Disclaimer: see chapter 1
Author's note: Malacca is modern-day Singapore and was in the hands of the Dutch for over two centuries from 1641. This of course makes the line in the movie a tad inaccurate. But "Obviously you've never been to Malacca" would have fallen a bit flat, wouldn't it?
----
"I reckon," Elias said thoughtfully, "that lass likes you."
Jack tied a knot with nimble fingers. "Eh?"
"The lass," Elias repeated, gesturing down below them to where Anamaria was slowly swabbing the deck, her eyes drifting upwards. "I reckon she likes you."
"What lass?" Jack asked, moving closer to the mast and gathering up another fold of sail.
Elias sighed deeply, tying a knot on his side of the mast and moving in himself. "What lass d'ye think? How many lasses are there on this ship?"
"She's not a lass," Jack said, furling the next section of canvas. "She's just ... she's just the cabin boy. We're friends, savvy?"
"I mean," said Elias patiently, "that she fancies ye, lad. Look at her. Can't take her eyes off you."
"Oh," Jack said. "You sure, Elias?" He sat astride the spar and took hold of the nearest sheet, ready to start climbing down. "But she's just a lass."
"You're just a lad," Elias said, tying his last knot and glancing sideways at Jack. "Not unheard of, two young folk your age together."
Jack swung his legs over the spar. "We're shipmates, Elias, nothing more."
Carpenter shrugged. "I still reckon she likes you."
Shaking his head, Jack climbed quickly down to the deck, where he grinned amicably at Anamaria. She returned his smile and set her head down to her work.
For a while the Black Pearl had laid low in the Caribbean, hiding off Tortuga until the militiamen stopped hunting them. Flint had then made cautious forays, and discovered that merchant ships were being escorted by the navy and that an easy raid was not to be had. At length, with the tides being right, the decision was made to sail east once more.
Jack had been sorry to see the blue waters of the Caribbean recede behind them. He had decided that he was happiest there, with the high cliffs and the tall palms on shore, and the warm sun on his face, and rum aplenty. He had no particular desire to go east again, but on the other hand he did not want to leave his beloved Pearl to join another vessel, and so he had stayed aboard under Flint's command. Some of the crew, amongst them Joffo, had chosen to leave the ship. It had been gently suggested to Anamaria that perhaps she should go ashore too, and seek out an occupation better suited to a woman, but she had laughed.
"Like those other women in Tortuga you are all so fond of?" she said. The deputation of pirates shuffled their feet and had the grace to look embarrassed. "I am not the only woman sailing the oceans," Anamaria pointed out.
"None o' the others are good luck either," someone said in an undertone.
"I am not leaving the ship," their cabin girl said, firmly, and they had given up. Jack was pleased - Anamaria was his peer, of a similar age, and they were firm friends. They argued, often and loudly, but each knew that in a tight spot the other would come through. But as the Black Pearl sailed eastwards, daring the winds of the Atlantic, he had caught her watching him more and more often.
Jack was not sure what to make of Anamaria's devotion to him. He was not oblivious to the fact that the women in Tortuga seemed to find him attractive - indeed he enjoyed their attention, and encouraged it when he could, as a pleasurable game. For his own part, he appreciated a pretty girl, but had not yet seen anyone he fancied spending more than a night with. Jack Sparrow's heart was still firmly with his ship, his home. Anamaria, however, was a different matter, mainly because she came with the ship. If Jack was aboard the Pearl, then so was she. When he sat down and thought about it, he saw that she was growing into a fine-looking woman, with long, smooth black hair and honey-coloured skin darkened by the sun, but she was still just Anamaria.
He leant now on the rail, waiting for the next order from the captain, and wondering if his friend would ever say anything to him, or if she was simply going to carry on staring at him and thinking he was unaware.
They were anchored off the Dutch port of Malacca. The voyage east had been fraught with anxiety, but free of incident - once again, the Black Pearl had been lucky. Captain Flint had scrupulously avoided any ship that could have been sailing for the East India Company, though they had cheerfully attacked a couple of Dutch East India vessels along with the usual choice of French, Spanish and Portuguese merchants. They had kept well away from the larger Indian ports, putting in instead at smaller settlements where trade proved to be excellent.
Unlike their previous time in the east, the Pearl had met two other pirate ships on this voyage. Flint approached cautiously, with arms at the ready, but on both occasions the other ships had been friendly. The captains had discussed potential for attack, and Flint learned that Malacca, under Dutch control, was an easy-going town and well worth a visit. Accordingly, the Pearl had set her sails and headed further east than she had ever been before.
