Chapter 12
27 December 1659 = Saturday
After taking Christmas day off where I didn't much get outside my own cabin for reasons, I finally sailed the Saucy Mare out of Saint Eustatius on Friday. I called a meeting and pitched my idea for getting more crew before engaging the English but too many of my original crew thought they could handle things with just twenty one people, or maybe they didn't want to share the plunder. Problem was my rank of captain wasn't as all encompassing as I wanted it to be and I really only had power when a fight was underway or about to start.
So it was that on the next day after rounding the island on which Nevis was located that we spotted sails in the distance that I was truly in command again as we tacked in behind the fleeing ship. As we followed along I had the helmsman keep us a few points off the fleeing ship's line to better catch the wind. The other ship itself kept an almost dead into the wind direction that made it impossible to follow directly which is why I kept my own ship a few points off line as I figured to nearly catch up to the ship before turning into the wind and lay her irons briefly before coming out of it on a better course to intercept.
""McGregor!" I called and brought my first officer in close and handed him the spyglass. "What do you make of that English ship?"
"I'll be," he said as he looked it over with the spyglass. "A Royal Sloop?"
"See her cannon?" I asked him, having already noted the ship's heavy cannon count myself and felt fear run up and down my spine at the disparity between a well-fielded warship and what I could muster. "I count ten on her one side. We barely field six."
"Bloody hell," he swore as he lowered the spyglass and handed it back to me. "I don't recommend this one, sir. Not one bit."
"I agree," I said as I looked at the ship again, watching as it's sails briefly billowed in the wind before filling out again as it flirted with laying itself in irons before coming away to regain the wind. It also meant we were catching up fast as my ship had a good sight on the wind but it just felt wrong. What kind of fool sailed so into the eye and not just close hauled it?
"They're turning!" the man in the crow's nest called and I looked again. Sure enough, as the sloop came off her last flirt with the irons, she kept turning to show us her starboard cannon which were suddenly eclipsed by gray smoke.
"Down!" I called as the first round of cannon sailed overhead with a whine. "Helm! Three points to starboard, give us a broadside!"
"Aye," Ming called before he turned us to better fill the sheets as my crew readied the cannon to fire.
"Fire and keep firing!" I shouted as we lined up with the sloop, noting they were already working on reloading their cannon and getting ready to slug it out with us. My cannons roared a response to the enemy ship and watched the ship for damage. I noted our shot also tended to be low, but one round hit the railing of the enemy ship to blast a few crewmen into oblivion.
"Good shot!" I called as the men quickly set to reloading, the two nearest me at the rear were commanded by Ping who called out in sequence the reloading order, placing the fuse as soon as the powder was rammed home before beginning to aim it while calling out the orders to reload the other. Between the six men Ping used on the two cannon, the little fire snapper kept the two cannon roaring even as he adjusted his shot and then with a snap I could almost hear, watched as he dropped the main mast on the deck on top of the cannons to stop them cold for a time.
"Hard to port!" I called to Ming who turned the ship towards the nearly disabled sloop and we began closing the distance fast. With nearly a mile between us, I had to figure they would get one more shot off before we closed enough to board and for once I was glad to be wrong. Our ships collided with a crash that knocked several sailors still struggling to stand back to the deck to start over again.
"Charge!" I yelled as I jumped the railing to land on the enemy vessel and engage the crew directly, the crack of a gun nearly bringing me up short as I saw a man who was cocking his piece jerk as if he'd been slapped. I ran the man through to stop him cold, looking back to see Meredith taking a musket from a triplet as the other two reloaded.
"Give 'em hell!" Meredith shouted as he lined up again, the crack of his weapon dropping a redcoat that had just sliced through one of my sailors and would have been headed for me next.
"Form a line!" I called as a thought hit me as Meredith dropped a third sailor, his brothers apparently fast at reloading. "Form a line! Let Meredith shoot them all!"
Shang shouted something guttural and the Asians with him all quickly formed up a battle line on my right while my left struggled a bit. The redcoats looked perturbed as another crack sounded overhead, then roared as they tried to charge through lest Meredith actually shoot them all whilst they waited. The fighting turned bloody for what seemed like hours, and more than once I found myself nearly swinging on a friend as the fog of war was thick in this battle. Still, when the fighting died down, I counted those still standing to find seven men left of my crew, the rest laying on the bloody deck and not moving.
"Ping!" Shang yelled as he searched the deck for his fallen man, finally finding him near the broken mast with a bloody gash turning his dark hair red. Shang shook the man, who seemed to come around and was helped to his feet as there seemed to be nothing majorly wrong with him other than being knocked out during the fight.
"Search the dead for wounded," I told them as I looked around, finding Meredith and two of the triplets helping the third to his feet. The injured one favored his leg, probably injuring his ankle during the fight and would be fine if that was all that was wrong. "Take our wounded to the Saucy Mare."
"I can work," Ping protested and I nodded.
"Then work," I agreed with him. "You may feel tired soon, but don't go to sleep. Understand?"
Ping nodded, then he and the other Asians began to move among the crew looking for wounded. I joined them, Meredith and the two standing triplets joining us as we checked the dead, finding we had been rather thorough and deadly in taking the new ship.
