Eleanor sorts through all her thoughts and feelings to weigh her choices and strives to make a responsible decision. She empowers the Commodore with the legal abilities to set up a Vice Admiralty Court. Charles Vane is tried and judged at Fort Nassau. Max watches the drama enfold.
Chapter 30 - Jonah
As Eleanor left the tavern and strode back to the mansion, her mind and feelings were all over the place - fear for the implications, anger over the unjust portrayal of her and using it for an agenda, revolt at being prevented from moving, and hatred for Charles. She paid no attention to the people she passed. Never saw them, never heard them. And she barely knew what to do, until she remembered Flint in her office arguing over the madman in the Fort. She had defended her choice to prevent Hornigold from taking back the fort. "I had to make a quick judgment. And in the moment it was clear that the sacrifice it would have taken to get him out of that fort was simply too great." But those lies of course, not just lies she told others, but herself as well.
Flint had turned away from her. "A Spanish warship fell upon us before we'd found our way to the Urca. At that point, Mr. Gates' faith in our mission... his faith in me was lost." There had been something in his voice, something that had made her still and afraid. He was changed and there was something dark about it. He sat down, and looked at her, and confessed to killing Mr. Gates, who had been his ally on the Walrus for as long as she could remember, his closest friend, a man that Flint had loved.
"Eleanor. Where are you?" Mr. Scott's voice echoed in Eleanor's mind. "You need to ask yourself what you want, where your loyalties are... and whom do you trust?"
Something about Max bothered Eleanor immensely, but she could not directly name it. It was as if she trusted and distrusted Max both at the same time. How can I feel both? Intuition, she reminded herself. But which one of the two is correct? How did I figure out Teach in the bay that day! She knew where she was that day, what she wanted and to whom she was loyal - she wanted Woodes to succeed, Nassau to be civilized, and she had hardly spared a thought for Charles at all, despite the fact that she expected him to end up either killed by other pirates or soldiers. Think, Eleanor, you can think your way through it. Why do I trust Max? Thrice now Max had warned her – about the soldier's gossip, the spy, people blaming Eleanor - and twice Max had advised Eleanor to protect her from harm. It was sound advice. And yet, Eleanor was reluctant to follow it.
Why do I distrust Max? What bothered me so when Max spoke about how they would survive the illness, Flint and Spain? The spy had distressed her not half as much as Max's words prior to that. Max sounded like she was preparing for a Nassau where the English adventure would come to an end soon. Max thinks of her own survival, and mine, Eleanor realized, but not the new regime, not Woodes. Max betted on two horses before. Max said she was me now. And in a way she was. It was Max who needed Mr. Scott's words now. But who I was then is not who I am now. Eleanor cared for Woodes – he had to live and lead this island. Woodes had to survive his illness, Flint and the Spanish threat and Nassau was to remain a civilized English Nassau. The Pirate's Republic is done, just like Charles.
What had happened on the beach on the day of Woodes' arrival could not be undone. Sure, there might be sympathizers with Flint and Charles who spied for them, men who loved to hate her, men who'd lend their nostalgic ear. But ultimately the majority of pirates had chosen for a normal life off the account – work in the day and be with their lass in the evening and earn enough to take her out. There had been a few weddings too the past week. If given a year, it would probably be Christenings as well. Even if the first wave of Englishmen could be potentially dead in another two months, the majority of Nassau would hate going back on the account. They were just men, not fanatics like Charles.
But that does not mean, Eleanor reminded herself, that they cannot create a shitstorm of trouble as well as cost us unnecessary lives. Eleanor frowned. She was thinking in fishwife language again. She even had slipped back into using the word fuck in her speech to Max. It would not do, not to the English, not to the street, not to Max.
