Chapter 29 – Meeting the Arendelles and Taking Ships
As the days were on, I kept our heading south by south-west even when the wind favored a course heading. The first day I did that it soured the mood of the crew as they questioned my ability to sail and on the third it prompted Timon as the only officer aboard to question my sailing ability.
"If we turned due west we'd catch the wind," he told me as I watched the sails billow as they failed to catch the wind properly.
"We would," I agreed with him which made him sigh in relief but he sucked air when I dropped my gaze to him from our pennants. "Do you know which way to Noord?"
"I...don't?" he said questioningly as he shrugged. "I don't even know where it is on the map."
"Well," I said as I turned to the map and pointed it out to him. "There it is. We're somewhere here," I said as I gestured to the open water south of Saint Eustatius. "If we head anywhere off the line from here to here," I said as I gestured from Saint Eustatius to Noord, "We risk missing our target and wasting our time worse than not properly having the wind. As long as we hold our course, I can guarantee we land somewhere east of Noord and can then find my way there once we've reached land and maybe even find a ship to take from the Spanish along the way.
"Ah," he said as he got it. "We change course, we get lost."
"So we're not making the best of time," I agreed with him. "But we're not lost."
"I can handle that," he said brightly as his spirits picked up now that he understood our situation. "You given any thought how to take one of those Spanish galleons?"
"Same as we've taken most of the ships we've taken to date," I told him as he gave a nervous chuckle. "You got a different idea?"
"You don't?" he said quickly as he seemed to draw within himself as he looked uncertain before blurting out his next lines. "Have you seen the size of some of them? They all carry at least thirty guns! Some as much as fifty! And the men to use them!"
"While we have some thirty men ourselves," I mused with him and he nodded.
"For now, we'll leave the larger ships alone," I said to placate Timon who took it with a smile that he hadn't made some serious error. "We have a mission to retrieve the governor to carry on with."
With that Timon went back to the crew who relayed my message splendidly. Once it was understood I had only a tad more sailing knowledge than they did and was willing to take advice if it were offered moral improved a touch. I passed the slow, dreary days watching Esmeralda and Hilda, two of the girls Hook had kidnapped on his last run, dance as they were Gypsies used to entertaining people though they still hoped to reconnect with their kin. I even played guitar for them and sang a few songs, quickly learning that Ariel had a great ear for music and could learn a song after hearing it only once. I taught her a few duets to help pass the time when there was a lull in the dancing, if only to help keep my own sanity.
Ella and Monica were also working hard on my new wardrobe. The silk shirts were easily made, comparatively speaking, but as I was to learn it required finite stitching to ensure it lasted which of course took time. Time we had as there was nothing else going on as we sailed south through the wide open Caribbean and by the time we'd sited land and turned west had several fine new silk shirts to wear that fit my broad shoulders perfectly and gave me great freedom of movement. Trousers were quick to follow the next day and a long vest that more resembled a medieval tabard was quickly stitched together as well.
The pair promised to have me presentable to the new governor and his daughters by the time we reached Noord, though I had to wonder at their ages. Eugene appeared to be in his late forties but had been a governor for some time and his children, or child rather considering Maximus wasn't his, were both fine young men. I held out some hope that Arendelle's daughters were of age and not overly young, though we were at a time when it wasn't looked down upon to marry a girl that was old enough to bleed as Missus Capulet of Romeo and Juliet fame had conceived and bore her daughter Juliet when she was around twelve or even earlier and chewed her daughter out in one scene for waiting so long to take a husband and conceive children.
Yeah, if you paid attention to the details in the original version of old stories they were kind of gross and weird by the standards I was raised by and held myself to. Even if forced to marry, I wouldn't dream of consummating any relationship with a woman not of age and thus able to handle the changes her body would require for bearing a baby to term.
"Sail ho!" Jasmine called one morning. I left the map I had been studying in trying to dertermine our exact position to retrieve my spyglass to look over the vessel, smiling at the sight of the small single masted sloop as it left the small village I was still wondering if it was either Caracas or Puerto Cabello, but it seemed to small to be a major port and my map didn't list any of the smaller ports, not even Noord. As I studied the Spanish vessel as it left port, I knew one way to find out as I looked up to examine our pennant in the early morning breeze.
