Captain Kate in the Caribbean
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: We all know by now who owns Castle, right? Rating: K Time: An AU 18th Century.
The Moon was down as the Revenge approached the captured slaver, but the crew must have been more alert than Kate had hoped. When they were only a few hundred yards from the slaver, one cannon shot was fired.
"Damn! They've seen us." Kate yelled. "That's a warning shot to the pirates on shore."
Ryan looked at their foe through his telescope.
"They're lowering one of the ship's boats. I doubt there are more than ten men in it."
"Bring us alongside of her as quickly as you can." Kate barked.
Soon they were close enough to throw grappling hooks onto the slaver and pull the Revenge alongside. Kate and a wave of boarders poured onto the ship.
The boarding party spread out to see if any of the slaves, or the crew, were aboard. Suddenly there was a musket shot from the stern.
"What happened?" Kate yelled, heading towards the stern with her rapier in one hand and a double- barreled pistol in the other.
One of Kate's men stuck his head out of the passageway leading to the captain's quarters.
"Don't worry none, Captain. T'was only Old Bill shooting his reflection in a looking glass. A fine big one it was, too."
It was soon apparent that the ship was abandoned.
"We'll wait for dawn and then land." Kate decided.
The sun was just above the horizon when the landing party set off. All of the Irish troops went and as they were rowed ashore, someone began playing a flute and the men sang The Galway Shawl softly. Many wondered if they'd ever see Ireland again.
Queen L'Anie's warriors also went as Kate hoped that she would be able to talk to the slaves and tell them that they were now free and ask them to help find the treasure. In any case, seeing Africans fighting alongside Kate's men should put the Africans at ease.
The rest of the men were taken from both the Revenge and the Witch of Endor, leaving each ship with enough men to fight off any hostile ships until Kate and her men could return.
The boats landed on the beach of Santa Isabella with no problems. Kate formed her troops up and began the trek inland. They didn't have far to go.
"There they are." Castle said. "There can't be more than a hundred of them. We outnumber them two to one and a bit more."
"But they're pirates, lover, and they know they'll be hung if they're taken. They'll fight to the death."
He glanced at his wife.
"You could have gone all day without mentioning that."
Before anyone could say another word, the pirates fired a ragged volley and charged, screaming and waving cutlasses and boarding pikes. Two men standing near Kate were thrown backwards by musket balls.
They could hear Lieutenant O'Donahue's voice above the screams.
"Make ready. Present your musket! Mark your targets, lads." O'Donahue waited until the pirates were no more than twenty yards away before yelling "Fire." The volley, plus the firing by the less disciplined other men, nearly halted the pirate's charge. Before they could recover, Kate's people were upon them. The pirates either fought to the death or to the point where their wounds wouldn't let them fight. Kate tried to interrogate the few survivors, but they either knew nothing, or were too badly wounded to talk.
"The slaves they took are still chained up over there." Said Lhamso Thondup. "We should release them and tell them they are free."
"Queen L'Anie, see if you can speak with any of them and someone find some blacksmith's tools so we can get their chains off. Esposito, send back to the ships for some food and some well-watered wine. They look like they could use it."
"Mother." Alexis said. "One of the chained men is not African and I do believe we know him."
Kate walked over to the chained slaves and found one man she did know.
"Long John Slaughter. How did you end up here?"
Slaughter laughed.
"Captain Kate Beckett. Are you still with that doctor fellow, or did you find you needed a real man?"
"He's all the real man I need, but you didn't answer my question."
"As they years went by, I got more desperate to get back to Santa Isabella and find the treasure. I drank a bit too much and talked a bit too much and the next thing I knew, that devil Bracken had me chained up like a slave. Said if I cooperated, I could have a few coins and keep my head on my shoulders."
"And you decided to be a slave?"
"I decided to run, but he caught me. Didn't trust me much after that."
"Do you know where he is?"
Slaughter shook his head.
"He kind of got out of the habit of sharing his plans with me."
"Are the slaves who were here when last we were here still about?"
"Probably. I know Bracken sent a patrol into the jungle. There were some musket shots and then nothing. No one came back and no one would go after them to see what had happened."
Kate's people got busy removing the chains from the now ex-slaves and telling them they were now free. Through Queen L'Anie, Kate offered the freed Africans gold in exchange for their help in digging for the treasure. To her surprise, they declined the gold.
L'Anie explained.
"They know what gold is and its value, but they say that gold is only good to trade with white men and the white men will steal their gold and make them slaves again. They want muskets, powder, shot and flints. And the cutlasses and what not the dead pirates left behind."
"How many are they?"
"A bit more than three hundred. All adults. There are no children here."