Her intuition told her that Jacob Garrett's rallying of the discontent was orchestrated by Flint's men on the island to buy time in order to rescue Charles . Any failure to hang the pirate who stole the cache would fuel suspicions from Spain against Woodes. More, it was all too clear what Charles himself would do if he managed to be free again. He would do what he always did –kill his rival, kill Woodes. And there was just no chance in hell that Eleanor would ever allow Vane to get close enough to Woodes again to even try.
In her mind, Eleanor saw Flint sitting on that chair, revealing his murder of Mr. Gates. "I had to use my judgment whether to let him abort our entire endeavor and see my plans, your plans, evaporate or to stop him. I stopped him."
"What did you do?" she had asked, trembling.
"What was necessary. Because I knew that the future of this place is everything. And that there is no sacrifice too great to secure that future. I thought you and I were in agreement about that."
Eleanor swallowed. Even when awake, Woodes was not of sound mind to guide her. It fell on all her. She had to use her own judgment. Eleanor wished she could ship Charles off the island, but Max suggested to do the trial here. Woodes had wanted to protect her from having blood on her hands. She had her chance to strangle him herself, and she could not go through with it. It felt like revulsion, but perhaps love stayed my hands? For herself, for Woodes, maybe even for him, still, like it had kept her from allowing Hornigold to retake the Fort through the tunnels, like it had set her against Flint destroying the fort around him.
And then there was the street. The last thing Woodes would want is to lose it and why he had been against a pirate swinging from a noose in Nassau. But if Jacob could work the crowd like he did in mere twenty minutes, it would be hundred times worse in another four days. Eleanor shuddered at the memory of the street crowding in front of her tavern doors as Lilywhite went on and on and on. And what will I have to do then? Send the soldiers against the street? Well, they might just pack everything up, sail back to London and hand the island back to the pirates to let them deal with Spain. Then Woodes would be in debtor's jail and she would hang. Perhaps they will allow us to share a moment or two in a cell in Newgate, Eleanor thought sarcastically.
Max was right. Holding a trial here would be the lesser evil. Its outcome though was a certainty. Unless the jury consisted of Charles' crewmates and allies, any judge or jury would find him guilty. The penalty for high seas piracy was hanging, and gibbeting for an infamous pirate. No matter how impersonal Eleanor could keep the trial, those who wished to scapegoat Eleanor would always hold Eleanor responsible for it. There would always be ears and minds willing to be swayed by such talk. She had not once made a move against anyone on the island here, since her return, and yet still they would call her a tyrant. She could take a skiff now and sail for Port Royal, and some people would still blame her. Eleanor would be a fool to believe otherwise.
So, it was like Jonah and the Whale. She had to accept her fate and perform the dreadful task – see that justice prevailed and hang the pirate who had once been her lover, here in Nassau. Charles has to die, and I will make it happen. Except, in this story there would be no repentance and no mercy. Eleanor had decided, had judged, and would do what was necessary, and there was no sacrifice too great to secure the future of a civilized Nassau. And possibly maybe if she did this, she would cease to be the allotted Jonah the seamen blamed for storms.
There was no time to lose. Teach would not learn of Vane's capture before the next day. It would require another three days for Teach to threaten Nassau. That gave her at most four days. Nobody knew whether Hornigold had succeeded or failed, or whether he was still alive even. It might only be a matter of days before Flint came to the rescue. As she walked into the hallway, she called out to Perkins. "Lieutenant, could you send messengers to all the senior councilors and the Commodore to convene for an emergency meeting, as soon as possible. I want them all here within the hour. And I want the lawyers here too."
"What about the Nassau councilors?" asked Perkins.
"That won't be necessary for the moment. They cannot inform us of English colonial law." She lifted her skirts and climbed the stairs, through the corridor, passing his guards, into his office and opened the door to his bedroom. Blinds filtered the light attacking the western windows. The room's temperature was rising, with the sun glaring on the west wing, and with the doors and windows closed. Woodes still lay still like the dead, in a feverish sleep, helpless and unable to help her. Dr. Marcus had told her to keep him covered under a blanket, but she wondered, what with his fever, whether the heat of his surroundings just did not make it worse. Mrs. Hudson was reading on a chair in the corner of the room, next to a small table and an empty teacup. "Any change?" Eleanor asked.
