CHAPTER NINE: A SIMPLE ACT OF PIRACY

Will and Sparrow made their stealthy way to the mostly-intact docks, where the only two ships left were the Dauntless and the Interceptor. The latter was currently being loaded with supplies, to set out on an attempt to find Elizabeth, no doubt. The former was sitting near-abandoned, with just a few men on its deck. Will assumed that was the one they were taking. He couldn't help feeling a bit daunted by this, as there was no way that he knew of of two men crewing the man o' war. "We're going to steal the ship? That ship?"

"We are going," Sparrow told him, "to commandeer—nautical term—that ship." He gestured at the Interceptor. Before Will could ask how they were going to accomplish that, the pirate gazed at him, looking, for once, deadly serious. "One question about your business, boy," he slurred slightly, "or there's no point going. This girl—how far are you willing to go to save her?"

"I'd die for her!" Will replied fervently.

Sparrow appeared happier at this. "Oh, good."

— — — —

A. N. At this point in the film, Jack and Will put themselves under a boat and somehow use it to form an air pocket—fifty feet underwater. I'm skipping over this, because it makes no logical sense (the Mythbusters soundly busted it), and I don't want to have to try to come up with a logical explanation for it. So, let's continue, as our heroes clamber aboard the H. M. S. Dauntless.

— — — —

Gillette and the men were a bit surprised when the pirate they'd caught only yesterday, along with a lad of about eighteen, appeared on the deck of the Dauntless. This surprise increased a fair bit when the boy drew a cutlass and Sparrow yelled, "Everyone remain calm! We are taking over the ship!" in a voice that was clearly meant to induce anything but calm.

The boy, however, managed to break the tension. "Aye! Avast!"

Gillette, along with the few Marines with him, laughed heartily, while Sparrow threw the youth a nasty look. Gillette, smirking now, addressed them. "This ship cannot be crewed by two men. You'll never make it out of the bay."

The pirate matched his smirk and tugged something from his belt. There was a clicking noise, and Gillette found himself looking down the rather uncomfortably close barrel of a pistol.

"Son," the pirate told him kindly. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow!" He waved the pistol a bit, nearly catching Gillette on the nose. "Savvy?"

Gillette looked first at the pistol, then at the pirate, then at the pistol again, and decided that, compared to how much damage the port had suffered already, certainly one solitary man o' war couldn't be that much of a loss...

— — — —

Norrington knew nothing of this incident; he was observing the loading of the Interceptor, the vessel they'd be using to (hopefully) find his (undecided) fiancee. The first knowledge of it he had was when shouts began issuing from the harbor.

"Sir! Sparrow! He's taken—"

Norrington's gaze shot up as soon as he heard the word Sparrow. He ripped open his small telescope and snapped it up to his eye. There was the Dauntless. But what was that floating away from it?

Gillette and his men, in a lifeboat. Oh, for the love of God. Norrington moved the glass to look closer at the man o' war, and saw Sparrow and Turner attempting to steer the ship. Turner was flapping a rope, Sparrow was gesturing madly, and both men were shouting, it appeared.

The commodore suppressed a smile. "Rash, Turner. Too rash." He shook his head. "That is without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of."

— — — —

Will was thinking much the same thing on his end. It just might work, but then again, there was every bit of evidence that it wouldn't. Well, at least we aren't stealing this ship, or we'd really be in for it.

The Interceptor was sailing now, heading straight for them. Will blew out a nervous breath. "Well, here they come."

Jack took a look at the smaller ship, and grinned.

— — — —

As soon as the Interceptor took up position alongside the Dauntless, the men were setting up ramps and clambering aboard the man o' war. Sparrow and Turner had vanished somewhere. "Search everything, every cabin, every hold, down to the bilges!" Norrington barked, and the men were rushing every which way.

After about thirty seconds, Norrington wondered where the two could be hiding, and how they could possibly hope to avoid capture. This thought was cut off by a loud splash.

The commodore whirled around, only to see, to his utter horror, Sparrow pushing the ramps into the sea and Turner taking a small hatchet and cutting the ropes that attached the two ships. The Interceptor immediately began to pull away, and Norrington, in that instant, realized that they'd never intended to take the man o' war.

"Sailors, back to the Interceptor, NOW!" Norrington bellowed, but it was far too late; it wasn't for naught that the Interceptor had earned a reputation as fastest ship in the Caribbean. One sailor tried to swing over, but missed by a good fifteen feet and landed in the sea.

Sparrow waved his hat merrily, grinning madly. "Thank you, Commodore, for getting us ready to make way! We'd 'ave had a hard time of it by ourselves!"

The Marines opened fire with their muskets, taking chips of wood off the Interceptor's sides, but missing the two men entirely. Norrington growled. "Set topsails and clear up this mess," he told Lieutenant Groves, disgusted.

"Sir, with the wind at quarter astern, we won't catch them!" Groves protested.

"I don't need to catch them, just get them in range of the long nines!" Norrington barked.

"Come about! Run out the guns!" Groves shouted. "We are to fire on our own vessel, then, sir?" he asked Norrington.

"I'd rather see her at the bottom of the ocean than in the hands of a pirate."

"Commodore!" cried the helmsman. "He's disabled the rudder chain, sir!"

Norrington suddenly had a strong, unprecedented, and unequivocally bad feeling about this.

There were cries of "ABANDON SHIP!" from the lifeboat just before the out-of-control man o' war plowed into her.

Norrington shut his eyes tight and bowed his head, as the Interceptor became a mere speck on the horizon. When Groves spoke, he sounded awestruck. "That's got to be the best pirate I've ever heard of."

Norrington ground his teeth together. "So it would seem."