"Helm, two points to starboard," I told Ariel who smiled as she maneuvered the Scarlet Wench to catch the wind coming off the mainland. My crew gave a cheer as we began to give chase even as the small village fired off their cannon to ward me off the sloop as it turned and tried to sail into the wind and back to the safety of land.
"Cannon, sir?" Shang asked me as I looked on.
"Grapeshot," I said as we approached the ship as it struggled with the wind. Shang nodded and readied the cannons, and I watched the captain's face pale as we approached with dazzling speed. Knowing defeat was near, I watched as he turned to someone and give an order that made the other man sag in defeat as well.
"They're striking their colors!" Timon shouted to me as the Spanish flag was lowered off the mast.
"Prepare to board!" I called to stop Shang from unloading the cannon. "We take her a-prize!"
That got another cheer from my crew as we approached the vessel and tied her off on our port side. The enemy crew was quickly fleeced for coin as I retrieved the ship's log and found the port's name was Tuja and a check of the captain's journal, which was stored with the ship's log in the navigational desk, found that they were indeed rum runners on their way to Montserrat.
"Sir!" one of my crew said as he burst into the captain's cabin on the caravel where I was reading the journal. "Ship approaching!"
"Damn," I said as I left the books behind as I ran up to the poop deck to see what was going on. My crew had already made the sloop's fifteen men and boys row for shore but gaining quickly with the breeze at their back was a small ship loaded with men bearing down on us.
"Orders?" Timon asked as he looked positively sick. I looked around the sloop and it's grand total of four guns and stowed sails and the Wench's on stowed sails and knew I was between a rock and a son of a bitch, but I had no choice now.
"Prepare to be boarded!" I called as I pulled my rapier from my belt and readied a pistol. "Ladies not wishing to fight better get below! Merida, aloft with your brothers and pick off what you can!"
"The cannon?" Shang asked me but I sighed as I watched Merida quickly scale a nearby shroud, her brothers fast behind her as everyone fanned out with their swords. The angle with which the ship, a small pinnace with lanteen sails to allow her to sail into the wind with ease, was approaching meant they could board from the back with ease but as I studied the ship again a second time, realized they likely wouldn't.
"Shove the cannons back against the rail," I told him. "Load with grapeshot. And turn those other two around!"
"Sir?" a man said and I smiled devilishly.
"We can't get a shot off before they board, but by thunder we'll blow them into chunks as they come over the rails!" I called and my men cheered at having some small glimmer of hope. My own brig sat slightly higher than the sloop allowing my full broadside of grapeshot to be used as well as the men loaded the cannons and brought the full broadside down from the Wench to aim at the railing. Each pair of cannon had a gunner and the I lined up with the rest of the crew on the railing to give evidence of a fight and make them come to me as Merida picked out a few off a few at her leisure.
"Here they come," Timon said at my side as the final cannon were prepared behind us.
"Stand fast!" I called to my men with my rapier held high when I saw one of the enemy crew on the pinnace raised a blunderbuss, a musket with a flared end that was essentially a primitive shotgun and fire it. He was close enough I could hear its boom but had to turn and see when I heard a woman screech and saw Merida falling from off the boon she had been perched.
"Help!" someone cried but I couldn't worry about her at that moment.
"Hold fast!" I shouted to rally my men. "Stand together!"
"Aye," a sailor said shakily at my elbow whom I didn't recognize. With the other ship upon us, the next part went fast and to my plan. The moment the first hooks were thrown and the first of the crew swung over, I and all the men lined up at the rails ran the twenty feet across the deck and huddled by the cannons as the will to fight left the men pretty fast as they stumbled to a halt. The first wave blocked the view of the second wave enough that they stormed over the railing without thought as to why they had stopped but as soon as they saw the wall of cannon pointed at them stopped as well.