Mrs. Hudson lowered her book into her lap. "No."
"May I have a moment with him, please?" Eleanor waited for Mrs. Hudson to lay her book down, get up and walk out. She looked behind her to make sure Mrs. Hudson had left the neighboring office as well, before she approached Woodes' bed. She sat on the bedside and rested one hand on his heart. His shirt was clammy of sweat, and yet the rumbling of his heart felt comforting. So did the feel of the sprinkle of hair where his shirt left his chest bare. She lay her other hand on his wrist and caressed it with her thumb, hoping for some response. Or is it to soothe him? His breathing became instantly more agitated. "I warned you," she said with regret. "The closer you let me get to you, the more dangerous I would be." She sighed and shook her head. "I've never given a damn what people think of me. But I give a damn what you think. I hope that when you wake, you will understand why I did what I did, you will see that it was all I could think to do to protect you the only way I know how."
Eleanor sat back and let his heart go. She rose from his bedside, went to her own room and threw the window open, letting the fragrances of green and ripe fruit freshen the room. While she had Dyson see to it that arrangements were made for the council, she freshened herself up, splashed water into her face, changed her dress into the red one with the embroidered roses, pinched her cheeks while she looked into the mirror with the crack, and made sure that not a hair on her head lay astray. She walked to the parlor and opened the bottom drawer of the little cabinet desk and carefully took out an envelope that had been sealed with Woodes' stamp. She weighed it in her hand. It felt light as a feather, but its consequences would be like a boulder dropping on Nassau.
Of course, Eleanor had a personal interest in wanting Charles dead and it had everything to do with her father's murder. And though, she did not care what Nassau would think of her when she dropped that boulder, Eleanor could not wholly deny that she was incensed with the troublemakers, for not recognizing what kind of ordeal and sacrifices she had endured just to be alive and useful, at the side of the governor whom they all had embraced. She felt disdain for their ungratefulness. If it was not for her and Woodes, they could all have been killed or hanged. She had been proud of herself when she set aside the past and the petty, even partially over Charles Vane, all in their interest to prevent them from being killed in a Spanish raid. But they did not recognize that and instead questioned her motives. She had not done it for them, nor ever tried to convince them that she had changed. Still, it hurt when people were so prejudiced and scapegoated her for their own selfish ends. A voice whispered to her, reasonably, "Show these men what it is they are asking for. Give them exactly what they want and demand and make them feel forever sorry for having done so. Show them what happens if you truly use the authority that is in your hands. So, that they might never demand it again."
Eleanor recognized that dark voice, cloaked in reason, that tried to compel her to act instinctively. It was what made her break up with Charles after recovering from the complications of her aborted pregnancy. It had made her depose Charles from his captaincy when he had his crew gang-rape Max. It made her help Anne Bonny dispose of Max's rapists. It convinced her to send assassins to kill Rackham and his crew. It was there now too. And she could not just simply wish it away. When she had followed her intuition it tended to have positive results. When she had acted out her dark instincts, she had lost everything. So, for a moment she wondered whether her darkness was feigning to be intuition. Instinct or intuition?
"And what if it were both?" Miranda Hamilton whispered seductively to her in her mind. "What if you know to be the right thing to do is also something that gives you some measure of satisfaction?"
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Let it be both then, and by god I hope it will work out in the end. The final proof that civilization has come to Nassau. Eleanor straightened her stomacher and her petticoat, raised her head high, and floated through the corridor, gracefully and elegantly, like a woman of state, down the stairs to the Assembly Hall, where Woodes councilors had started to gather. Commodore Chamberlain stood more to the side and watched her with pursed lips and his head to the side.