Kate nodded. "We've taken muskets, powder and shot from every ship we've taken and I can see an outcropping of flint from here. We can give them three hundred muskets, but they'll get the powder and shot when we leave. They have no reason to trust white people and that means I don't trust them."
L'Anie spoke to the leaders of the Africans, who didn't like the proposed deal, but accepted it.
Next, L'Anie walked to the jungle and called out to the people there. She explained who they were and why they were there, and said that they would take no slaves, but would leave weapons behind with the other Africans. There was no reply, although they did occasionally briefly see people in the jungle.
Alexis worked out where the treasure ought to be based on Long John Slaughter's description from years before and both races began to dig. They dug in shifts which allowed Kate to feed the former slaves and let them sleep comfortably without chains about them.
By the end of the next day, they had gotten through the layer of lava and began finding topsoil and burned trees. But, they found no treasure.
Alexis did a few more calculations.
"I think we need to dig about fifty feet to the south." She finally said.
It took another full day, but they finally found the remains of a wooden chest that had apparently been filled with gold coins.
"The coins have been melted into one solid mass." Kate said, looking down into the pit. "We'll need to rig a block and tackle system to lift that out. I'd estimate there's three cubic feet of gold there, or about a ton and a half."
"Mother, "Priscilla said, "we can melt the gold down into smaller ingots with equipment we have on the ship. Shall I get busy?"
They found five more the remains of five more chests of gold coins and two chest containing various golden artifacts that were all melted together. The next chest seemed to be gold, but looked a bit odd.
"It's not gold." Castle said. "It's electrum, an alloy of both gold and silver. Occurring naturally, it's called electrum, but it's referred to as green gold when it's smelted."
"It doesn't look green." Kate said.
Castle shrugged. "I didn't name it, you know. I'd imagine the chest was filled with both gold and silver objects which were melted by the extreme heat."
There were three more chests which had been filled with silver coins that had melted together and another chest filled with melted silver plate. They also found two chests of jewels that had melted gold and silver on them. They were doubtlessly the remains of expensive jewelry. Last, and perhaps least, was a chest that had contained pearls. The pearls were not as resistant to heat as diamonds, rubies and emeralds and had mostly been destroyed. A few at the center of the chest had survived.
The gold, silver and electrum were all melted down into ingots and the jewels were packed into new chests. Then they were sent out to the Revenge and the Witch of Endor. As each boat returned it brought a cargo of muskets and the last boats brought powder, shot and flint.
Going back to the Revenge, one boat stopped at the slaver to set her alight. As the ship burned, the Africans on the shore cheered and danced.
Kate had Long John Slaughter brought before her.
"Since you were a help, both times, I've decided to reward you with two bars of gold. However, we'll put you ashore at the first opportunity."
Slaughter grinned.
"Can't trust yourself around me, right?"
Kate smiled back.
"Right. The temptation to throw you to the sharks would be too much for me."
"Aw, you don't mean that do you, sweetie?"
"Try me."
"There's a small colony of British log cutters around the Rio Hondo in Central America. You can drop me off there. It's not that far."
"Behave yourself, Slaughter, or you'll get dropped off sooner than that."
Slaughter just laughed.
That night, after dinner, Kate met with her family and her advisors.
"We have no idea where Bracken is. He could be halfway to India by now, or any of a hundred places. Does anyone have any ideas where to look?"
Everyone was surprised when, after several minutes of silence, Lhamso Thondup was the one who spoke.
"I fear I know little about pirates, but I find it odd that Bracken would leave such a valuable treasure with a group of pirates, obviously not the most honest of people, and a ship. Would he not be afraid that he'd return and find his treasure and the slaver gone?"
"Few pirates can navigate, Mr. Thondup." Alexis said. "It is a difficult science to acquire. If he made sure there was no one left on Santa Isabella who could navigate, he might feel safe enough to leave."
"But would he not only leave because of something very important?"
Kate nodded.
"But what could be so important that he'd leave that treasure behind?"
"Perhaps powder and shot."
Kate smiled.
"If he had a ship full of treasure, he'd surely want to be able to defend it. The way rumors fly about the Caribbean, every other pirate, and ships from every navy would be after him. What was the name pf the Spaniard in Vera Cruz that Bracken went to when he wanted to purchase powder and shot?"
"Don Antonio Feliz y Paredon." Said Alexis. "We really should pay him a visit."
"Easier said than done." Castle replied. "One does not simply sail into Vera Cruz. It's the main port for all of New Spain and all the silver that comes from the mines in the interior, plus everything else that is sent to Spain. After being sacked by pirates several times, they built defenses for the city, including the fortress of San Juan de Ulua, one of the most powerful in the New World."
"I may know a way to get in." Kate said.
TBC