Chapter 10: Return Part I


After a long journey across the Atlantic, the rest of Sparrow's fleet made their way up the Delaware Bay, then onto Valley Forge. February 24th, they arrived at Valley Forge, just a day after their passenger. Their departure from France had brought with them a man from the Prussian army, and a group of men accompanying him. He spoke no English, but his French was better, and thankfully, so was AnaMaria's. The man was Baron Frederick von Steuben, and he came highly recommended from Doctor Franklin and Congressman Deane; however, some of the claims were a little stretched. Von Steuben had only been a captain in the Prussian Army, yet Franklin's letter of recommendation read the following:

"The gentleman who accompanies this letter is the Baron von Steuben, who honors us from his position of service of the King of Prussia, whom he attended in all his campaigns, being his aide-de-camp, quartermaster general, and lately achieved the rank of lieutenant general..."

Apparently, the baron had been somewhat uncomfortable with the notion, but Doctor Franklin was quoted to have said, "Nonsense. Never knew a military man to turn down a promotion."

"Indeed," had been Admiral Norrington's amused response to reading the letter; "Only Doctor Franklin would have the brass for something as hare-brained as this."


Baron von Steuben was very vocal in his training of Washington's army, training them how to march, how to think, how to act, even demonstrating himself on occasion. The man had no trouble in making a fool of himself, so long as it got the point across. As the month of March progressed, both the soldiers' performance and his English improved drastically.


As the winter snows and the month of April receded, the Army got ready to go to war once more.

One day, Jack Sparrow was approached by General Greene. "Admiral."

"General." Jack mimicked the seriousness.

The mockery in Jack's tone cracked the stone face that Greene wore into a grin. "Come, Jack; sit." He did so. "We have something to ask of you."

"Whatever thine heart desires, my dear General," Sparrow said eloquently.

"Dear, dear, you have spent too much time around Colonel Morgan," Greene shook his head as his brow came to his hand.

"One can only hope my own mannerisms rubbed off on him," Jack said as he slowly sat up.

Greene shuddered at the thought; the absolute last thing they needed was Daniel Morgan becoming a replica of Jack Sparrow.

"No matter. What is it ye would like of the Pearl and me fleet?"

Eternally grateful that Sparrow had ceased with his impression of Daniel Morgan, Greene spoke. "We'd like to send some of your fleet back to the Caribbean; the Royal Navy has been building up a presence there in your absence, and I fear that Tortuga may have slowed in its recovery. We'd just like you to do the usual routine."

"Raid, pillage, plunder and otherwise pilfer our weaselly black guts out."

"Sinking a ship or two wouldn't hurt either, although it'd be better yet to capture them and deliver them to us."

"Well, I shall definitely have some people on that; in fact, I'll do it meself; I'll leave you James Norrington and a few other ships."

"Good, then. So who ends up where in this merry debacle of yours?"

"Oh ho, and I'm the one that's been around Daniel Morgan too long."

"No, this is you rubbing off. I'd appreciate it if you suppressed the urge to corrupt every Continental soldier you come across."

"Fine, fine, if you insist."

"I do. Back to the subject at hand, then..."


"James Norrington will remain here with an assorted fleet to guard the American coast to the best of his abilities. He will have under his command the Britannia, the Implacable, the Valiant, and the Flagrant. You will report directly to Colonel Morgan, Generals Greene, Washington, and Depp."

"Hold on. I get to give Jimmy-boy orders!" Depp was quite gleeful at the prospect.

The same could not be said for James. "I'm doomed."

Jack stared at Depp. "John, if you're unreasonable in your orders, he gets to pick out your wardrobe for a month."

"I'm feeling better already," James said.

"The rest of you shall be coming to Tortuga with me. Apparently, the Navy has been building up a sizeable presence there, and we need to remedy the situation. Once they've been fairly routed, we'll return here. Everyone clear on their orders?"

"Inescapably clear," came the response from the assembled group.

"Alright; let's go." This time, without prompting, the group departed.

As they did, Jack turned, and stared out the Pearl's cabin windows at the colonies for what would be the last time in several months. Then he turned and went to work.