Eleanor smiled at them all with her lips pressed together. Scribes took their seats and Eleanor nodded at Perkins and Dyson so that they would make sure they would not be disturbed during this meeting or unwanted ears would accidentally drop in. "Gentlemen, thank you for coming so quickly."
Anxiously, Mr. Soames said, "Has something happened to the governor? Is his state worsening?"
"I assure you that the governor is resting, safe and sound. There is no cause for alarm, in that respect," she answered him. "But there is trouble brewing in Nassau, against the governor over the pirate Charles Vane, whom we all know helped to steal the cache, freed Rackham and attacked the governor with the intent to kill him. We risk losing the street. And the governor would wish to avoid that at all cost." She could hear the scratching of the pens on paper as the clerks wrote.
Chamberlain squinted at her. "What trouble is this? Are you suggesting to let him go?"
"No, absolutely not. Quite the opposite actually. The governor wants Charles Vane to be taken before court, but also keep the street."
"So, what is the word on the street then?" asked Mr. Blight.
"They want Captain Vane to be tried here, in Nassau, in the open, and see whether law and order is applied correctly and justly with their own eyes."
"But that may require weeks," said Mr. Hardyng. "There is no commission appointed yet, no Vice Admiral court set up, no prosecutor." Colonel Richards mumbled in consent.
Since 1700 the law allowed colonies to set up their own courts to hold piracy trials, instead of sending them to the Admiralty in England. Before that, it was so troublesome to extradite a pirate that most governors just let a pirate go free again. But Henry Avery's actions against the Mogul pushed the new law through in Whitehall. Vice Admiral Courts were then set up with seven or more colonial official commissioners who would judge the accused. It did away with the pesky and risky civil jury, but still allowed for witness testimony to be brought forward. However, it was the appointment of these commissioners that required extensive approval and thus time – time they did not have.
Eleanor stared at the frowns and the squinting eyes of the men and noted the nervous tapping of Mr. Soames on the meeting table. "Which is why I brought all you smart men together." She laid the letter inconspicuously down on the table and placed both her hands on the meeting table, fingers spread and leaned slightly forward. "Captain Vane must be tried quickly, preferably between now and two days. We believe that instigators riled the street on purpose to give Flint or Teach time and chance to rescue him. Regardless of the reasons of the agitators, once a mob mentality is created, then all the hard work done so far will be for nothing, and brave soldiers sacrificed their lives for nothing." She looked at Chamberlain. "Am I correct, Commodore, that if you were named as the local Vice Admiral you would have the power to appoint a judge?"
"Yes," said Chamberlain. "But-"
Eleanor walked around the large meeting table, taking the letter with her. "I propose that the Commodore is given the local rank of Vice Admiral and sets up a Vice Admiral Court with a jury of twelve civilians and have one judge. We use the old civil act that demands for a trial by jury, but apply the new law's right to hold a trial here."
"It is unprecedented." Mr. Blight turned to face her. "But this could only be done if the governor has the crown's approval to elevate the Commodore's rank locally and if the governor actually signs such an appointment. Is this the case? Is the governor willing to do this?"
Eleanor slid the sealed letter across the table, until it lay at the center of it. "The governor has the crown's approval and already signed such an appointment, yesterday."
Chamberlain snatched the letter and broke the governor's seal. In the silent Assembly Hall where plumes had ceased to scratch, Eleanor heard the seal break and the rustling of the letter as it slid against the envelope, as Chamberlain took it out. After Perkin's visit the evening before, Woodes had been agitated about the possibility that he might be incapacitated for perhaps as long as a week while they might have to war against Flint and mount a defense against Spain. Even though the Commodore already had the power to command fleet and troops in England's interest, the appointment as temporary local Vice Admiral would give Chamberlain the extra legal stretch to function as an official bound to the Bahamas, and not just England. Woodes had intended it solely for military purposes, but he had explained by the by what other advantages it would give the Commodore with regards to courts of the Admiralty. And Eleanor had remembered it. In the absence of a Rear Admiral and Vice Admiral he had the legal authority to act as one, without the pay, the stripes and title that came with it. It could however improve his chances to be promoted in the future. The declaration was written in her hand, but dated and signed by Woodes. It had been the last thing Woodes had done, after he had made her promise to only use it if she saw the need for it. Shortly after, he fell asleep and never truly came to consciousness again for long enough time. Baffled, Chamberlain passed the document on to the lawyers and clerks for confirmation on the signature and dating.
