Chapter 32 – Landfall
May 27, 1660
I spent the rest of the night, after letting Nagler relieve me at midnight, stuck with the idea that I had just earned the ire of a real goddess. It wasn't as if I could scoff and say magic wasn't real, as a resident of the twenty-first century living in the mid seventeenth, I knew for a fact it was and had even met and screwed a creature of myth and legend, a mermaid.
In the back of my mind I kept telling myself I had faced those dangers already but worry gnawed at me and kept me pacing about the ship until night faded into dawn and more of my crew began to rise. At six bells, and with all of my crew assembled, I held a brief service for the fallen men before the last grisly task of committing their bodies to the sea was performed. Even then, it took several hours for the dead to be processed, the sun rising high overhead as I stood respectfully aside to oversee the proceedings. However, I knew the moment the grisly task was done we needed to get underway.
"Go with God," I said once the last body had been committed to the sea.
"Such a grisly business," Iduna quipped as the crew broke apart to talk.
"But necessary," the governor reminded her. "If we were one day earlier, they'd have shelled and tried to ransack Saint Martin and risked the safety of our daughters."
"Probably would have taken it for the English," I added to them. "Most of them were soldiers, not sailors, but it's best we get underway. If you will excuse me."
"Certainly," the governor said as he led his family back to the Wrench. I looked around for Timon, finding him talking with Jasmine on the poop deck of the new ship.
"Captain," both of them said as I climbed the stairs.
"We about to get underway?" Jasmine asked me and I nodded.
"We should be in Saint Martin within a few hours," I told them. "We'll dock there and consolidate the crew to one ship."
"This one," Timon figured and again, I nodded.
"Take half the remaining crew to man this ship and bring it to port," I told him and his jaw dropped.
"But, surely you'd want to bring this ship in yourself?" he sputtered in shocked awe.
"Any other day I likely would," I conceded to him. "Any other day, but today I have high ranking guests that are intrinsically linked to my financial future. While I could ask them to move to this ship for the remainder of the journey, I won't impose. Besides, it may be one of the few times in your life you will ever command such a powerful ship."
"I'll get my crew together," he breathed as he still seemed to be in shock from the idea and ghosted away to leave me alone with Jasmine.
"Might as well get mine together as well," Jasmine told me as she looked over the scattered crew.
"Are you at least enjoying being commander of a ship?" I asked her before she could push off down the stairs. The question made her stop and look at me, a smile quirking her lips.
"It's been...fun," she finally admitted. "I originally thought that this might have been some ploy to get me into your bed."
"Promoting first is not a proven path to parting a woman's legs," I told her to get a harsh look from her. "If I had intended to take that path, I would have dangled it in front of you like bait until I had gotten what I wanted. Instead, I offered it to you as a gift so you and Aladdin could be together as much as you want instead of stealing time in an officer's cabin while in port."
"If we hadn't fallen asleep…" she muttered but I chuckled and it brought her up short.
"I heard you moaning while on my way to my cabin," I told her and she looked shocked. "I cracked a door to make sure it was consensual, and after seeing you and your husband, just shut the door and let you enjoy yourselves."
"I...I didn't know," she finally said though she had begun to blush. "I thought you had figured it out after catching us slipping out."
"I would have, but I didn't," I admitted as she turned away. "But, gather your crew and cast off. I'll see you again in Saint Martin."
Jasmine nodded and left, quickly gathering the four men that comprised her crew before swinging back to the Wrench as they made their way to the Sea Poppet. I ran a hand over the railing of the new ship, trying to decide on a name. I eventually settled on the Scarlet Empress, as she was ruler of the Caribbean Sea as its most powerful warship and likely would be for the foreseeable future and I really wanted to emphasize that.
A few hours later, we arrived in Saint Martin. The governor wasn't impressed with the dilapidated nature of some of the buildings and the general state of the defenses given evidence by his scowl as we docked the ship. It was only as the Empress itself docked at the end of the pier that a soldier came to check on us.
"Good day, sir!" the elderly man said.
"Sergeant," the governor said as he took stock of the man. "Where is your superior?"
"My captain died of the fever and the governor is a drunkard," the man reported. "We had a bout of fever hit the island last year and many people didn't survive, including the governor's family."
"Poor man," Elsa said at my elbow.
"By order of the king, I am here to replace him," Governor Arendelle informed the man. "If you would, sergeant, take me to my predecessor."
"This way, sir," the sergeant said as he turned on his heel to walk away.
"Father said this might happen," Elsa said as she stood there watching her father go.
"I guess he'll send a wagon?" I asked her and she nodded. "I'll have my crew begin to unpack your belongings then."
"Thank you, admiral," Elsa said as she turned to me with a smile quirking her lips. "If you don't mind, I think I'll see to my mother. She has yet to show herself."
"Take your time," I told her with a smile of my own as I bowed to her. "I'm at your service until your father says otherwise."
