"Hard to starboard, Captain Arlen!" yelled a man at the top of his lungs, "We gonna crash into their ship!" As the ship swung sideways, missing the rival British ship, I released the command to fire.
"Fire!" I screamed, the cannons fired and the ship went down as easily as we had dodged it. The crew screamed in victory, some of the men patted me on the back with their rough, hardworking hands. But our victory didn't last, as we came around a cliff, a large British ship headed straight for our bow. As it was basically charging at ours I saw it was an Aquilla. Which means that a first class naval ship was coming to kill us! For the safety of me and my crew I gave the order to turn back as quickly as I could scream it out loud.
"Turn back!" I yelled through all the rain, thunder and lightning which boomed and cracked minorly.
"Captain says turn back!" yelled my First Mate, Murray, quite louder than I did. Murray and I have been friends since we've been young. He's always been there for me and I've always been there for him back in Britain. We've always dreamed of being British solders, one day we got our wish!
"No way! I ain't lettin' that blasted ship keep us from goin' to port!" said one of the scrawniest men of my crew, Georgie Walson was his name. Suddenly a sound like a thundering hooves rang and Georgie got hit with a chain shot, he flew out of the ship and down into the sea. Murray and I looked over, he was gone.. dead and sinking to his cold grave. At that moment, I was done. I wouldn't keep running away from this British heap like a coward! It was time to take action!
"FULL sail!" I shouted angrily as a raised my arm in the air furiously. The crew looked aghast,
"Are you sure Sir? The ship.. it's bigger than ours!" said Murray pointing to the black ship a short distance away.
"What!? You got cotton in your ears? I said FULL SAIL!" I hollered even louder. And the message thankfully delivered when I saw the sails fly open and catch wind. With full sail unleashed, we headed straight for the British war ship. The waves became dark and large. We constantly had to brace for rogue waves and winds. Once we we're by the Aquilla's side, I glimpsed at her golden incrusted cannons. There was 5 long decks, full of them. I couldn't believe what I had agreed to battle, a ship that was twice our size and twice the ammunition! And who could rip through a ship- not much smaller than our 3rd class ship- with little difficulty! As we circled around each others ships, A current caught both the Aquilla and the U.S.S Bounty, we began to make a spiralling hole, thunder boomed and lightning cracked constantly as if it were angry. Some Lightning hit the water in various places and thunder made us brace every time, just to make sure it wasn't the Aquilla firing at us.
"FIRE!" I screamed at last, our cannons went off like beer bottles at a tavern, most of the U.S.S Bounty's cannon ball and chain shot mix hit the Aquilla's mast, some missing completely. Then, the ship fired it deadly cannons, hitting ours and ridding my of nearly a quarter of my men and parts of the ship were being blasted through. The remaining men manned the lower deck cannons and the upper deck ones. With my command to fire, our cannons rang through the air with chain shots and cannon balls flying everywhere. hitting the Aquilla in every mast and on its starboard side. When we were reloading, the Aquilla decided to fire at us. This time striking all of my men except me and Murray out into sea. Me and Murray looked at each other, it was up to me and him now. This was our chance to beat up the Aquilla even more instead of just sitting her like ducks! Murray went down to the cannons on the upper, bruised deck and shot them one by one, each hitting the ship in different places. The Aquilla was pulled against our ship by the fearsome current below us. Then the rival ships mast came down, locking her mast onto our ship. Suddenly! Ropes and planks from the enemy ship smacked onto the U.S.S Bounty. In bunches, the British red coats piled onto our ship. Murray fought them one by one, but the swarms were getting larger and larger so I took a sword that was lying on the deck and jammed into the wheel to make it stay in the same place for a time. I hopped from the railing and stabbed to red coats in the back. Murray took a beer bottle from a box and smashed the bottom half on the ship's mast. We stood back to back as the Red Coats circled us just as they did Murray,
"Just like old times, ain't it Arlen?" said Murray, with a smile sprouting on his hairy face.
"Just like old times!" I said smiling as we switched sides, each killing at least 2 or 3 Red Coats at a time. Me and Murray's arms locked as I swung him around my back, Murray's pistol and feet hitting a man each time around. Suddenly a thick Red Coat dodged Murray's attack and socked him in the side of the face and pulled him away from me, "Murray!" I shouted as English men in golden incrusted coats pressed onto me. I threw a flintlock pistol his way. He caught it and shot the brute in the gut. He fell onto his knees and then face planted onto the floor. Then suddenly our ship and the British war machine broke apart from the change of current, snapping the rusty iron sword which held the wheel in place. The entire ship tugged east, making Murray trip and fall off the ship- with the help of an accidental shove from the rival- and the British ship's mast broke off completely and sent half of the Aquilla's crew into the salty water to drown.