After checking for other wounded and coming up empty, we began readying the dead for burial at sea and throwing them over as soon as the final stitch was sewn taking easily the rest of the day to complete with just the nine of us, myself included. Once our grisly task was done and with the destroyed mast tossed into the sea, we had cleaned ourselves up as best we could before sitting to the officer's table together to discuss our next move.
"We donna have enough men to sail both ships, do we?" Meredith asked me.
"We could field one smartly enough," I confirmed for him. "The Saucy Mare is in great shape all things considered. The Surprise, on the other, will need some extensive repairs due to several ribs being broken near the water line. She'll hold fine until port, but I doubt she could take another ship in the meantime. That could take weeks to complete."
"What are your intentions, then," Meredith asked me pointedly.
"Personally, I'd rather have the larger ship," I told the lad who scoffed at the idea.
"We easily outgunned her," Meredith countered.
"No, he outgunned her," I said as I pointed to Ping who looked scared as I pointed at him. "Most excellent shooting, by the way."
"Most welcome," Ping said, realizing I was paying him a compliment and not angry with him. "Shang taught me well."
"If I had time, maybe could have taught better reloads," Shang mused but shook his head. "Too little time and training."
"Next time, we'll make time," I said in agreement.
"I say we put this up to a vote," Meredith said as the triplets backed her up. "The Saucy Mare or the Surprise?"
"We follow him," Shang said as he nodded to me. "I failed to follow orders once and can never go home."
Ping said something in his native language that sounded supportive as he put his hand on Shang's shoulder as the larger man bowed his head. The other Asians with him seemed equally supportive of their leader and I wondered what had transpired to make Shang defy orders and leave with four men in tow who stood ready to die at his command.
"So we take the Surprise then," Meredith said as he realized the vote was against him and sagged in defeat. "A month wasting away in port."
"Eight men together could easily sail one ship," I said as I recalled our earlier argument. "Really only takes one to get anywhere."
"One?" Meredith asked me. "Ye'd let me have the Saucy Mare?"
"Call it an equitable parting of the ways," I responded. "I take Shang and his, the Surprise and half the loot taken to date while you and your brothers can take the Saucy mare and the other half. We part ways here and you can head back to port to collect your own crew and start your own life as a privateer. I'll even write a letter explaining you didn't mutiny and take the ship to protect you in Saint Eustatius if you intend to go that direction."
"The Surprise and her extra guns means that much to ye?" Meredith asked me and I nodded in agreement as I remembered the fear that had gripped me in this last engagement and knew that it was only Meredith's shooting and the strength of Shang and his men I hadn't been taken prisoner or outright killed. I had let myself get lured too close and felt rather foolish.
"That and the knowledge to use them," I said as I looked at Shang and his men and wondered how fast a well trained crew could fire off a ten gun broadside with a full crew and decided it was fast. "I'm one mast down so I won't be able to keep up with the Mare back to port, but I'll get her back and fixed up.
"So this be it, then," Meredith said with a nod.
"This is it," I confirmed as I extended a hand. "Agreed?"
"Agreed," Meredith said as we shook hands.
"Shang, you and your men grab your personal belongings and transfer them to the Surprise," I told him as I stood from the table. "Meredith and I will split the loot then I'll bring my own items over later."
"Yes, sir," Shang said quickly as he and his fellow soldiers filed out of the officer's mess leaving me alone with Meredith and his brothers who rose with me and followed me down to the loot chest where I opened it up and Meredith and I began to separate it equally into different chests. Once we had it loaded, Hamish helped me carry it over to the Surprise where I posted Chien-Po on it to protect it from theft while I went back for my personal items.
With the ship clear and free, and wanting to make sure Meredith didn't get greedy and take the rest of the doubloons, I my crew weigh anchor in the night and set the main sails as we headed west and away from Nevis. It would also prevent any adventurous captain from happening on us in the dark and made it safer for us in the long run the further from Nevis we stayed, then I turned us back towards Saint Eustatius with the sunrise.
It was two days later before I returned with the Surprise to Saint Eustatius, all of us dog tired from being up for days with little to no sleep and glad to be safe at port. The Mare was nowhere in sight making me wonder if Meredith had angled for Saint Martin or taken it to Nevis, a possibility given that she was Scottish and not a wanted felon there like I was.
Still, as we tied off the Surprise and raised the last of the sails, I was just glad to be docked again. Megara was running towards the dock as a gangplank was tied into place, running up to embrace me with tears in her eyes.
"I thought you were heading for Saint Martin," she finally told me when she let go. "I was so worried."
"Crew decided to head south to Nevis," I told her honestly. "Their mistake."
"Mistake?" she asked then looked at the five Asians lined up along the rail. "Where's the rest?"
"Besides the four brothers whom survived and left in the Mare, dead," I said and Megara paled so I took her in my arms again. "I got lucky this time, which is why I came back in the bigger ship."
"I just don't want to lose you like I did Hercules," she sobbed into my shirt.
"I have no intentions of leaving for at least a month," I told her and she looked up at me with curious, tear filled eyes. "The Surprise needs a few ribs repaired and I figure that'll take at least a month to properly replace. Until then, I have no ship to sail on."
"Then you'll need a place to stay," she said with a hiccup as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "If we're going to be husband and wife, you should stay with me when you're home."
"I didn't want to impose," I told her with a smile.
"You're my husband," she said decisively. "It's only right."
"Alright," I said, then gave her a kiss on the lips which she returned.
"Now, about these five kids I've adopted..."