Chapter 11

Uh-oh, this time, the other guys had shotguns, too. Those shotguns were of the conventional style with the longer barrels. That gave them more killing range, but made them more difficult to handle because of the added weight at the muzzle. We stayed down behind our barriers until we came close. That should give the advantage back to us.

Meanwhile, the pirates were shooting at our helmsman and captain because of their exposed positions. I laid my shotgun on the deck and drew my Schloss pistol. By bracing against the barricade I was able to move with the boat and could get a decent sight picture on the pirate shooters. Usually, two or three shots as the motion of our boat swung the sights over my target were enough to make him duck for cover, even if I did not score a telling hit.

The result was that Jack, the helmsman, was able to control the wheel and did his usual excellent job of bringing us alongside the pirate boat long enough for us to cast the grappling hooks. Once that was done, the battle was back to shotgun versus shotgun, as Jack ducked for cover this time.

While all of this was going on, Nina was using her Schloss to shoot at the pirate helmsman and captain. Both men fell to the deck, but it was not certain at the moment if either one was fatally wounded. Knowing Nina’s shooting ability, it was my bet that they both were, but we could not be sure until after we boarded the pirate boat.

I used our one-man-at-a-time boarding technique while other crewmen were pouring shotgun fire as fast as possible at the pirates who were shooting at us. The pirates stayed down long enough for us to get a significant number of our men aboard their boat, and that was enough to ensure that we won the battle. Unfortunately, for the first time, one of our men was grievously wounded with several buckshot in his gut. There was nothing that we could do for him but dose him liberally with laudanum and wait for him to die.

Meanwhile, we were able to eliminate all of the remaining pirates and their captain. This appeared to be a very lucky boat because we were able to find an unusually large cache of loot, both in coins and in jewelry. Capt. Scruggs divided the coins into the usual number of shares, including one for the man who had been killed during the assault. His share was to be forwarded to his mother, who was living off his earnings. Dammit, we would have to make some provision to helping her now that Hank could no longer do that.

Once things calmed down, Hank was buried at sea with all of the ceremony that we could muster. May he rest in peace.

The pirate boat looked promising as the third craft we were hunting for, and a prize crew was put aboard to sail it to New Orleans. We decided to head for the rendezvous point, and that involved a swing back along our previous route. We had traveled nearly a day and a half when we spotted another yacht apparently drifting without many sails unfurled. This was odd enough that our curiosity forced us to investigate.

Be damned! This was the Joseph’s Pride out of Galveston. We boarded and did not find any one on board, either living or dead. It appeared that they had run afoul of pirates from the condition of the cabins: clothes and other items were scattered helter skelter about the place. No woman would have left her cabin in such disarray if she had a choice. Other than the general untidiness of the boat, it seemed to be in excellent condition, so we added it to our salvaged boats.

With so many boats to handle, we were late to the rendezvous, and Capt. Abernathy was somewhat put-out with us. However, he was mollified when he saw the two extra boats, heard our story, and received his share of the loot. There was nothing else to do but to head back into New Orleans to check out the true condition of the two salvaged boats and to take care of the paperwork.

Oh, my God! We barely made it back to New Orleans ahead of a major storm. This was not a hurricane by the technical definition, but it was one hell of a tropical storm. The cruise lines canceled all further trips for this season for fear of more such storms. Besides, few paying passengers were going to show up for a cruise in potentially bad weather.

This gave us time to take care of the ownership details with the two new boats. There was no problem with the salvaged pirate boat—we had won that fair and square. However, the question was what to do with the Joseph’s Pride. Several telegrams were sent to Galveston to try to contact the heirs who could put a claim in on the boat. We never heard from anybody in three months of trying, so the court transferred ownership to me.

Okay, we now had four boats for our flotilla, and the question was whether or not we could find captains and crews who felt the desire we did for adventure and profit from pirates. Both captains Scruggs and Abernathy agreed that the two boats would be excellent additions to our fleet. They were fast and had the capacity for an adequate crew. In fact, Joseph’s Pride proved to be a little bit faster than Angel’s Flight, and certainly was a fancier boat.

Joseph’s Pride was renamed Nemisis, and the ex-pirate boat was renamed Southern Belle. During the hurricane hiatus, I studied hard to earn my captain’s ticket, and it was awarded at the end of September. Nina and I moved from Angel’s Flight to Nemisis, with me as captain. I immediately assigned to Cookie the job of finding us a suitable cook.

Capt. Abernathy came up with a captain for Southern Belle, John Holmes, who had been a captain aboard a Navy schooner operating out of Boston, but had moved to New Orleans for the warmer climate. He did not appreciate hurricanes until he had moved. He had been a US Naval officer until Congress had gone through another cost-cutting spree, so he had some combat experience. Abernathy and Scruggs thought that we were lucky to get him.

By the end of hurricane season, we had crews of 10 men for each boat. We decided to operate somewhat independently once at sea. However, to let him get some idea of the way we operated, Capt. Holmes temporarily paired with Capt. Abernathy, and I temporarily paired with Capt. Scruggs to make sure that I really was a capable captain. I felt that I was the one who needed the most help, but Nina had faith in me, and that was enough to get me started. It had been her idea for me to get the captain’s ticket in the first place.

Nemisis and Angel’s Flight set out to follow the first cruise ship of the season, New Orleans’ Finest, at a discreet distance. Nina’s Joy and Southern Belle were to follow the second cruise ship.

The first three days were spent mostly with the crew of the Nemisis learning my idiosyncrasies, and the me learning those of the crew. It was that third afternoon that the red distress signal rocket was spotted. Scruggs and I agreed that I would lead any attack on a pirate, so I signaled for the Angel’s Flight to follow me as we raced at top speed toward the red flare.

I am embarrassed to say that we were a little slow in getting up to maximum speed, and it was entirely my fault, but we were finally on our way to do what we could to rescue the cruise ship. We showed up, but there was no pirate in sight. I pulled alongside the cruise ship and bellowed through the speaking trumpet, “AHOY, NEW ORLEANS’ FINEST, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?”

“A SEAMAN HAS FALLEN OVERBOARD FROM A MAST, AND WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SEARCH FOR HIM.”

“VERY WELL, WHERE WOULD BE THE BEST PLACE TO SEARCH?”

We got directions and started searching for the unfortunate man. Of course, Angel’s Flight helped in the search. We covered as much area as we could, but found no sign of the man. Actually, none of us really expected to find him because he had to have fallen at least 65-70 feet, and that was sure to be a fatal fall on land or sea. Nevertheless, we did search until dark with no success, so we called off the hunt. After a short conversation with the cruise ship’s captain, we fell back to our former trailing position.