2. Jolly Roger
"Calling John Beckwith!" the admiral declared. Jacqueline stepped forward along with another man.
She glared over at the other man, wondering if his name too is John Beckwith.
"Two John Beckwith's?" the admiral asked
The other John nodded his head and Jacqueline followed his lead.
"Well that cannot do! Aboard this vessel there can be no confusion when giving orders!" the admiral exclaimed.
"What do you suggest we do, sir?" the other John asked.
"You! Sir!" The admiral pointed to Jacqueline, who stood stiffly and strongly before the admiral.
"Yes, sir!" she recalled back, deepening her voice.
"Your age, lad!" the admiral demanded.
"Eightee…Nineteen, sir!" She replied back, almost forgetting that John's birthday had passed a few weeks ago.
"And your age, sir?" The admiral asked the other John.
"Thirty-three, sir!" he responded.
"Then you, John," he gestured to Jacqueline, "shall be called Jack, and you," he pointed to the other man, "shall be called John, so to avoid all confusion! To your stations!"
Jacqueline and John broke and went to stations. At her station, Jacqueline could not believe that she was finally on the naval ship headed south to the Caribbean port called Port Royal. She was ecstatic, but could not show it. It had taken her many months to complete her naval training, and much skill thoughtfully planned out to avoid her gender being revealed. She never thought she could pull it off, but she did. John must be on her side with this, she thought to herself as she hauled her tack line.
"That's a fine tack line, Jack," the Captain said as he walked past her.
"Thank you, Captain," she replied with a deep voice.
"Tell me, Jack, is this your first voyage?" the Captain asked.
"Indeed it is, sir. I've just only just finished my naval training this month," she responded.
"Well how good it is to have fresh crew members aboard this ship," he said as he walked by her. Looking down at the railing of the ship and her tack line, she smiled.
"Thank you John," she whispered to her brother, who she knew could hear her. As she said he name, she felt a small tug at her braid on the back of her head. She turned around and no one was there. She knew it was John—he would always pull on her hair when they were kids.
Still smiling, Jacqueline finished up her other tack line and awaited orders from the captain.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
The journey to Port Royal was a long one. Jacqueline hadn't realized how long journeys aboard ships were until her very first, aboard this very navy ship.
"Sir! News from the Caribbean!" the admiral announces to the Captain. Jacqueline was standing at her post, tying her tack line when she heard the admiral giving the Captain news he had received from a merchant ship they had just passed coming from the Caribbean.
"What's the news, admiral?" the Captain asked, glancing over at Jacqueline who was not really within hearing distance, but he did not know she could hear every word that came out of the admiral's mouth.
Jacqueline just looked away, pretending to tie her tack line, but listening intently to the admiral's news.
"Lord Beckett of the East India Trading Company has been blown to smithereens along with his ship the Endeavor by pirates, sir," the admiral explained.
"Pirates," Jacqueline gasped aloud to herself.
"Well, we'll be watching then for pirate flagships as we enter Caribbean waters then," the Captain replied.
"But sir—we're practically in Caribbean waters," the admiral explained.
"I know that, admiral—we've just about entered Caribbean waters at midday. I see us falling port in Port Royal by tomorrow morning," the captain replied.
"Should we warn the crew to be on alert for pirate vessels?" the admiral asked the captain.
"No. Don't stir up anything until a flagship is in sight," the captain ordered.
"Aye, captain," the admiral replied.
Jacqueline just stared intently at her tack line, absorbing the information at hand. She couldn't believe that pirates had blown up Lord Beckett's ship! How crude and yet what power!
Piracy always seemed like such a duality to Jacqueline. There was such cowardice involved with being a pirate—men that felt the need to reject society, too afraid to stand up and fight for their beliefs within society so they had to run away and break the law out in the Caribbean. And yet—with such strength vigor do they succeed in their piracy.
Jacqueline couldn't pin point how she exactly felt about pirates—how she would feel about them if she was actually in a place to meet and talk with one. As a loyal sailor in the Royal Navy, she knew what her duty and stance towards piracy was, but her own personal stance still remained a mystery to her.
"Jack! You've been staring at that tack line for twenty minutes now! Come on, man! Make haste!" the admiral shouted at Jacqueline. Startled, she jumped and then turned to face the admiral.
"Terribly sorry, sir! I'm almost done," she explains, trying to steady her voice when there is suddenly a loud crash as she shipped swayed back and forth.
"Captain! It's the Jolly Roger!" a sailor screamed from the stern of the ship. Jacqueline and the admiral both spin around and see a Jolly Roger hoisted proudly above a ship with black sails.
"Man the guns!" The captain ordered, "To your stations, men!"
Jacqueline ran immediately to her station, but another blow from the pirate cannon blew the ship to another side, knocking Jacqueline to the ground. Crawling on the ground as the ship rocked back and forth, she made it to her station just as the pirate ship pulled up alongside the navy vessel.
"Prepare to board!" she heard the pirate captain shout to his crew as she glanced up from the ground.
The pirates aboard the ship, rogues, the lot of them, were clad in raggedly clothes, and the pirate captain wore a large hat with a huge feather plume coming out the side.
"How ridiculous they look," she said aloud to herself, "what do you think, John?" she smirked as she asked her brother. She could almost hear his carefree laughter at the situation. Knowing her brother's stance on how he would feel during a pirate attack gave Jacqueline the strength she needed to get to her feet and fear not the pirates at hand.
She reached to her side and drew her cutlass, waving it at every boarding pirate who came her way.
Jacqueline was fierce with the cutlass, but not fierce enough to fight off the pirate captain's crew. To her dismay, the naval ship was quickly taken over by the pirates and she was given two options by the captain of the pirate ship.
"Ye can join me crew, or ye can join Davy Jones's Locker," he told the sailors of the navy. Jacqueline wasn't about ready to die just yet—yes she missed her brother, but she still had to live out more of his life for him yet. After all, she was twenty-two (nineteen as her brother) and had many more years ahead of her to live.
"I'll join," she declared loudly to the pirates. She could almost hear her brother's laughter that she was now turned pirate on her first journey with the Royal Navy.
"Ah, the first one," the captain snickered as she went aboard the ship with black sails that hoisted the Jolly Roger.
A bunch of other sailors joined the pirates with her while the others opted for death.
The crew attempted to take the navy ships supplies, which to their dismay, weren't many left due to the fact they were almost at their destination. They mustn't be far from Port Royal, Jacqueline figured as the ship set sail.
Leaning over the railing, she watched the navy vessel sink into the clear Caribbean waters.
"What a shame, sinkin' such a nice vessel," one of the pirates said to Jacqueline. She looked quickly at the balding man standing beside her.
"Aye," she replied deeply.
"Me name's Pintel," the man said to her, holding out his hand for her to shake. She quirked an eyebrow in amusement and shook his hand.
"John Beckwith, but the navy sailors called me Jack," she replied.
"Jack, huh?" Pintel ask with a grin, nudging his friend with a wooden eye, "Ragetti, this lad's name be Jack,"
"Jack, really?" Ragetti asked, popping in his eye.
"Aye, Jack," she responded with a nervous smile.
"The monkey's name is Jack," Pintel pointed to the monkey on the captain's shoulder.
"Ah, I see," she replied with a nod of her head and a grin.
"Hoist the Jolly Roger! We're comin' up on another ship!" Pintel suddenly declared. Jacqueline leaned over the ship's railing and saw another merchant ship and immediately her heart sank for them.