Richard Castle and the USS Santa Barbara
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Except for the true parts, this is fiction. Rating: K, mostly. Time: The turn of the 20th Century.
The boarding party, led by Castle, swarmed aboard the passenger ship.
"There doesn't seem to be anyone at home, sir." Lieutenant Smith whispered.
"We'll find them soon enough." Castle replied.
He divided the boarding party in half. One half moved down the port side of the ship and the other down the starboard side.
"Captain Castle!" A familiar voice called to him.
He looked up onto the Santa Barbara and saw Miss Beckett. She was with Orlovsky and a Marine who was hobbling after the two. Castle guessed it was Marine Private Collins. All were armed with their rifles.
"There's a passageway just ahead of you and there are a dozen armed pirates waiting for you. You should…"
What she was going to say was cut off by a burst of fire from just ahead. The three on the Santa Barbara returned the fire and in a split second, a dozen armed Chinese poured out onto the deck and charged Castle and his men. Castle fired his pistol into the mob with his right hand and parried a sword thrust with his own sword in his left hand. Before he could run his opponent through, he was shot by Lieutenant Smith.
"Any one hurt?" Castle asked when the last pirate was down.
"Tommy's been hit, sir." Said a sailor.
"Ah, away wi' ye. T'is but a scratch." Tommy replied. "I'll be fine, sir."
Castle moved forward and looked quickly down the passageway that ran across the ship. All he saw was a Marine quickly glancing at him.
"All clear?" he asked.
"All clear, sir." Came the reply.
"We'll check inside. Post lookouts on the deck so we're not surprised."
They came to a wooden door. Castle listened and was sure he could hear noise on the other side.
"There's someone on the other side." He whispered to Smith. "I'll kick in the door. Be ready for anything."
Smith nodded and checked the men. They nodded as they had heard their captain.
Castle kicked in the door and rushed through, pistol and sword at the ready.
Ahead of him he saw a man ready to swing a club at him. He almost fired before he saw the man was tall, bearded and was wearing a suit and turban.
"Don't!" Castle yelled.
The man managed to stop the downward swing of his club, which Castle saw was a table leg.
"Hurrah!" The man cried. "The Royal Navy is here. We're saved."
Looking beyond the man, Castle saw a dozen or more men armed with makeshift weapons, and behind them was a mob of frightened women and children.
"Not the Royal Navy." Castle said with a grin. "I'm Lieutenant Richard Castle, US Navy. I'm the captain of the cruiser USS Santa Barbara."
"Our American cousins." Said the tall man. "Welcome." He snapped off a salute, British fashion, palm outwards. "Allow me to introduce myself. Subedar Ranjit Singh, 35th Sikh Infantry, Retired."
Castle returned the salute.
"Where are the rest of the passengers and crew?"
"We're the first-class passengers." Singh replied. "We were herded here because the pirates felt we could be ransomed. I fear some of our number were not taken alive. As to the officers, I fear for them. They were taken to the bridge, which is that way." Singh pointed towards the bow. "I think they may be dead. As to the rest of the passengers and crew, we have no idea."
"Sir," Smith said, "we can arm the men here with weapons taken from the dead pirates. I know I saw a couple of modern rifles and a Winchester shotgun back there."
"Good idea. Gather weapons and ammunition and bring them back here."
"Sir, Tommy's bleeding. A lot." Said a sailor.
"Ah, dammit." Said Petty Officer Thompson. "I bloody well am."
"Get him back to the ship." Castle ordered. "Thompson, we'll give your rifle and ammunition to Subedar Singh here."
"I'm not familiar with the weapon. "Singh said, examining the rifle.
"It's a Navy Lee Rifle in 6mm. It has a straight pull action, you just pull the bolt straight back and then push it forward. It fires from a five-round clip, like this." Castle held up a clip." When one clip is gone, just push the next clip in. The safety is here and is now on. Push it down to fire."
"A wonderful rifle, Captain. And may I ask about your pistol? I don't believe I've ever seen one like it."
"This is a Colt automatic pistol. I bought it in Hong Kong. The .38 caliber Navy revolver I was issued doesn't seem powerful enough to stop a charging Moro in his tracks. This is also .38 caliber, but it's a more powerful cartridge. The rounds are held in a magazine in the butt." Castle removed the magazine and ejected the round in the chamber. "The recoil pushes this slide back, which ejects the spent cartridge and when the slide goes forward, it seats a new cartridge in the firing chamber."
"I shall have to purchase one myself." Singh said.
"I bought eight spare magazines." Castle said. "That was all they had. If you keep them loaded, you can reload in seconds. Speaking of that, I need to reload some of the magazines."
Castle reloaded.
"Let's go see about the ship's officers."
They moved through the passageway headed to the bridge. The officers' quarters lined the passageway. All were empty and all had been ransacked. Finally, they arrived at a steel door that led to the bridge.
"No kicking this one in." Castle said. "I'll open it on three and we'll rush in."
