Chapter 33 – The Crew Evolves and Grows
May 28, 1660

Waking the next morning, and in a process that was getting to be old hat, I cleaned out the Captain's Cabin and moved my stuff aboard, a process that was shared among the other early risers as we shifted our belongings aboard the Empress. I also snagged a few people along the way and left word for a few members of my crew to join me for lunch in the Empress's wardroom. Colette and Linguini prepared the meal while I sat at the head of the table reading a collection of papers, mostly seeming to be early forms of newspapers and events of the day the previous captain had kept.

Still, they trickled into the wardroom close to noon. Timon and Pumbaa were the first to arrive with Pumbaa looking lost and sheepish. Mulan and Shang were more bold as they were asked to be here and seated themselves at the far end of the table as they too sat and waited for the rest to arrive. Jasmine seemed more at home with the politeness required of the situation as she sat on my left, Aladdin beside her and as unsure of himself and the situation as Pumbaa but at least Jasmine seemed inclined to give him pointers on proper etiquette as Linguini set the table. The last to arrive was Merida who seemed to have just gotten up and was still bleary eyed as she sat to the table, at first seeming to be inclined to put her arms on the table but then sat upright until she looked to Jasmine who gave her a quick shake of her head.

"If I may, captain," Jasmine began as she seemed more at ease with the situation. "You've never seemed inclined to hold any special...repast...before now while we were in port."

"Since taking this ship, I've been thinking of the difficulties I'm going to have in operating it," I confessed to them which seemed to unsettle them. "Up till now, we've had the luxury of a small vessel with a more intimate setting."

"There are over fifty cannon," Shang said as he spoke up. "Twenty-nine on one side. Each cannon will need three men at least."

"Wormin', spongin', load and ram can be done with three men?" Merida asked him.

"Change tools between jobs," Mulan told her.

"Which for now means we can barely field ten cannon," I said as I stopped the argument before we began. "Tonight, I intend to sign on as many new crew as I can to bring our number up over a hundred at the very least, specifically over a hundred and fifty total."

"That's a lot of men," Timon added. "We'll be able to go gun to gun with the Spanish galleons once the gun crews are trained."

"But won't we be havin' problems orderin' the men around?" Merida asked the group at large.

"And that is why I'm making everyone at this table an officer," I told them to their collective shock. "Mulan, Shang and Merida will command the cannons while Timon, Pumba, Aladdin and Jasmine will control the sailing and will, at need, command vessels taken a-prize."

"You've must have thought long over this," Jasmine said as she thought it over herself.

"It also gives us our own private room," Aladdin said softly to Jasmine who blushed even though Mulan didn't seem to notice and no else acted like they had heard the comment.

"Dinner is served," Colette said as she and Linguini arrived and began to serve dinner, offering the perfect distraction as she set the meal on the table and everyone began to eat, Jasmine, Mulan, Shang and I having to be a beacon of etiquette to those with a rougher past. It was also fun to watch as Aladdin struggled with a fork as he clearly had been used to eating with his hands most of his life, but he did his best to copy Jasmine.

After lunch, I and my officers headed off to enjoy their food comas and I passed out in the four poster bed in the captain's cabin and enjoyed the luxuriousness of it. When I woke up later that evening, I bathed myself with the washbasin and dressed in my best with my scarlet overcoat, my rapier at my side. The only aspect of my station with the Dutch were my gorget from my uniform and tricorn hat to mark me as an admiral. Retrieving the Articles and tucking them under my arm, I stepped out into the empty wardroom that acted as both captain's mess on one side and private study on the other before crossing the small space to the door that led to the main deck.

"Captain," Ella said as she sat knitting on a barrel, setting it aside as she stood to address me. "I'd like to ask you something."

"Sure," I said as I stopped but she looked nervous about asking.

"I'd like to join as a full member of the gunnery crew," she finally stated in a soft voice.

"Is that so?" I said as she looked like she had found the most interesting knot in the wooden deck. "Well then, there's just one thing to do."

She paled momentarily as I kicked a near empty barrel of pickles closer to use as an impromptu desk but brightened considerably when I unrolled the Articles before her. Unstopping the ink, I held out the feathered pen for her to use as she added her name to the ship's company.

"Welcome to the crew, Cinderella," I told her with a smile as I restoppered the ink.

"Thank you," she said as she returned the smile. "Mulan said she would train me to work the cannons if I could get signed on. She wasn't sure if I could since I was a cabin girl."

"I'm glad to have you," I told her as I rolled the Articles up. "Now, I'm off to sign on more crew. Hopefully this dried run down port has a few sailors willing to sign up."

"Best of luck," she said as she sat to resume her knitting. I tipped my hat as I passed, heading off to the tavern at my best walk. It didn't take to make it to down the dusty streets to the tavern, pausing for a moment at the door to collect myself mentally before throwing open the door in the dusky evening.

All the merriment died as I stepped inside, men standing around with tankards of rum and ale as the stared at me, drinking in my scarlet overcoat and large build. Men stepped aside in awe as I made my way to a table in the far corner that had a large candelabra on it for light. The men at the table quickly stepped away as I set the Articles down, no word at all spoken as I set the pen and ink beside it.

"Captain," one of the girls I'd rescued from Neverland said as she offered me a tankard of what I thought was ale. I didn't know the raven haired beauty's name, I thought it might be Evelyn but wasn't sure so I nodded my head in thanks as I removed my hat and sat it on the table before turning back to the room.

"My name is Owen Hunt," I told the room who waited on bated breath. "Captain of the Scarlet Empress and hold the rank of admiral with the Dutch. You might have heard stories from my crew of taking the notorious pirate Hook or my most recent capture from the English, the fifty-eight gun ship-of-the-line sitting in the harbor. Glorious fight it was and not a man lost, but it's much bigger than my previous ship and I'm going to need more crew. I've a chest filling with gold and after a stop to Saint Eustatius to sell my other ships and cargo, I sail for the Spanish and their gold-laden galleons. I ask you, who's with me?"

The bar erupted into cheers at that, and I quickly took a seat and began signing on most of the men in the room. I also was entreated to many of their stories as they signed on, most of the men having once been proud seamen who was forced to row for their lives by Hook after their ship was taken and eventually sunk. Most were merchant sailors, though, familiar with the sheets and the winds and could sail through the eye of a hurricane if they wanted but I signed them up all the same as I knew my gunners would drill the cannon life into them.

As the night wore on, I counted the names on the Articles and found I had a hundred twenty crew. That wasn't enough to fully man the Empress, but it was a good start and gave me a full deck of gunnery which was a lot of firepower. I still had Saint Eustatius to visit and the hope that I could recruit more there. It was also a calculated risk, as my own relations had soured with the governor but I was hoping to keep that to a minimum by not staying long.

"Ready to go?" the raven hared beauty who had offered me ale earlier said as I rolled up the Articles now that no one was signing up.

"I need to be up early to sail with the tide," I told her as I she linked her arm in mine.

"Not too early, I hope," she said cattily as we began to move for the door. I gave her a smile as we stepped out to the darkened street, the sounds of merriment fading behind us as we walked. Ella was still knitting on her barrel as I led Evelyn into my private bedroom, allowing her simple dress to slip off her shoulders as I shut the door behind us and we had our own fun, slipping off to sleep in the quiet darkness.