The lawyers commented that, "With this document Commodore Chamberlain can appoint a judge within a minute. A trial can be held this evening even, certainly tomorrow."
Things happened quickly after that. Lawyers drafted documents to appoint a judge and a prosecutor. The trial itself was to be held in Fort Nassau's courtyard. The clerk's census and Eleanor's updated list of citizens on the island who had never been on the account was used to select members of the jury. She also gave them a list of men who had accepted pardons but once had been forced into piracy by Vane when their ships had been captured by him. Draft letters were dispatched with haste and the men on the Shark were ordered to stand down.
The first thing the appointed prosecutor asked her was whether she was willing to press charges about her father's murder and testify against Charles Vane. "I cannot," she said. "I am in function as the eyes and ears for the governor. I represent him. I should not be involved at all in any way with making it a trial about my father or myself."
"I understand you may not wish to be a witness, but there were plenty of witnesses to the finding of his body and Vane's accompanying letter."
Eleanor shook her head. "Please leave my father's murder out of it altogether. He ought to be tried and found guilty for piracy, not the murder of a man who was a fugitive himself in the eyes of the law. There is simply too much personal history between Captain Vane, myself and my father and it would turn it into a trial of settling scores over the past." Eleanor shook her head. She shuddered at the idea. "This is to be a trial of principle, sir, for it will be the very first time ever that Nassau will see a man hanged here, a pirate who was admired and feared by many for his prowess." She licked her lips. "Beg pardon for my language, but to put it very bluntly – who drank, killed and fucked along with them for many years. A fortnight ago, the islanders sighed in relief when the universal pardon was read to them on the beach." Eleanor thought amazed - Is it only that little while ago? "We all believed we would be spared the sight of a hanging, including myself. Unfortunately, that is impossible. So, if there is to be a hanging of the famous Charles Vane as an unrepentant pirate, then piracy ought to be the sole charges he is found guilty on. Such a verdict supports those who accepted the pardons in the first place."
The prosecutor nodded. "Yes, I see your point." He sighed. "I just thought it might make it easier."
"This trial, its verdict and its punishment is as historical for Nassau as Woodes' universal pardon. I do not expect such a thing to be easy. And it is our fervent hope that we would never need to hang someone else after this, ever again."
It was the dead of night, just after the hours of first sleep, when Charles Vane was lifted out of his cell and brought into the courtyard for his trial. His boots crunched on the sand. His chains chimed and rankled as he moved. "What is this?" said he, looking around at the twelve men of the jury that had just been sworn in on the bible, while he was made to stand on a makeshift platform in the middle of the courtyard with at least ten sentries surrounding it. He looked up to the ramparts where fifty soldiers stood in readiness, and met Eleanor's eye as she stood next to the Commodore.
A guard banged his weapon on the makeshift plank floor "All rise, for the honorable Judge Adams."
The newly appointed judge sat down behind a raised desk placed on the spot where Eleanor's father had been found crucified. It was the sole personal touch she had allowed herself. Charles lifted his eyes and looked at her when the judge was seated. Eleanor gave him a curt nod in admittance of what she had done. Yes, Charles, you will be judged and condemned to die from the spot where you crucified my father. He grinned and shifted his eyes back to the judge.
"This court has convened to try Captain Charles Vane, from Virginia, allegedly thirty five years of age, for the capital crimes of high seas piracy," read the same guard from his paper.
