Chapter 13

On the final day of training, we held a demonstration for Capt. Chou. I figured that he should know what his shooters could do. The captain did not have a lot of time to spend with us, so I kept the demo very short. I had each man fire one shot into a floating target to demonstrate his skill, then I had all six fire a volley into six floating targets.

Man, let me tell you, that volley was a very noisy and a very impressive demonstration. The captain actually spoke to the shooters and emphasized how much the ship was depending on them. That little speech was gratefully received by every one of the six men. It was the first time that the captain had ever spoken to any member of the crew, except to berate him or to fire him. The occasion was a memorable one.

After the ceremony was over, I gave each of the six men a silver coin in thanks for the effort that he had expended so far. That gesture was also much appreciated, according to Hoi.

Meanwhile, Hoi had been coaching me in the Mandarin words I needed to command the squad of shooters. He was still there to relay my orders as needed, but, by the end of the two weeks of training, I was able to command the detail personally. I felt that was a significant accomplishment on my part. Hoi said that I had the right words, but my accent needed some more training. We both laughed at that.

It was two days after the ceremony that we had to fight our first batch of pirates. Fortunately, we were not overwhelmed with the number of attackers. Our ship was well known to the pirate community and normally not considered worth the effort by the larger boats with more men. This junk was small and unimpressive, probably about the same way we looked to the pirates. I guessed that these pirates were either a small group just starting their careers as pirates or else pretty inept at their job.

In any case, at this point, a pirate was a pirate and was going to get the full extent of our defensive capability. The defensive squad was called to arms and issued their shotguns and 20 shells. Frankly, I did not expect that we would need that much ammunition, but I wanted to be prepared on a just-in-case basis. I think that it was the issuance of so much ammunition that made an impression on the squad. It was the first time that so much had been issued.

I retained command for this particular episode, but I was going to turn command over to Hoi for the next one. Eventually, he was going to operate independently of me, and I wanted him to have some practice at the job. I wanted to check out my ability to command without his translations, so I asked him not to say anything unless I had made an obvious error.

The junk came in close to us and heaved the grappling hooks over our rail. I had wanted the junk to do that so that the squad would have a relatively stationary target. That would make things easier for them. There were only eight pirates on the deck of the junk with a separate man steering the boat. My plan was to wipe out the pirates, all nine of them, and to leave the junk floating as a memorandum to all pirates that a new force was about.

As soon as the grappling hooks were hooked on our deck railing, I ordered the squad to fire a volley of one shot for each man. Every shooter scored a hit, and killed four of the pirates. Two more were badly wounded, so they were not going to last long.

At that point, I ordered shooter #1 to fire at the helmsman, and #3 and #5 to shoot the two remaining would be boarders. There was a speaking tube nearby, and I used that to call the bridge. I said to the man who answered, “This is Mr. Albert. Please tell Capt. Chou that we have eliminated the pirates. Does he want us to board the junk or to cut it loose? I will wait for his answer.”

Moments later, the answer came back to cut the junk loose. Included was a thank you for eliminating the pirates. I had the squad clean their weapons—black powder played hell with corroding the inside of gun barrels. I did the same to my shotgun just on principle, and so did Hoi. The weapons were put away and I dismissed the squad.

We made a couple of stops at ports that I had never seen to take care of a few passengers and some of the freight, most of which was fruit and vegetables, the sort of thing that pirates would leave alone.

It was about 15 days before we ran into any more pirates. As we were hurrying to our posts, Hoi commented, “I am surprised that it took so long for the word to get out about us.”

Of course, I did not have any idea what he was talking about, so I asked. He said, “What I meant was that the pirates would assume that we must be carrying something really valuable to have suddenly acquired a defensive force equipped with guns. I expected that they would hit us sooner in order to be the first to get what we were so diligently guarding. We had now wiped out two pirate gangs, so we must be worth capturing.”

Okay, now I understood. I finally remembered my earlier thought about Hoi commanding the defense. “Hoi, I would like for you to take over handling today’s defense, with me backing you up. You need the experience if you are ever going to have your own command.”

“Yes, Sir, Prince, if that is what you want.” Nothing more was said.

This time, it looked to me like we were facing one of the older, more experienced pirate crews. The junk was noticeably larger than the previous one, and the crew was larger and did not look as scruffy. I noticed that at least one man also was carrying a revolver, but I could not tell any more than that about his weapon.

The squad formed up and was issued their weapons, along with what was now the customary 20 shells each. I announced that Hoi was to be the commander for this operation. There was a look of dismay on the face of a couple of the men, but they continued to function as they had before, so I was not expecting any ill effects from the change in command.

This time, the junk appeared to be about twice as long as the previous junk, and I counted 22 pirates on the deck. With that many pirates, Hoi and I might have to take an active role in our defense. Nevertheless, I still planned to let Hoi be the commander unless disaster struck. We both had our shotguns, as was normal, so I hoped that Hoi would do me proud, but we could do a hell of a lot of damage if we were needed.

Hoi followed my tactics of letting the junk come alongside and heave their grappling hooks before the shooters were told to fire. He called for volley fire with the first shot, but the men were then free to fire as they were ready. The sea was a bit more choppy than we had previously experienced, so that first volley only resulted in four pirates being killed or wounded. However, the second barrel was fired so soon after the volley that the pirates had no time to react. The squad must of adjusted to the increased side-to-side motion of the two vessels, because they were able to take out six pirates this time.

The defenders had been able to take out almost half of the pirates attacking us, and it looked to me like the pirates had not expected such an effective defense. I guessed that they had expected rifles, not shotguns, so they had not expected such effective defensive fire.

Shooting down is not as easy as it sounds, but all of the men had practiced against targets floating close to the ship, so they had some useful experience in aiming down. This seemed to disconcert the pirates, and they immediately backed off. They cut loose the ropes running to their grappling hooks and turned away as if to escape.

Well, that was more than Hoi could stand. He joined the shooting and aimed at the helmsman. The man fell when Hoi fired, but whether or not he was dead was still open to argument. It did not make any difference. Something happened essentially at that moment, and the junk whipped around so that its wooden bow smashed against our steel side. The collision happened with enough force that there was a great hole ripped in the left side of the junk. The squad was still firing at the pirates, so there was nothing that they could do about the hole in their vessel.