His men nodded.
"One…two…three."
They burst onto the bridge, but they were too late. The officers were dead.
"My God!" Said Castle. "It looks like they were tortured to death."
"I'm sure they were." Said Singh, pointing to the back of the bridge. There were two safes. The smaller one was open, the larger one was not. "The purser told me that the smaller safe was for the passengers' valuables and that he and the captain had the combination. The larger safe was used by the company to transfer valuables. No one on the ship had the combination. I imagine the pirates didn't believe the officers when they said they couldn't open that safe."
"We'll check the rest of the first-class cabins. Mr. Singh, where are the other cabins?"
"The second-class passengers are one deck below us and below that is the cargo area. The engine room is in the stern, I believe it's called."
Castle led them back to the first-class lounge, where the former prisoners were.
"Are the officers all right?" A man asked.
"No. Not at all." Castle said sharply. The man seemed to understand.
They went down the passageway with the first-class passengers' cabins. In one they found a dead man with a pistol in his hand. Only one round had been fired.
"That's Mr. Orsini." Singh said. "Italian. I'm not sure he understood enough English to understand the pirates' orders."
They moved on, finding more bodies. One was in a blue uniform.
"Was he an officer?" Castle asked.
Singh shook his head.
"That was James, a steward. I don't think he'd reached age twenty yet."
When they got to the end of the row of cabins, Castle stepped into another lateral passageway.
"Miss Beckett, it's me. Don't shoot."
"We'd never do that, Captain Castle." She called back.
He stepped out onto the deck and saw Miss Beckett and six men, all wounded in some manner, and armed with rifles.
"We're going below to check the second-class cabins and then the hold where the cargo is. You keep an eye on this side of the ship and I'll detail a party to watch the other side. Got that?"
Miss Beckett saluted,
"Aye, aye, sir."
The second-class section was worse than first class. There were bodies everywhere.
"I suppose the pirates thought there'd be no ransom for these people and just killed them." Singh said, and then stopped. "Wait a minute. I haven't seen any young women among the dead. I know there were some as I heard two young ladies speaking Urdu as I came aboard. Quite pretty they were."
They searched the cabins until they came to one that was locked.
"Open up. You're saved. We're the US Navy."
He heard some crying and sobbing from behind the door, but the door itself remained locked.
"Mr. Singh, would you care to try?"
Singh spoke through the door and finally got a response. It took several minutes, but finally the door opened and a young Indian woman stuck her head out. She looked at Singh and said something. Whatever Singh said in reply must have reassured her. She opened the door and a dozen or more Asian women came out.
"We'll take them back to the lounge where they'll be safe, then we'll check the cargo hold and the engine room." Castle decided.
Once that was done, they headed below deck to the hold. They found nothing. As they came through the water tight door to the engine room, a shot bounced off the bulkhead. Castle fired three quick shots with his pistol and then came in, followed by his men.
A dozen Chinese men were standing by the boilers, wearing rags and pointed at a doorway leading upwards and yelling in Chinese.
"Do you think they might be pirates, Mr. Singh?" Castle asked.
"No, pirates would be better fed than these chaps. I'd say the pirates are headed to the deck to try…"
He was cut off by the sound of gunfire. Then there was silence.
"Ahoy! Santa Barbara!" Castle bellowed. "What happened?"
"Captain, the pirates ran out on the deck. We shot them, but Miss Beckett has been shot."
"Badly?" Castle asked, very worried about the woman.
"I don't know, sir. We've sent a runner to Lieutenant Hawes."
"I'll be coming back aboard with some passengers. We'll need some of the ship's boats to check the collier."
In minutes, Castle was back aboard his ship. The first thing he saw was Miss Beckett, laying on the deck, bleeding slightly from a wound to her chest or perhaps abdomen.
"Where is Lieutenant Hawes?" He demanded.
Orlovsky snapped to attention.
"Sahr, he look at Miss Beckett and say he has worse wounded. Stomach wounds, chest wounds, head wounds. He say he'll be back."
"Oh, let me look at her." Said a voice from behind Castle.
The speaker was an elderly, grey haired and rather stout English lady.
"My name is Mrs. Maude Trelawney and my husband and I've been spreading the word of God to the Chinese for over forty years now. In my time, I've had to patch up many a wounded body, and soul, as well." She stared at Castle. "You're the American captain, aren't you?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well, you can assist me." She looked up and Orlovsky. "I'm sure this fellow would like to help, but I can't say as he looks like he has any gentleness in him. Keep the idle curious away while your captain and I help the lass."
Orlovsky looked at Castle, who nodded. Orlovsky began moving people away.
"Now, lass. What's your name?"
"Kate. I'm Kate."
"Kate, I'm Maude. Now in my case here I have a wee bit of laudanum. It's the juice of the poppy dissolved in alcohol. I only have a wee bit left, so it won't knock you out, I fear, but you'll be relaxed."
"Fine." Kate said and drank the small amount in the bottle.
TBC