Though a near full moon shone bright, so that Eleanor could see Nassau town and the bay clearly from the parapet, the fort itself threw a dark gloom across the courtyard. She had arranged for several lines of sentries holding torches to make for light, but the dancing flames threw odd shaped orange glows on the walls, and only stressed the contrast with the dark corners and doorways where the light could not reach. Her vantage point not only gave her a spectacular oversight of the courtyard, but it helped her to detach from the proceedings. She could hear the far-away screech of a night hunter catching it prey, the gentle sound of waves rolling onto a beach, the many crickets in the bushes around the fort or hiding in the cracks of stone. But most of all, up here, the air smelled fresh and of the sea.
The doors were open for a short while. As the news spread in town that a trial was being held at the fort, citizens rushed out of town, leaving the tavern, the whorehouse or their beds, and ventured on the hill. Up to fifty citizens were allowed to come inside and witness the trial first hand. The guards stationed on the bulwark would make sure that none of those would try anything.
Mrs. Mapleton knocked on Max's door and interrupted her in the middle of her orgasm that Georgia was helping her reach. Frazzled and still gasping for breath, Max opened the door, covering her sweaty breasts with her gown. "What is it?"
"You better see this for yourself, M'am. Everybody is leaving for the fort. Word is out on the street that they're holding Captain Vane's trial there, right this very minute."
Max widened her eyes. "What? Now?" How the hell had Eleanor done that? Max dressed quickly and hastened to the fort where a huge crowd had started to gather in front of it.
People passed on what was said by the lawyers and judge, while standing on the tips of their toes in the hope to catch a glimpse. Max searched for Eleanor in the mass of people inside, but could not find her. When she looked up though, she saw Eleanor on the walls, in a red dress, beside the commodore and other high ranking officers of the new regime. Eleanor stood stiffly, visibly present for the people inside and outside, and yet as far removed from the court dealings as the circumstances allowed her to be. And that red dress drew the eye like a bullseye. What is Eleanor doing? Is Eleanor like she was when she sent the assassins to Rackham and Featherstone? Max was not so sure of that. Eleanor seemed both drawn into herself and distant, and yet not actually isolated or cold. She was very visibly present, and yet not there at all, like someone doing her duty, but absent in mind. But when someone spoke to Eleanor, she seemed to answer them calmly and attentively. Max wished that Eleanor had warned her, so that she could talk with her, stand with her possibly and find out what she was.
A man had crawled on the shoulders of others and related to them as much as he could. "The judge just asked whether Vane wishes to call his own witnesses forward in his defense to prove his innocence."
"What did he say?" cried a woman standing beside Max.
"He said nothing! Just shook his head in silence." Then he yelled. "The jury just left to discuss the eye witness accounts of the prosecution." And not long afterwards. "The jury's back!"
"Already?" shouted several people. Max started to beg the people before her to let her through.
"Guilty! They say he's guilty!"
People were still running up the hill like a flood to learn what the bloody hell was happening, shouting questions. But those already there shushed them and were silent. They all wanted to hear the judge's decision, to hear the words of the hanging for themselves. It was like watching a ship that was in trouble in a storm from ashore, knowing that very minute people were drowning, and yet it was impossible to look away. Finally, Max could see Charles Vane on the raised platform with her own eyes. He stood stoically, ignoring the prosecutor, the judge and stared up into the sky at Eleanor who did not look at him in return.
"Captain Charles Vane," Max heard the judge say loud and clear. His voice echoed around the walls. "You are adjudged and sentenced to be carried back to your cell, thence to the place of execution on the market square tomorrow morning, to be hanged by the neck till you are dead, and may the Lord, in His infinite wisdom, have mercy upon your soul. After this you shall be taken down and your body tarred and hanged in chains."
Max clasped her hand before her mouth at the tragedy enfolding. Goddamn, Charles, Max thought, you should never have returned! Why couldn't you just leave her be? Oh, Eleanor what did you do?
