Chapter 2

Katherine awoke to feel the ship rise and then sink what must have been ten feet, leaving her stomach behind.  Other people had been woken by the storm, the roaring of the wind, waves and rain battering against the ship was deafening, and the ship that had felt sturdy only hours before now made her feel like she was sitting in a child's toy.  Katherine could not help but be terrified that they would never see the other side of the storm, whilst living in Portsmouth she had heard weekly accounts of ships sinking and sailors perishing.  The noise of the storm grew momentarily louder as one of the sailors dived down below deck.

"We suggest, ladies and gentlemen, that you all stay down here for a while, just until the storms calmed down."

Katherine agreed with the sailor, but didn't think a single one of the passengers had the slightest inclination to go up on deck in this weather. At least they were only two days away from Port Royal.  Land had been spotted late yesterday afternoon and the sailors knew the area and could tell them when they hoped to sail into port, assuming they got a good wind in the right direction. The journey had been long and they had been more than lucky not to have at least one illness travel round the passengers and crew.  Katherine was almost out of food supplies and would be glad to reach dry land.  A collective gasp was heard from the passengers as they rose over another giant wave, tossing positions and people across the small area in which they had been living.

Throughout the morning the storm raged on, and it seemed like it would never end, until at lunchtime they noticed that the storm seemed to be dying down and by mid-afternoon the world around them seemed eerily quiet, apart form the occasional howl of the only baby that was on board.  Finally, the sailor that had spoken to the earlier returned to tell them that it was safe to return to deck.  Most people used the opportunity to stretch their legs, having been hauled up below deck all day.

Katherine headed to the bow of the ship with Mary, the only other girl her age that was on the boat.  She was heading to America with her mother and younger brother to rejoin her father, a naval sailor.  Once they got into Port Royal, Mary and her family would be heading off further up the coast to a town called Salem.  Standing on deck, the pair watched the land draw slowly closer in the dimming light.

"It's like a whole new world, isn't it," Katherine said, turning to Mary and breaking the silence between them.

"Well, that's the point, isn't it?  A whole new start."

"Yeah, I guess," replied Katherine, retreating back into her own thoughts

"You'll find him, don't you worry," Mary replied, reading Katherine surprisingly well.

"What will I say to him if I do?  Hi, I'm the daughter that you didn't know existed?"

"You can't give up now, you've come all this way."

The mist started to fall, obscuring the land from their vision.

"Let's go back down below, we could do with some sleep before we reach land."

Katherine followed Mary back towards the door that would leave them back down below.  Turning to have one final look round, Katherine thought she glimpsed something large making its way out of the dense mist that surrounded them.  She strained her eyes, but was still unable to identify the shape.  She called to one of the sailors,

"Can you see anything in the mist?"

"Where," said the sailor, looking up from the rope he was tying.

Katherine pointed in the direction she had seen the dark shadow.  The sailor strained to see in the mist, and let out a gasp as they saw the bows of another ship emerge.

"Pirates," the sailor yelled, his voice resonating down the ship.

Katherine heard a sudden flurry of activity as sailors started producing pistols and those passengers who had been below deck came rushing to the surface.

Jeers could be heard from the other ship as it emerged from the mist with black sails and the small flag a top the mast identifying them as pirates.  The passengers huddled in silence, unsure of what to do, while the sailors stood, all with pistols pointed at the vessel that was pulling alongside the ship, a sign of the pirate's arrogance that they hadn't even fired their cannons.

"FIRE!!!" came the call from the captain, and the sailors fired a small hail of bullets into the boarding pirates, though few actually hit their targets.

The passengers were still stood around in silence, scared and shocked.  Suddenly the cry of "RUN, HIDE" went up around Katherine, bringing her back to her consciousness.  Panicking with the rest of the passengers, she started to run towards the other end of the ship, whilst trying to think of somewhere to go, but the ship was tiny, and there weren't really any suitable hiding places, especially for all the passengers.  Knowing this, Katherine continued to fight her way forward, to be as far away as possible, but on the ship no one could get nearly as far away as they wanted to.

"'Gotcha," cried a deep voice in her ear, and she felt her feet leave the floor as she was picked up by the waist, before feeling herself being chucked onto the deck of the neighbouring ship.