"Did they surrender?" a tall, dark haired man asked as he shouldered his way through the crowd and then stopped at seeing me leaned up nonchalantly against a cannon on the sloop. The blunderbuss in his hand gave evidence to him being the one that had shot Merida, which and whom still needed to be tended to.
"No," I said simply in the silence that followed. "Do you want to surrender or shall I give the order to fire grapeshot through your men?"
"Ah," he said as he realized why his men had stopped and looked at the twenty cannons facing his men. "Smart."
"Well?" I asked him and he shuffled for a second before allowing the blunderbuss to fall to the deck before unbuckling his sword and offering it to me.
"I surrender," he said as he hung his head. I sheathed my rapier and stepped forward to take his sword from him as everyone else dropped their weapons.
"Timon?" I called to make my only other officer step forward. "Ready a boat for these gentlemen. No provisions as port is just a quick row away."
"Aye sir," he said happily as he called a few men to help him. The boat was lowered from the front and under threat of simply blasting them all to hell forced them all to cram aboard before they began rowing.
"Secure the boats and prepare to get underway," I told my crew who cheered at having not one but two ships in as many hours. "Timon, fetch this vessel's log and the log from the pinnace and take them to my cabin. I have to check on Merida."
"Aye sir," Timon said as I climbed the ladder to find Merida leaned against the capstan, a hand holding a bloody rag to her leg.
"I be fine!" she protested as her brothers clustered around her. "I just jumped when I felt his shot hit me is all."
"Jumping out of the sheets is not a wise idea," I said as I approached and the boys fell back. "Come on."
"Hey!" Merida protested as I checked the leg for an exit wound and found nothing. "That hurts, ye know!"
"Fetch me a keg of some of the ship's spirits," I told the brothers. "I'm going to take her below to a table.
The brothers said nothing but scampered off to fetch the keg as I gathered Merida in my arms and took her below. Colette cleared the table off as I approached, her rapid French lost on me as I set the redhead down.
"Here," her brothers said as they sat a keg down on the bench.
"Tap that and ply your sister with as much as you can," I told them. "This is going to hurt."
"No more than I'll hurt you," she spat back as I forced her hand away from her leg.
"I've got to get the bullet out," I told her as the boys gave her her first cup. "The spirits will help dull the pain. Oh, and one of you might want to sit on her arms. This is really going to hurt."
The next five minutes were filled mostly with Merida screaming and cussing as I dug the bullet out of her leg, only having to open the wound a few more inches to get the bullet out. Thankfully the cloth that had been ripped from her trousers were fused to the small ball and came out with no problem so after pouring in some spirits to disinfect, Colette used a heated spoon to sear the blood vessels closed before she and I bandaged the leg closed.
"Magnifique," Colette praised as we finished up.
"You should be alright," I told the redhead who was now singing some Gaelic song I couldn't understand as she was past three sheets in the wind and was in fact a motel's worth of laundry hung out to dry.
"I'll take care of the sot," Colette told me as Merida hiccuped. "We were just in battle, no?"
"Two," I corrected her. "I doubt they have the nerve for a third."
"Captain," Timon said as he came down to find me. "We're ready to sail."
"Good," I said as I approached him and led him back up to the main deck. "Take six men with you and command the sloop."
"And the pinnace?" he asked me as I looked out over my crew.
"Jasmine?" I called and the Arabian beauty stepped forward. "Jasmine, select four and take the pinnace."
"A woman?" I heard several times among the crew and felt my blood run hot at being questioned while under threat of attack. That they had lost was beside the point.
"Silence!" I yelled to make everyone quiet down. "Yes, Jasmine. She and her husband, Aladdin, rarely if ever leave the ship and she's proven herself in a fight. She might be a woman but she will stand and fight and do as requested. It is also my right as captain and owner of this vessel to select its officers as stated in the articles and choose its course as I see fit. I choose Jasmine to lead and carry out my orders, and if she can't then I will demote her and choose another, but for now I choose her!"
With my blood running hot and clearly showing, they all backed down as they milled around and the Arabic beauty seemed suddenly unsure about her promotion. Still, I waved her over before putting an arm around her shoulders and leading her off to the side for a private talk. She seemed anxious, but she had every right to be even as Aladdin seemed watched me with concerned eyes.