"Murray!" I screamed when my hands were free for the moment, but as I saw his arm on the side of the ship I knew he was okay.
"Captain! The wheel! Get it!" he said, struggling to get up.
I ran to get the wheel, once I steadied the wheel and pulled it back on course, a Englishmen walked over to my comrade and put his foot on his arm and another on his fingers.
"NO!" I screamed furiously. This time I snapped a piece of railing and jammed it forcefully to hopefully make it stay longer, I sprinted over to the corrupt man (Who was obviously last on the ship) and choked him from behind with a rope. We tumbled on the soaked deck vigorously as it began to rain even harder. He got me off by grabbing my head and throwing me over him. I ripped off his red coat when I was catapulted onto my back. The man got up, so did I and we battled with our fists. We exchanged punches until we were both bloody and bruised; I remembered I had an extra pistol in my pocket for emergencies, I took it out and held it up to the man's chest. The man had no weapons on him.. all were in his coat. The man's eyes widened as he life flashed before him. I pulled the trigger and watched the man fall over into the sea. I lowered it, put it back into my pocket and ran over to Murray who was holding on for dear life. I helped him up with some difficulty,
"Are you alright Murray?" I asked, I looked around at the ship. It was in horrible shape.
"I'm fine Arlen.. come on let us finish this once and for all." he said, jogging over to the last and untouched cannon. He shot it once and with luck, the vacant Aquilla snap and sank into the middle of the current. I jogged over to the wheel that was torn up by the weather and took the railing out of it. To my luck, the U.S.S Bounty spun quickly back to the direction of port.
As soon as we were into it, we were out of it. Murray and I escaped with our lives once again, we've fought for the Americans the past few months and the king of England will do anything to see us killed and mounted up on his wall. But, God has been with through the times that we battle and he has blessed us with victory every time. Now me and Murray are headed to New York to repair our ship and get some food and shelter for a few days.
"We escaped with our lives once again Arlen, when will our luck run out?" asked Murray as he tied up the life lines, and tied up the sails.
"When God destroys this blasted planet." I replied, I started laugh at all the suckers that would die on Earth while he'd be in Heaven with my king. "Have you ever thought about going to church Murray?" I asked lowering the anchor as we entered New York Harbor.
"No Sir, don't have time for such religion. I think it's pointless." he said as he threw out the last dead crew member into the sea (Luckily no one saw).
I was greatly offended by Murray's opinion, "Well don't blame me if you wake up in hell sometime!" I hollered to him but he was already out of the ship and tieing it to a post.
"Baaahh!" he said, when it comes to religion, Murray's a mule about it. "Come on! Let's rustle up some grub!" he shouted, motioning his muscular arm to follow.
I nodded and hoped off the bow and onto the dock, "I've got 80 pounds for food, where do you want to go?" I asked him, patting my pant pocket.
"How 'bout the bar? It's full of tough men like us, not to mention the women!" he said, his hairy face showing a grin. Murray may look scary but he's as soft as a puppy... when he isn't fighting that is.
"Alright Murray, we'll go. But we won't stay there long, I have to find a good hotel. We may stay here in New York a while if our British fellows don't find us first." I said following after him. Down the alley and around a corner was a tavern, but as we spotted a clump of British solders; we hid behind a wall and waited for them to pass. Then once it was clear, we darted into the tavern undetected.
"Boy are we lucky! We slipped right past 'em!" said Murray with an eager look on his face, "I'm gonna get us a couple of drinks, ehy Cap'n?" and with those last words he darted over to the counter. I wandered around looking for an empty seat, from left to right people kept staring at me. I stared them back curiously, then I spotted my old friend Adande. He was another one of the men who escaped with us when we rebelled against being apart of the British allegiance and they're evil plans. But Adande was actually from Africa, not England. Once Adande spotted me, he sat from his seat with his slightly yellow teeth showing.
"Ah! Arlen! Good to see you old friend!" said Adande as he went in for a hug, I hugged him and realised a bit embarrassed by the hug, "Where is Murray?"
"It's good to see you too Adande! Murray's just ordering some drinks for us." I answered, staring back at Murray who was greedily piling up on Beer. I grimaced in disgust, I never did actually drink. Though everyone wanted me to.
"Oh good! Come sit! Sit with us!" said Adande as he sat with a couple of his American buddies in the corner. I sat next to Adande as Murray came over with drinks for everyone.
"Here you go mates! Eey! Adande, nice to see you!" said Murray with big smile on his face as he shook the African man's hand.
"Good to see you too Murray! Long time no see!" he said with a grin.
SUDDENLY! The windows of the tavern shattered and gun shots rang through the air and a sound of an angry mob was outside. At once me, Murray and Adande went outside. We saw that a civilian was shot on the ground and several English solders stand with their fancy rifles and bayonets poking at the civilians to make them stand down.