthy breakfast. More healthy than many of the crew had eaten, anyway! Opposite him was his first officer Lieutenant Banger. Banger was a tall, dark-haired man if bulky. He gave a paper detailing some events to his superior.

Beckett gave a little tight smile, 'Excellent, we appear to be ahead of schedule,' he put down his coffee cup in the morning air. 'Nice to see that the fleet has made it here with minimum fuss. Now then, I trust that you will put across this proclamation to the crew?' This been Beckett's policy having travelled from Portsmouth with a new fleet. Namely that every Pirate or anyone found aiding pirates would be searched out for and if not surrendered, Killed and even if surrendered subject to Beckett's 'Mercy,' which usually meant death. Beckett had no truck for Pirates, however amusing.

'Certainly, Sir, we have five ships here and we are only the front of the main fleet,'

'Indeed, the Company has, under my advice gathered the largest fleet in memory to scour the high seas of the Caribbean. And top of my list is to eliminate piracy by whatever means that I see fit. The Company has had enough of seabound thieves. It's bad for trade.' By which, Beckett meant East India Company trade. Which also meant using force to eliminate any opposition.

Banger cleared up a few trays and tidied the cabin. He liked doubling as Beckett's butler. He asked Beckett, 'But Sir, are you not a little nervous about coming back here after what happened last time? Everyone thought you had been killed in that battle with the Pirates off Barbados. It was certainly a narrow escape. Most on your ship died in that cannon fire, you only survived by jumping into the sea and swimming!'

'Indeed I was most fortunate to have been on deck at the time. The pirates hit us with a furious broadside – all cannons firing – and one of the cannonballs must have hit the gunpowder stores. There was a massive explosion, and our ship was blown to bits. Who would have thought that such a rabble – mere pirates! – could have stood a chance against the might of the British West Indies fleet? It's a mystery that they managed to triumph at all.'

But now Beckett was back with a fleet more than twice the size of the previous one. And he was angry. The Admiral was utterly determined to avenge himself against the pirates that had thwarted him before. In particular, Captain Jack, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann. He wasn't able to do much about Will Turner actually, but Captain Jack, now! And fortunately this was in accordance with the East India Company's wishes as well.

Beckett decided to walk on the deck to inspect. As he did there was a shout a musket shot rang across the ship from another vessel. This was alarmingly close to Beckett's head and he had to duck sharply. 'What was that?' cried he and another shot rang out. Beckett looked down and saw some men firing rifles at them and in particular him. 'Cannon fire at that ship!' roared he. 'Sink it!'

The men in the vessel had a grievance against Beckett from last time he was here and had hanged half the civilian population for alleged and very much unproven support of piracy. In fact, Beckett had hanged the leader's father. 'Fire another round. Try to get Beckett in particular!' he cried to the others. But the little vessel had no chance now against the might of Beckett's flagship. Under Admiral Beckett's instructions, the blast from the cannons destroyed it and the little ship went down with all hands.

'That was too near for my liking!' Beckett growled later assessing the situation in his office.

'It looks like we might have come into the harbour a bit too haphazardly. Well, we've corrected that now. I'll put some extra security measures in place. You shouldn't have to face that type of attack again!' said Captain Norrington seemingly a man that had also survived the previous incident with the Pirates, or so it appeared!

But now Beckett took steps to gain complete control of the Harbour.

The Black Pearl continued on it's way to Jamaica. It was an uneventful journey up to now. The afternoon sun beat down upon the ship and its crewmen in the rigging. The lookout in the Crow's nest, Ragetti had sighted land which was some relief for everyone and as such the Black Pearl was approaching one of the many small islands that where in the Caribbean.

'Ship ahoey!' cried Ragetti with his tall, thin body, 'A British vessel!'

Mr. N stood by the forecastle, fidgeting like he had fogotten something.

'A British ship; haven't encountered one of those for a while,' said Captain Jack, thoughtfully. The British ship was now approaching the Black Pearl. 'I'm not sure, there's something about that that makes me a bit uneasy. Keep your guns at the ready, gentlemen, lets be prepared for some trouble and see if we can avoid that craft!' he concluded.

Mr. N tugged Captain Jack sleeve, 'Excuse me!' said he,

'Yes, what is it now?' sighed Captan Jack.

'I've just remembered something,' Mr. N explained, 'At that Inn we stayed in Trinadad a couple of days ago, I had a conversation. Well, most of it was about different type of cats, actually fascinating subject, however, one thing that was mentioned was that there was a new Admiral in charge of the British fleet. One Admiral Beckett. Is that important? I was going to tell you, but I just clean fogot!'

Mr. N's memory was not one of the best! Also as a recent recruit, he was only partly aware of the others adventures, and as such was surprised by the reaction he received.

'WHAT?' cried Captain Jack, Elizabeth, Governor Swann, Ragetti and Pintel together.

'Admiral Beckett is back in charge and you only now thought to tell me!' groaned Captain Jack.

'I thought he was dead or imprisoned in London!' said Elizabeth.

'Well, he obviously isn't now. Lets definitely avoid the British for the moment, then!' commanded Captain Jack. But it was too late. With a whoosh and a splash behind them, a cannon-shot from the British ship landed in the water. More followed, along with gunfire. 'Down, everyone!' cried Captain Jack. 'Weapons at the ready, melads! This is a battle situation!'