"Nice place, this," O'Connell approved, looking across the water at the harbour. "Not bad."
"Not half!" agreed Elias, joining them. He pointed down below the ship, where a small boat punted along by a long oar over the stern had appeared. A strikingly pretty girl was holding up some sort of vegetable, clearly offering it for sale. The pirates waved cheerfully down at her, and she smiled back.
"Reckon they're all like that?" O'Connell wondered aloud.
"How much leave do we get?" Jack asked, watching the girl in her boat. "Ow!" He turned round, and looked, affronted at Anamaria, who had hit him hard. "What was that for?"
"Look at you all!" she said, angrily. "That poor girl - why would she want any of you?"
"Eh?" said Jack, honestly baffled. "Can't a man wonder how long he gets ashore?"
"You only want to go ashore for the girls!" she retorted. "You wouldn't leave the ship else."
O'Connell and Carpenter exchanged glances, and slipped off. Anamaria's fury remained focused on Jack.
"What if that's true?" Jack said. "I'm a man, love - I like a pretty girl." She stared at him, and he looked back and then realised what he'd said. "Oh, flaming 'eck!" he exclaimed. "Look, I didn't mean it like that, Ana."
"Didn't you?" Anamaria glared back at him with damp brown eyes. She waved her hand. "Go ashore, Jack Sparrow. Have your fun." She shot him a last, furious look and turned on her heel.
"Hell," said Jack with feeling, and went to help lower the boats.
He tried calling for Anamaria before they left, but she was nowhere to be seen. The men told him not to worry.
"She'll come round, lad," O'Connell reassured him, as they pulled away.
Jack heaved his oar through the water and did not bother replying.
The pirates found themselves a place selling the local rice wine, which was acceptable if not rum, and settled down to drink contentedly. Some of the men teased Jack a little about Anamaria, but he returned the taunts with some choice comebacks and they let off quickly.
After a while, a group of girls shyly approached the men, settled down and accepted drinks. They did not speak any English - or indeed any of the other languages which the Pearl's crew spoke - but smiled prettily and drank. The wine flowed, and the men laughed, telling tales of their exploits on the high seas. It did not seem to matter that the girls could not understand them; the stories got wilder and wilder anyway.
Jack joined in a little, but half his mind was still on Anamaria. It was only when a couple of the men left with their arms around a girl apiece that he sat up and livened up, and began to pay attention to the slim Malay next to him. More wine was ordered, and the girl pressed herself closer to him, and eventually Jack stood up and held out his hand. She smiled sweetly at him and took it.
They were wandering down the street outside, Jack letting the girl do the leading, when someone staggered out of a doorway and staggered into Jack.
"Genade," the man muttered. Jack caught him and set him straight on his feet, and the man blinked at him. "Bedankt - oy, don't I know you?"
Jack took a step back, put his head on the side and spread his hands. "Dunno, mate."
The other man, peering from behind drink-sozzled eyes, nodded. "No, I do. You're ... what's-his-face, the bird-man." Shaking his head, Jack made to move on. The man took his arm. "Nightingale. That's it, Nightingale. Eshscaped from the Castle Frigate. East India Company. Pirate."
"Don't know a Nightingale," Jack said. Then, his curiosity getting the better of himself, he added: "I thought there was no East India Company out here?"
The other man leaned in, conspiratorially. "Not th'English one. Just the Dutch. Me, I changed ships. Mush better with th'Dutch. Wanted t'be a pirate, but couldn't find a ship. So I joined th'Dutch."
Patting the man's shoulder, Jack took the hand of his Malay girl. "Good for you, mate."
"Yesh. Good for me. Nightingale, that was it. Pirate."
Jack laughed, and moved past the drunkard. The girl on his arm smiled up at him and towed him along. He threw just one glance backwards - the other man had fallen to the ground, presumably in a drunken stupor.
His girl led him to a small, neat room above a shop, and leant in to kiss him. Jack wrapped his arms round her and returned the kiss, reflecting that it was a long way since Tortuga, and how better to forget Anamaria and forget the East Indiaman but in the arms of a pretty girl.
He broke away from her, and examined her for a second. She was wearing some sort of tight jacket, fitted around her slender figure and made of embroidered cotton. It seemed to be fastened down the front, but when Jack knelt and tried to focus on the fastenings, his normally nimble fingers gave up.
The girl smiled at him again, and started to undo the top of the jacket, but Jack shook his head. He stood up, kissed her again, and drew his knife from his belt. She started, shying away from him.
Jack grinned at her, slit the fastenings with the knife, and pushed her back on to the bed.
"This is why I like coming ashore," he said, before devoting himself to the matter in hand.