"I think they'll try something," Jasmine confessed once I had stopped next to the railing.
"That just means that you'll have to outsmart them," I told her and she seemed to chuckle. "The pinnace is small and easily crewed with a handful of people. I can give you four, but beyond that it's up to you to select whom you will command and hope they will follow you."
"So I should pick people that will follow me?" Jasmine asked as she mused it over aloud as she thought my advice over. "Which means I can avoid the problematic ones in favor of those who like me?"
"My advice is to start with your husband," I told her as I caught the dark haired youth eyeing me talking privately with his wife and the war he had with himself on wanting to interject on what could be me getting frisky with his woman and the knowledge that he shouldn't interfere with officer's business. "I would have chosen him but he seems to me to lack the backbone necessary to lead people into battle and would rather please most than do his duty to the ship."
"I think I understand," she said as she sighed and looked out over the water. "I also wondered if this were an attempt to do something else."
"Well, you two could use a private room," I said and she looked aghast as she tensed up but didn't face me. I stopped Aladdin with a look and subtle shake of my head before turning my attention back to Jasmine who looked ready to run me through as she stared holes in my being. "A married couple needs their private time and you can't do that in a group. Part of being an officer is private quarters and a bed which you can share with your husband. You can't keep denying yourself leisure just to get a private moment alone."
"Oh," she said as she deflated. "I thought…nevermind."
"So, made your choice?" I asked her and she nodded then smiled as she did. "Then you better go ask those you want to follow you to get their stuff over to the pinnace. I want to get underway soon."
"Aye sir," she said happily as she turned to run over and talk with Aladdin. Their conversation was quick and he left to go get his stuff as Jasmine went next to Melody who seemed delighted to be asked before I lost sight of her as she went below to find someone.
An hour later we were underway with the Wench in the lead. The ship's log of the pinnace indicated that we were between Puerto Cabello and Caracas so with that in mind I headed just north of due west to pick up the coast north of Puerto Cabello and follow that around for a ways until we came across a stretch that extended almost due north. With that as an arrow, I aimed just west of due north and found Aruba a day later.
Two more days of coastline following later brought us to Noord late one evening where I had our ships dock on the lone and empty pier. Jasmine's four person crew seemed as chipper as the beauty herself who beamed in pride at my appreciative smile as I stepped down onto the pier as Timon docked his sloop off the pinnace and tied off then used the smaller ship like a gangplank to join Jasmine and I as I straightened my rapier.
"Orders, sir?" Timon asked I eyed the tall, thin man approaching with an apparent entourage in tow.
"Tell them they have the night for leave," I said with a sigh. "Everyone musters back at eight bells in the morning to ready the ships for the voyage to Saint Martin."
"And Sea Poppet?" Jasmine asked as she looked back to her ship.
"We'll take it with us," I told her with a smile. "I imagine the rum will bring many a gold piece at a large port."
"Admiral!" the thin man called as he stepped on the pier. I turned to face him, bowing briefly before he stopped several feet away.
"Admiral Owen Hunt," I told him as I again stood tall. "I am looking for Mayor Arendelle."
"Then I am the man you are looking for," he said as he offered his hand. "Mayor Agnarr Arendelle."
"Then pack your house, sir," I told him as we shook hands. "The king has elevated you to be governor of Saint Martin."
"Saint Martin," he said as he looked to my ships. "Then this isn't a promotion but an execution, unless you are also posted to protect the king's interests, perhaps?"
"You mean the pirate Hook?" I asked him and he nodded grimly before letting out a long sigh.
"The reports I have received do not speak well of the man and his actions," the mayor said sadly.
"Some of that which I have witnessed with my own eyes would curl the hair of lesser men," I told him which got another sigh. "But take heart, governor, the ship which Hook captained with such infamy lies before you, and though he has slipped the hangman's noose for the time being, is short a crew and a warship."
"Truly?" the man said as his eyes shot up. "You took his ship a-prize?"
