The Pirates' Cooper III

As the cruse continued the captain grew more and more paranoid, perhaps he was in the right as far as that was concerned. The crew couldn’t take much more of his abuse. He beat one man about the head until he was only half senseless and then sent him up the mast. Everyone agreed that it was a miracle the man didn’t fall. The carpenter had fallen overboard; supposedly, but he had been an experienced sailor and it seemed unlikely that he would do such a thing. It was generally agreed that falling overboard on a clear night without a cloud in sight was a mistake that only inexperienced sailors made. It was a well known fact that the carpenter had been very outspoken in his dislike for the captain. A round robin had started to be passed around though most of the crew hadn’t reached that point yet. More names were added to it by the day however and it looked as if there would be a confrontation in the near future if we didn’t reach a port soon. A port would solve all of our problems all we would have to do is leave ship and never return to her. It would mean that we wouldn’t get paid but it would be worth it to get away from the tyrant of a captain. We showed no sign of stopping at a harbor however.

The round robin had been going around for a week when another ship came into sight. Tension was pretty high on the ship at this point. The captain knew that something was up and was being, if anything more brutal and cruel then before. In response to this more and more people signed the round robin which was hid in a different man’s chest each night. I suppose that it was resentment against the captain that caused the man on watch to not report the other ships presence immediately. Instead he waited until he could see more then just the mast before he ran to the captain.

The captain instantly pulled out his glass and looked to see what flag the ship sported. No one was really concerned about what nation the country was from, England was at peace, but if it was a ship from England then we would hail each other and trade gossip which appealed to us all. We all crowded the rails and for once the Captain allowed us to without a shout or a cuff. This was the first time we had seen another ship since we had left the harbor. As the ship came closer to us however, the English flag was lowered and fear gripped us. In the place of the Union Jack a black flag was slowly raised and we could see men with swords and muskets waiting until we were in range of their weapons.

Captain Johansson surrendered without a fight. All it took was the Captain of the pirate ship to hail us across the water to stand down and Johansson ordered our flag to be lowered. My heart sank, most of the crew seemed satisfied with the Captain’s decision to fight but then they didn’t run much risk this way. Who among them would have a reason to fight and perhaps die for the owner’s money? They would get paid anyway and pirates were notoriously cruel to people who resisted. I however ran a great amount of danger from our capture. It was a well known fact that pirates were always looking for skilled crafts men to join their crews and they didn’t always ask nicely.

The captain of the pirate ship ordered that Captain Johansson come across to his ship so several of the crew lowered a boat and the Captain stepped in a was rowed in. As soon as he stepped on board the pirate ship some of them jumped into our ship’s boat and made our men row them over. The pirates boarded our ships with swords and guns in hand and they lined us up on the deck. I had considered hiding below deck until they went away and only fear that they would catch me stopped me from doing so. I was thankful I hadn’t. The first thing they did once they had us all lined up was to tare the insides of the ship apart to gather everything of value around the mast, they would have quickly found any man who was trying to escape their clutches in the hold. There wasn’t a place on the ship that escaped the scavengers.

There was a bit of commotion when they entered the Captain’s rooms. We watched as all of the money that had been allotted to trade as well as the Captain’s fine wine was added to the heap on the deck. Also added to the pile was a kettle, the medicine chest, three spare outfits of the Captain’s, a spare sail and rigging, one of the galleys pans, a large portion of the ships provisions, and our entire cargo of fabric. I was surprised to see the weapons were kept in a separate pile; it was also the only pile anyone took anything from. One man walked up and took the Captain’s dueling pistols from the stack and no one stopped him. Other then that however the piles were only added to and not once did I see anyone pocket so much as a copper.

To be continued...