Featherstone appeared next to her, leaning on his knees as he tried to catch his breath after running all the way from his home. "I just heard!" he wheezed. "Why did you not tell me?"
Max looked at him as if he thought her a fool. Why would I tell you anything if you conspire with Flint and Vane, make Idelle spy for you? Maybe that is why Eleanor did not warn me beforehand, she realized for a split second. Max said, "That man standing beside Eleanor, the Commodore, was left in charge by the governor to appoint a judge and install a provisionary court. Goodnight, Mr. Featherstone." She turned to leave the hill, but took a last worried look at Eleanor standing on the stockade. Captain Charles Vane, tried and found guilty in the same courtyard he crucified her father. As she walked through the empty street back home, she noticed timber being carried to the market square. "What is that for?" she asked the men.
"A gallows, M'am."
A chill ran down Max's spine. A gallows here in Nassau, for the first time since anyone here could remember, to hang a pirate, and not just any pirate, but Captain Charles Vane. Flint will flip!
(Decision process: integrates S2 fragments of Eleanor learning about Flint murdering Mr. Gates for the cause, and Mr. Scott urging her to find out what she wants. The trial and (later hanging) of Charles Vane becomes the equivalent of Flint's murder of Mr. Gates. As this cannot be a clear process from A to B, Eleanor weighs it each time again, even after she knows what she has to do. No decision like that should or imo even could be purely reasonable, purely objective, purely vengeful, purely "I'll show you", nor even clear-cut or a straight thinking path. I think the show-runners intended it to be a mature decision that includes the complete range of aims, because it lacks the rashness of S1 when she deposes Vane, is not secretely done with Anne to kill Max's rapists, and not as coldly and hateful as the assassination team.
Flint's "darkness" speech: Flint explains to Silver how the "darkness" makes you want to "punish" someone with rationalisations, the same night of Vane's trial. It would be a lie to portray Eleanor as having made that choice without having some type of personal satsifaction out of it. Eleanor admits and recognizes this all on her own, since she is not new to it anymore (unlike Silver). Eleanor has had authority over Nassau, and has used darkness several times to "punish" pirates. While I have Eleanor trying to reach for the light, hoping to avoid the darkness altogether, the situation simply does not let her. "There's no leaving it behind." So, she recognizes its existence (like Flint) and questions whether its influence makes her decision wrong. Miranda answers, for she is the sole character (aside from Rogers) who could answer that question. Since Rogers is a love interest, Eleanor would not consider him an objective voice in that moment. Miranda is also a mother-figure, normally Flint's, and a far darker mother than Eleanor's mother could be. In the thought process I also have Eleanor occasionally think of Charles as Vane or Captain Vane, to indicate she's starting to build an emotional distance.
Empowering Chamberlain: Featherstone mentioned a judge and a jury. Vice Admiral Courts were courts of several professional judges, without a civil jury, used at the colonies (depicted in S4, and Flint's trial at Charleston). Only in London pirates could still have a trial with a jury and judge. Vice Admiral Courts and its lack of jury and presided by professional English judges with no attachment to the colony are partly the reason of the uprising against England by the American colonies. So, the historical colonial court system conflicts with the canon data we get about the trial from Featherstone in S3. So, I made something up where Chamberlain gets to have a temporary local Vice-Admiral title (Rogers' father in law was made local Rear-Admiral in Jamaica) and thus have someone with an Admiral title to approve of the unprecedented jury trial with an appointed judge. I haven't the foggiest whether my trick even remotely works legally in a historical sense.
Jonah: Eleanor parallels the task that is thrust upon her, whether she likes it or not, and Jonah's task. Eleanor is also like "a Jonah" - the person sailors think brings "bad luck" and becomes the scapegoat of the crew. Each time a lot is drawn to blame someone, she'll be blamed. No matter what she does, how she acts, they're going to blame and hate her. In a way, she expects to be sacrificed in the long term. It certainly costs Vane's life, but Eleanor is willing to sacrifice her own life.)