"I did," I said with a self-serving smirk before sighing. "I returned him to Saint Eustatius for judgment but he escaped his cell with a few of his men. Governor Fitzherbert reported he stole a barque and made for parts unknown, likely to secure a new crew and ship but only time will tell if he will ever return to Saint Martin. I myself intend to make Saint Martin my home port and harass the English and Spanish at my leisure."
"Ah, a privateer," Agnarr said with a renewed smile. "Basing yourself in Saint Martin, you say?"
"Yes, sir," I said as I saw the shift in the man.
"Might I have a few days to pack my house and ready my family for the journey?"
"You may," I told him and he turned to regard something, likely the village, before he turned to eye the pinnace and the sloop.
"I take it these are ships you've acquired?" he asked me when he turned to face me again.
"Took them from the Spanish a few days ago," I told him. "The sloop fell first and belonged to a bunch of rum runners and the port then sent the pinnace to try and overwhelm my crew while we secured the sloop."
"We could use it, here," the mayor said as he looked at it again. "We have meat to ship and no ship is intended this way for some time. The meat it would ship would well pay back the three hundred in gold it is worth."
"Then I say we have a deal," I told him as we shook hands.
"If you will excuse me, I have to relay news of this to my wife Iduna and my daughters," he said as he turned to walk away before turning back to me. "I do assume you have some sort of finery aboard?"
"We do," I told him as I remembered all the silver Hook had on hand for his captain's table. "And a fine pair of chefs and to prepare meals, though they may want to secure some more animal's they can glean milk and eggs from."
"That we have a bounty of," the mayor said with a smile. "Good day, admiral."
"Good day, governor," I told him as he finally turned and left.
"So," Jasmine said as it was finally us. "Do I need to move back to the Scarlet Wench?"
"No, you'll stay on the Sea Poppet and command it for the time being," I said to which she smiled.
"You can have it," Timon said with a chuckle. "I'll be glad to get back to Colette's good cooking."
That got a chuckle out of me as I turned and released the crews on leave until the morning where we spent the day at ease and loading what few items the mayor sent us into the hold. The rum was offloaded from the sloop to the Sea Poppet and my new wardrobe was finally fully embroidered in gold. The red overcoat would be welcome on the windier days as my thin silk shirt did little to keep me warm as it was intended to breathe more to keep me cool and the black vest with its own gold embroider was elegant in its own right, if longer than any vest I had ever worn before as it reached mid thigh.
The only concern was my rapier which could no longer be hung from a belt prompting Ella and Monica to start fashioning a baldric to match. As I didn't need my sword at the time, I instead went to the tavern the second night we were in port in just my vest where I signed up an additional twenty men who had heard tales from my crew about my recent exploits and were eager to sign up for a share of the gold.
By the fourth day, when the mayor and I had agreed to set sail as the final pieces were loaded and the crew was settled in, I was ready to set sail for home and had the course laid out to take me back to Puerto Rico. From there it was a simple eastward plot to Saint Martin, keeping an eye out for lingering clouds to hone in the island itself and drop the mayor off to settle in whilst I continued on to Saint Eustatius to report my success and then drop by Neverland and retrieve the girls before rounding back near Saint Kitts for a ship or two before returning to land.
I also knew the best laid plans of mice and men could turn and hinge on the details, and there were many things that could go wrong. I could only hope they never went more wrong than what I planned for, and one of those was that Hook might return to Neverland even though he knew I had been there and knew it's location and might expect him to return to his old haunts. The idea of stopping by and retrieving the girls was strong and the month they wanted for harvest had almost passed and certainly would by the time I got back, but mixing the high class Arendelle family with that of girls of low reputation? That was just uncalled for.
Still, I had given my word and if I found myself close enough to warrant it knew I had to carry through on my word and return. If nothing else, I set my mind to the fact that the Arendelle family could just make room. At least they would be separated in the officer's area if nothing else and could spend time with Ariel and I on the poop deck to take in the sun if they so chose.
With that settled in my mind, I drifted off to sleep that final night and wondered what the morrow would bring.