Chapter 2: 1742 Port Royal

An unearthly silence lay above the bay and although the storm still troubled the sea, other forces seemed to affect round the "Flying Dutchman".

The strange greenly shimmer enwrapped the ship like Saint Elmo's fire as a forerunner of severe weather.

Will had let set full canvas, which let no doubt on the fact that he would have only little time for possible explanations and that he was intended to stay at the water surface.

Curious eyes followed Jack and Caithleen when they hastened through the night to get as soon as possible down to the bay.

They were both soaked to the skin again when they finally reached the pier.

No one was to spot aboard the "Dutchman" but this was neither inconvenient nor alarming. The handful of souls, who decided to stay aboard to fulfill their taken oath although they were released meanwhile and therefore free, did their work mostly unnoticed and with ghostly swiftness.

The ship was able to cover unlike farther distances than every other vessel on earth sailing the seven seas. It was very fast especially against the wind and normally it follwed those poor souls who were threatened to die at sea.

Will already waited for Jack and Caithleen when they got aboard. His face showed unease and concern and even if a lot of rumors said that the Captain of the "Flying Dutchman" was forced not only to sacrifice his heart but his feelings as well, Jack had no doubt that the young man was struggling with something very important.

"Have to give you your due, William Turner, you couldn't have appear within the bay much more spectacular than you have done this time. Within the face of our honorable Davy Jones the tentacles would have knotted by a sight like this, I swear! But while having a look into your face, mate, I suppose you're not here only for your or our pleasure, Aye?"

"No, you're right! I need your help, Jack. And", Will hesitated for a moment: "I need your compass once again!"

Jack gazed at him thoughtfully. When he gave the unimpressive but extraordinary valuable treasure away the last time it was for only one reason: to catch the greedy and power-obsessed Lord Cutler Beckett within the trap he wanted to set for those who finally vanquished him.

He couldn't imagine what it was being so important that it needed his unique compass to solve the problem of the boy once again.

"Tell me, mate, what is it that troubles the Captain of the "Flying Dutchman" that much that he is convinced my inimitable sense of the extraordinary wouldn't be enough to help him? Eh?"

"Elizabeth is in danger!"

"Ah! I see! But that's nothing unusual, isn't it? So why do you believe it will make it easier to save her by using my compass this time?" Caithleen pushed an elbow to his side but he only looked at her and said: "What? All I want is to understand what's going on, love. At least you should know that our young Captain here and his beloved Pirate King brought me into trouble more than once. True or not?"

"This time it's not only about Elizabeth! You will know what's meant if you'll see it. To shorten it at the moment: it's all about Port Royal!"

"Whow! One moment, mate!" Jack stared at him with wide open eyes: "Don't you think you're overestimating my skills in this case?"

"Jack, Port Royal as you might remember it, doesn't exist anymore!"

Jack and Caithleen changed an alarmed glance. What ever it was Will wanted to tell them, the tiredness upon his face told its own story – all he said was meant dead serious.

"You want to tell us the town is destroyed?" Caithleen had some problems with bringing this guess over her lips: "Who should be interested in doing that?"

"There is more than one way to accomplish something like that, dear child!" Bill Turner had joined them: "An earthquake sea wave erased most of the town within only a wink."

"Supposedly you haven't even noticed it within your well protected bay", Will added: "but a seaquake shattered the sea ground and Port Royal got hit by its tails as well as by the sea wave. Think you'll understand now, why I'm in need for your help?"

Jack nodded: "I understand! But why are you that certain I could be able do anything?"

"Contrary to me you're allowed to go ashore and I trust you to be able to find Elizabeth wherever she might be."

"Well then, Will Turner. You brought my girl back, so it seems I owe you something."

Within only a few moments the "Flying Dutchman" was ready to clear the port again and while Will went up to take the helm to sail her through the narrow passage to the open sea, Caithleen whispered: "Do you think this is the reason why the Dutch isn't already back?"

"Difficult to say, love! As long as I've no idea which course he sailed, I don't want to speculate about his fate."

"But how is it possible that we did not perceive anything of what happened? For sure Port Royal lies some days afar from our isle, but not far enough not to miss such a quake."

"Maybe it's true and our little island is really surrounded by something magical – who knows."

"Do you think we will have a chance to find Elizabeth?"

"If she's still alive..."

"What if she's not?"

"We'll think about that if it's not avoidable any more, love."

Caithleen only nodded. She leaned against the rail and kept silent for a while. At least she asked: "How is she?"

"Elizabeth? Think you will like her! She's strong-minded, courageous, clever and stubborn! She resembles you in a lot of aspects..."

When the "Flying Dutchman" sailed into the bay of Port Royal about two days later, the sight the crew aboard got to behold let them doubt for a moment that it could be true.

The once buzzing town, the heart of piracy, from which the infamous Henry Morgan used to sail with his fleet and which had been a lively garrison later on used by the English to hunt for the last pirates within the Caribbean Sea, wasn't recognizable anymore.

What had not been destroyed by the seaquake itself, got wiped out by the following quake sea wave. The water masses had befallen the town wide up to its back country and let a lot of the already damaged hoses tumble down entirely or just washed them away. The tremendous sway of the water hurled several fishing boats ashore and let a handful of merchant ships which lay for anchor within the bay capsize. Several houses were aflame, one of the defense walls protecting the garrison did collapse and a part of the governor's palace had simply vanished.

Aboard the "Dutchman" no one wanted to answer the question how many people might have died within this catastrophe.

"Poor devils! No one deserves to die this way." Caithleen digressed, eyes filled with horror. She shivered while thinking about the fact that most of the people had been fast asleep when the horror had taken them by surprise midst the night. Her gaze still mirrored her feelings when she asked: "Is there nothing we can do?"