Elsa smiled at that before ascending the gangplank. I watched her go and disappear before turning to see Jasmine and Timon leading their respective crews towards me. With my crew gathering around, I issued orders to unpack the Arendelle's property and get it ready to load on a wagon when it arrived which did in a few hours along with a coach for the family. By dusk, all that was left was a tired crew, three ships and a lot of young girls who were gearing up for a night on the town.
"So, shall I tell them we're off for the night?" Timon asked me as he and Jasmine crowded close to me.
"Yeah," I said as I looked over the weary men and women. "Tomorrow I'll visit the tavern and do some recruiting, see if we can fill out the Scarlet Empress."
"Is that what you're calling the new ship?" Jasmine asked me skeptically.
"One of the most powerful ships in the Caribbean, couldn't resist," I told her with a smirk. "Also, I'm going to meet with the governor tomorrow and sell the Wrench and the Poppet, so in the morning, they need to find themselves a place to hang their hammock on the Empress. You two might also want to pick out your rooms."
"But Pumbaa…" Timon began but I held up my hand.
"After spending a few days in one, I'm sure there's plenty of room for him to sling his hammock over the bed," I told the man. "In lieu of the added manpower we'll need, I'm even thinking of adding to the ship's officers to better control all the sailors we'll have aboard."
"Who, uh, who else are you thinking of adding?" Timon asked me.
"I'm thinking of Shang and Mulan as gunners," I told them. "Merida as well. I've got lots of cannons to master and man and Mulan and Shang are top cannoneers and Merida is the best shot I've seen."
"Next to yourself," Jasmine reminded me but I just chuckled.
"I had a trick or three up my sleeve," I admitted to them. "We'll talk it over tomorrow evening in the wardroom of the Empress, but tonight I want the crew to pass the word of what we did today. It'll make recruiting easier tomorrow."
"You want the stories to get out," Timon said with a grin.
"The bigger and more bombastic, the better," I told him. "After this, I need to swing back by Saint Eustatius to wrap up some loose ends, then I intend to head towards San Juan and take what I can."
"Well, we're wasting time here," Timon said as he looked over the restless crew.
"Then they're off for the night," I told him. Timon gave a shout and wave and the small knot of men and women began to move off which just left me, Miss Clarion and her girls.
"I guess we'll be off to enjoy ourselves as well," Clarion told me as she approached herself.
"I'm surprised you waited," I told her honestly which made her smile.
"Well, a few habits die hard," she admitted to me as she sidled closer before turning to her girls. They were all lined up in a row, as if for inspection, and Miss Clarion's gesture towards her girls had me walking down their line where they gave me each a friendly, inviting smile and some threw their chests out to look further enticing. Only a select few didn't do either, a red haired woman even frowning and turning her head away as I stopped to take in her sullen nature but I let it go.
"What do you think?" Miss Clarion asked me once I reached the end of the line of girls and had to marvel how many she actually had. Having them all lined up allowed me to count them to find there were sixty-four which partly made me want to hunt Hook down and hang the louse for screwing up their lives.
"So many," I told her as I looked down the row. "Why would Hook take them all?"
"Greed of flesh," she told me with a sigh. "Once he began to attack every ship and port he came across, he started taking girls as plunder so his men wouldn't mutiny. He then founded Neverland and began leaving us there instead of keeping us on his ship because we were too much of a distraction. He'd still on occasion take one to his bed if only to slake his own lust."
"Is that what this is?" I asked her as I looked down the line. "Allowing me to choose now that we've made port?"
"If you want," she said as we began to walk the line again where I stopped to look at the redhead who looked so sullen earlier.
"I guess not everyone was into the practice," I said as the redhead looked ready to cry.
"Zarina," Miss Clarion said and the girl lifted her head to face her matron and I could see the tears ready to fall in the woman's eyes.
"Please not me," the girl asked. "I didn't want this."
"Back aboard the ship," I told her softly. She gave a sob as she turned to walk back to the gangplank, her pace slow as she started to cry. "And try to get some sleep."
"Sleep?" she said as she gave a hiccup of a sob.
"I force no one to do things they don't want to do," I told her. "You want to preserve your body, that is your choice. The same one I give all who work for me."
"We don't have to do this?" another girl asked as she stepped forward to be recognized.
"That's right," I told her before raising and projecting my voice to the throng of girls. "Anyone not wanting to party in the tavern tonight may return to your hammock without fear of reprisal from me. Those wishing to go for a pint may do so at my expense, but none of you are required to sleep with anyone for payment."
That set a few tongues to wagging as each of the girls began to talk with their neighbor about this change of events. It didn't take long for a few girls like Zarina to scoot back aboard the boat which left me with most of the others who then looked at me expectantly. I gave them a smile as they reformed their line, if a bit shorter than before and began walking it again and eventually settled on a petite redhead who seemed rather interested in being picked by the way she stuck her chest out. Clarion then took the rest of the girls off into the night as I led Shayla aboard the Empress to start breaking in the new bed.
Sometimes it was good to be the captain.