Author's note: Malacca is modern-day Singapore and was in the hands of the Dutch for over two centuries from 1641. This of course makes the line in the movie a tad inaccurate. But "Obviously you've never been to Malacca" would have fallen a bit flat, wouldn't it?
----
"I reckon," Elias said thoughtfully, "that lass likes you."
Jack tied a knot with nimble fingers. "Eh?"
"The lass," Elias repeated, gesturing down below them to where Anamaria was slowly swabbing the deck, her eyes drifting upwards. "I reckon she likes you."
"What lass?" Jack asked, moving closer to the mast and gathering up another fold of sail.
Elias sighed deeply, tying a knot on his side of the mast and moving in himself. "What lass d'ye think? How many lasses are there on this ship?"
"She's not a lass," Jack said, furling the next section of canvas. "She's just ... she's just the cabin boy. We're friends, savvy?"
"I mean," said Elias patiently, "that she fancies ye, lad. Look at her. Can't take her eyes off you."
"Oh," Jack said. "You sure, Elias?" He sat astride the spar and took hold of the nearest sheet, ready to start climbing down. "But she's just a lass."
"You're just a lad," Elias said, tying his last knot and glancing sideways at Jack. "Not unheard of, two young folk your age together."
Jack swung his legs over the spar. "We're shipmates, Elias, nothing more."
Carpenter shrugged. "I still reckon she likes you."
Shaking his head, Jack climbed quickly down to the deck, where he grinned amicably at Anamaria. She returned his smile and set her head down to her work.
For a while the Black Pearl had laid low in the Caribbean, hiding off Tortuga until the militiamen stopped hunting them. Flint had then made cautious forays, and discovered that merchant ships were being escorted by the navy and that an easy raid was not to be had. At length, with the tides being right, the decision was made to sail east once more.
Jack had been sorry to see the blue waters of the Caribbean recede behind them. He had decided that he was happiest there, with the high cliffs and the tall palms on shore, and the warm sun on his face, and rum aplenty. He had no particular desire to go east again, but on the other hand he did not want to leave his beloved Pearl to join another vessel, and so he had stayed aboard under Flint's command. Some of the crew, amongst them Joffo, had chosen to leave the ship. It had been gently suggested to Anamaria that perhaps she should go ashore too, and seek out an occupation better suited to a woman, but she had laughed.
"Like those other women in Tortuga you are all so fond of?" she said. The deputation of pirates shuffled their feet and had the grace to look embarrassed. "I am not the only woman sailing the oceans," Anamaria pointed out.
"None o' the others are good luck either," someone said in an undertone.
"I am not leaving the ship," their cabin girl said, firmly, and they had given up. Jack was pleased - Anamaria was his peer, of a similar age, and they were firm friends. They argued, often and loudly, but each knew that in a tight spot the other would come through. But as the Black Pearl sailed eastwards, daring the winds of the Atlantic, he had caught her watching him more and more often.
Jack was not sure what to make of Anamaria's devotion to him. He was not oblivious to the fact that the women in Tortuga seemed to find him attractive - indeed he enjoyed their attention, and encouraged it when he could, as a pleasurable game. For his own part, he appreciated a pretty girl, but had not yet seen anyone he fancied spending more than a night with. Jack Sparrow's heart was still firmly with his ship, his home. Anamaria, however, was a different matter, mainly because she came with the ship. If Jack was aboard the Pearl, then so was she. When he sat down and thought about it, he saw that she was growing into a fine-looking woman, with long, smooth black hair and honey-coloured skin darkened by the sun, but she was still just Anamaria.
He leant now on the rail, waiting for the next order from the captain, and wondering if his friend would ever say anything to him, or if she was simply going to carry on staring at him and thinking he was unaware.
They were anchored off the Dutch port of Malacca. The voyage east had been fraught with anxiety, but free of incident - once again, the Black Pearl had been lucky. Captain Flint had scrupulously avoided any ship that could have been sailing for the East India Company, though they had cheerfully attacked a couple of Dutch East India vessels along with the usual choice of French, Spanish and Portuguese merchants. They had kept well away from the larger Indian ports, putting in instead at smaller settlements where trade proved to be excellent.
Unlike their previous time in the east, the Pearl had met two other pirate ships on this voyage. Flint approached cautiously, with arms at the ready, but on both occasions the other ships had been friendly. The captains had discussed potential for attack, and Flint learned that Malacca, under Dutch control, was an easy-going town and well worth a visit. Accordingly, the Pearl had set her sails and headed further east than she had ever been before.
"Nice place, this," O'Connell approved, looking across the water at the harbour. "Not bad."