Jack embosomed her and answered with a tired smile: "No, love, I fear we have to capitulate this time. All we can hope is that Elizabeth found a way to hide within a safe place."

"How shall we find her if we don't know where start searching?"

"With this, love!" He turned the compass over to her: "It's unique"

"And it never errs!" Will added with a severe face: "Try it!"

Being half distrustful and half curious Caithleen opened the little box and beheld the needle which rotated round itself for a while, finally stopped and did not point north but towards Jack.

She frowned: "Well, Jack Sparrow, what's the secret about this?"

"What is it you're desiring most, love?"

Caithleen looked at him and suddenly she understood.

Jack continued: "This little wooden box is our only hope to find Elizabeth Turner amongst all the debris and the mess. And only Will can tell us where to start our search. So don't let us waste time any more, Captain Turner!"

The little cottage where Jack and his crew left Elizabeth back then when they dropped her in Port Royal after having vanquished Becektt lay next to the bay. It had been washed away by the waves entirely. Only some of the foundation walls remained and tested to the fact that once a house did stand there.

Caithleen tiredly wiped her face with her hand. She did not know any more how long she and Jack searched for the young woman who obviously meant everything for Will Turner. It troubled the young man that he was doomed to stay deedless aboard his ship and she knew there was only one reason why Jack was willing to betake himself to this place which was more or less only a debris field yet: his friendship with Will Turner.

For sure he would never admit it but she knew Jack Sparrow only too well to doubt this for only one single moment.

"Where do we go from here?" She asked and had an undetermined look around: "It's nothing left to do here for us."

"Don't think she stayed here."

"So what do you think where to search instead?"

Jack hesitated for several moments then he grasped for his compass. He avoided Caithleen's inquiring gaze as long as he was able to, then he said: "For a while I thought, if I would take Elizabeth... Well, I thought she could have been the one who could have replaced you..."

"I see! Why didn't you do it?"

"What?"

"Seduce her?"

"It would have been a mistake, for I do not love her..."

"To hear something like that from you is absolutely remarkable!" Caithleen let her gaze sink into his eyes: "I'm not a fool, Jack Sparrow, as little as you are! Do you think I'm not in the know about all those nights you haven't slept alone? Do you really think it will change something about what I feel for you? If you think so, I'm wrong and you are a fool!"

She smiled and within this moment at this place where nothing else but death and destruction surrounded them he got aware what it really would have had meant to lose her.

"Come on!" She grasped his hand: "Let's search for the girl ere it's too late. No one knows what else might possibly happen to this place."

He had a rapid look at the compass and although he wasn't sure if he really could trust in it in this case the direction it pointed to was clear: the garrison!

While they searched for a way through the leftovers of the town, ruins, debris and clefts barricaded their getting ahead more than once.

All over the place were helpless and embarrassed people wandering about, searching for some of their belongings within collapsed buildings or graving for entombed loved ones with bare hands. Again and again weeping and moaning told Jack and Caithleen that all effort had been in vain and that only dead had been found under the debris.

The soldiers of the garrison tried to help where ever possible. The same time they used their best endeavors to arrest pillagers and predators.

The young pirate couple which was on its way up to the garrison, covered with dust and dirt seemed not to represent a danger.

No one noticed Jack and Caithleen when they stumbled up to the battlement over displaced steps, ripped floor plates and collapsed caverns as well as through a labyrinth of corridors and stairways.

"Never thought of breaking into the prison of Port Royal, love. Hope it will be as easy as it was to get out of here once."

With some effort Jack succeeded to pry a totally twisted and distorted door open.

"Do you think she flew to one of the cells?"

"It's what I would have preferred to do. They lie high above the bay and obviously the fortress sustained much less damage than every other building of the whole town."

He paused and turned round. The view down from the battlement to the town left even him speechless.

The water still remained knee-deep within the lanes. Where once the market place had been a cleft gaped and about two-thirds of the lovely frame houses in which once everything had been domiciled – from little dwellings over brothels and taverns up to several dens of thieves and gambling dens – had been razed to the ground.

"I should be glad about having been presented with a second life, but if I see what happened to the inhabitants of this place I doubt if I deserved it." Caithleen whispered.

"Never dare to say something stupid like this again, Caithleen Stevens!" Jack perched himself on the wall and dragged her into his arms: "Port Royal had once been the most corrupted and ill famed pirate hideout round the Caribbean Sea. It had been the English who settled lots of privateers and buccaneers within here until they needed them no more. The glorious Henry Morgan himself, who wrote down the Code of the Brethren Court back then, turned against his own companions at last and hunted for them round the whole Caribbean. He betrayed all he once believed in, his aims, his companions and even himself. Maybe this town got what it deserved in the end! But be it as it may, Caithleen Stevens, you're a courageous piratess and you're not corrupt. So you deserved this second life more than anybody else! Please never doubt this again!"

"And I always thought I'm already in the know about everything concerning you, Jack Sparrow."

"Oh, I don't hope so, love! At least I'm not entirely in the know about you as well. And – be honest, girl – don't you enjoy it as much as I do, to find out what we still do not know about each other...? I enjoy it every night I spend with you, love..."

Author's note:

Port Royal was destroyed by an earthquake and a following Tsunami in 1692. About 2000 inhabitants of the town died due to the catastrophe itself and it's supposed that about 3000 people died later on due to epidemic plagues. The once most infamous pirate hideout of the Caribbean never again reached its meaning.

(Tip: Alexandre Exquemelin: "The Pirates of America")