"Not half!" agreed Elias, joining them. He pointed down below the ship, where a small boat punted along by a long oar over the stern had appeared. A strikingly pretty girl was holding up some sort of vegetable, clearly offering it for sale. The pirates waved cheerfully down at her, and she smiled back.
"Reckon they're all like that?" O'Connell wondered aloud.
"How much leave do we get?" Jack asked, watching the girl in her boat. "Ow!" He turned round, and looked, affronted at Anamaria, who had hit him hard. "What was that for?"
"Look at you all!" she said, angrily. "That poor girl - why would she want any of you?"
"Eh?" said Jack, honestly baffled. "Can't a man wonder how long he gets ashore?"
"You only want to go ashore for the girls!" she retorted. "You wouldn't leave the ship else."
O'Connell and Carpenter exchanged glances, and slipped off. Anamaria's fury remained focused on Jack.
"What if that's true?" Jack said. "I'm a man, love - I like a pretty girl." She stared at him, and he looked back and then realised what he'd said. "Oh, flaming 'eck!" he exclaimed. "Look, I didn't mean it like that, Ana."
"Didn't you?" Anamaria glared back at him with damp brown eyes. She waved her hand. "Go ashore, Jack Sparrow. Have your fun." She shot him a last, furious look and turned on her heel.
"Hell," said Jack with feeling, and went to help lower the boats.
He tried calling for Anamaria before they left, but she was nowhere to be seen. The men told him not to worry.
"She'll come round, lad," O'Connell reassured him, as they pulled away.
Jack heaved his oar through the water and did not bother replying.
The pirates found themselves a place selling the local rice wine, which was acceptable if not rum, and settled down to drink contentedly. Some of the men teased Jack a little about Anamaria, but he returned the taunts with some choice comebacks and they let off quickly.
After a while, a group of girls shyly approached the men, settled down and accepted drinks. They did not speak any English - or indeed any of the other languages which the Pearl's crew spoke - but smiled prettily and drank. The wine flowed, and the men laughed, telling tales of their exploits on the high seas. It did not seem to matter that the girls could not understand them; the stories got wilder and wilder anyway.
Jack joined in a little, but half his mind was still on Anamaria. It was only when a couple of the men left with their arms around a girl apiece that he sat up and livened up, and began to pay attention to the slim Malay next to him. More wine was ordered, and the girl pressed herself closer to him, and eventually Jack stood up and held out his hand. She smiled sweetly at him and took it.
They were wandering down the street outside, Jack letting the girl do the leading, when someone staggered out of a doorway and staggered into Jack.
"Genade," the man muttered. Jack caught him and set him straight on his feet, and the man blinked at him. "Bedankt - oy, don't I know you?"
Jack took a step back, put his head on the side and spread his hands. "Dunno, mate."
The other man, peering from behind drink-sozzled eyes, nodded. "No, I do. You're ... what's-his-face, the bird-man." Shaking his head, Jack made to move on. The man took his arm. "Nightingale. That's it, Nightingale. Eshscaped from the Castle Frigate. East India Company. Pirate."
"Don't know a Nightingale," Jack said. Then, his curiosity getting the better of himself, he added: "I thought there was no East India Company out here?"
The other man leaned in, conspiratorially. "Not th'English one. Just the Dutch. Me, I changed ships. Mush better with th'Dutch. Wanted t'be a pirate, but couldn't find a ship. So I joined th'Dutch."
Patting the man's shoulder, Jack took the hand of his Malay girl. "Good for you, mate."
"Yesh. Good for me. Nightingale, that was it. Pirate."
Jack laughed, and moved past the drunkard. The girl on his arm smiled up at him and towed him along. He threw just one glance backwards - the other man had fallen to the ground, presumably in a drunken stupor.
His girl led him to a small, neat room above a shop, and leant in to kiss him. Jack wrapped his arms round her and returned the kiss, reflecting that it was a long way since Tortuga, and how better to forget Anamaria and forget the East Indiaman but in the arms of a pretty girl.
He broke away from her, and examined her for a second. She was wearing some sort of tight jacket, fitted around her slender figure and made of embroidered cotton. It seemed to be fastened down the front, but when Jack knelt and tried to focus on the fastenings, his normally nimble fingers gave up.
The girl smiled at him again, and started to undo the top of the jacket, but Jack shook his head. He stood up, kissed her again, and drew his knife from his belt. She started, shying away from him.
Jack grinned at her, slit the fastenings with the knife, and pushed her back on to the bed.
"This is why I like coming ashore," he said, before devoting himself to the matter in hand.