Chapter 11: Pirates II

I assume that everyone who could hear the cry and see the channel turned to watch, but I don’t know. I was too busy watching Gertrude cycle, and the rock arching up, out, and down. It was a good shot, and the lead ship slowly slid right into the target area.

That first shot didn’t sink the ship, but it went through some rigging and smashed into something on the far side of the ship. Now, THAT caused pandemonium! The ship turned some, and then stopped moving. If they’d come at dawn they’d have been able to see the mudflats, but by now the water was probably a half-foot deep, half tide, and the mudflats were all hidden.

The second ship turned to go around it, and then stopped. By the time we realized that they were both aground, the third ship was coming between them.

Gertrude was drawn back again as quickly as possible, and another rock loaded for a second shot. Unfortunately, it missed that third ship. Emily was standing by to try once it got closer, and when Emily’s team captain thought the range was right it fired, too. That shot also missed. After that, there wasn’t anything else our artillery could do until the ship was much closer. Still, for the moment the pirates had been reduced from three shiploads to only one, and that gave us far better odds if we had to fight it out on the docks.

The pirates could pick and choose where they wanted to land. We had no way to control or predict that. Because of that, our cruise missile launcher had been positioned towards the west end of the town, towards the sea. It was on a flat spot just inside the wall, about five or six feet above the river, with the crossbow set to shoot straight across or maybe down a little. No matter what, any ship coming upriver past the moat and the wall and the strongpoint we had built where the wall met the river, had to go either towards it or past it to land.

We couldn’t see the launcher from the War Room, it was behind a building from us, but when the third pirate ship slowly passed by that spot everyone in town could hear the noise when it fired. And, the screams of anger from the crew afterwards. Clearly, it would have to be rebuilt before we could use it again. I hoped everyone was clear and no one got hurt.

From our vantage point we could see the shot itself and its results. We had no need for explosive shells, when we had armor-piercing ammunition! The tree-trunk went in one side of the ship and apparently out the other side too, with splinters going flying in every direction. Wooden ships are built strong enough to withstand the sea, but no stronger than that because it would just make them heavier for no good reason. Without powerful engines, heavier means more tiring for the rowers.

Where the missile entered, the hull was stove in and broken, but the hole was above the waterline. I couldn’t tell if the exit hole was above or below the waterline, but it wasn’t more than a few seconds before pirates were dropping their weapons and climbing into the rigging. Before long, it was obvious even from our distance that the ship was sinking.

I turned to the Commander and suggested “Let’s keep Gertrude ready in case that fourth ship shows up, and have Emily try to destroy the other two ships before they get loose. If you don’t mind, I’ll go look at how bad the crossbow is.”

He nodded, then beckoned to one of his messengers and told him “Go with Lord Jason and pass those orders on with my approval. If they have any questions, have them ask Lord Jason.”

“Hold Gertrude ready for a fourth ship, use Emily for the last two, yes, Commander.”

That was another thing I’d been pushing. I didn’t want any unnecessary formality when it wasn’t needed, but any time tactical orders were given, I pushed for whoever got the orders to repeat them back to make sure that there was no confusion, the order received was the same as the order given.

Back down the stairs. The Commander should be able to win the land-side battle without any more help, now. We’d have to deal with pirates who had swum ashore, but they would be almost unarmed. We could use the fishermen and other townspeople, plus a few of the guards and militia from the docks, for that. The rest of the people who had been defending the docks could go help man the walls.

When we got to the trebuchets, Gertrude’s crew was bitching about how miserable it was going to be to shift it to fire at the two grounded ships. I just smiled and nodded at the messenger. His orders changed Gertrude’s crew to bitching about not having anything to do, so I suggested they help shift Emily.

Emily’s crew was already working on that and taking bets for how long it would take to hit each one. Unfortunately, with what had originally been the third ship now sunk, and the first ship back in deeper water and drifting downriver, what had originally been the second ship was the only one still in range by the time they were ready to fire again.

That ship’s crew was working on getting it afloat again, but by the second or third shot Emily was getting close enough that they abandoned it, using a couple of small boats to get to the riverbank. Not quite the result we wanted, as they would all join the pirates outside our gates, but at the same time they would be almost empty-handed with no food or water.

After thinking about that for a few minutes, I asked Emily’s crew to stop while someone went to ask the Commander if we could take some men on a couple of our boats to go take possession of the grounded ship. If we could capture it, we’d get whatever supplies it still had as well as denying them to the pirates.

That messenger came back with three orders. First, yes, do it, take a dozen men from the docks, half of them archers, and take possession of the grounded ship. If they and our boats can get it free, either bring it up to town or anchor it in deep water upriver of the town. Second, Lord Jason will remain in the town and NOT go with the boarding team. Third, one of the fishing boats was to take a half-dozen militia or hunters across the river to kill any pirate who swam to that side. We had no way to take their surrender over there; if they wanted to surrender they had to swim to the docks where we could put them under guard.

The Commander was right. It may have been my idea, but I had no business going on a possible boarding action with cutlass, axe, and sword. And what did I know about running a medieval cargo ship? My place was in town, ensuring that we got the most use possible out of our artillery.

Speaking of artillery, I visited our cruise missile launcher. I laughed at its crew for breaking their tools, but I also congratulated them on being on target with their very first war-shot. They had eliminated, by themselves, the single most dangerous threat to Widemouth. With it out of the way, all we had to do was keep the remaining pirates outside of the wall and we would all be fine.

I also named their crossbow the “Killer Bee”, as it could kill anything it stung but also killed itself. They laughed at that. Besides, it would be ready to go again in less than an hour. Knowing what would happen, the carpenters had prepared several spare clamps for each of the large crossbows. All they had to do was dismantle the wreckage and reassemble it with a new clamp. Certainly, it would be ready to use again long before the fourth ship could get upriver even if it did show up.

Maybe, after this pirate visit had been dealt with, we could make some clamps out of steel and the Bee could sting as often as it wanted without injury. I guess we’d have to rename it the “Hornet” then.

I also visited the catapults and arrow-engines stationed behind both gates, but they didn’t need anything I could give them. They had already heard about what had happened on the river, and they all congratulated me for saving the town. Well, it wasn’t quite saved yet, but knowing that the other machines had done their part and their backs were safe made them feel a lot better about all the pirates in front of them.

After that I went back up to the War Room. I didn’t have anything else to do. The pirates spent the rest of the afternoon reorganizing with all the men who’d gotten off the ships. We spent the rest of the afternoon salvaging the captured ship.

That was a real job. Once we had some men on it and they were sure they could hold it against attack, they had sent back for more help. The pirates tried to argue about it, but the first thing the fishermen had done was to tow off the boats the pirates had left on the bank. There wasn’t anything the pirates could do unless they wanted to wade out into the mud again, and that was a losing proposition with archers on the ship.

Our people ended up with three different fishing boats anchored in the river and pulling on cables attached to the ship, while twenty or thirty men walked back and forth on the ship, rocking it with their weight. Everyone to one rail, then when the ship started to roll that way everyone to the other rail, over and over until it started to slide free. The rising tide probably did more than anything else to re-float the ship, but I’d give the men the credit.

After that, the ship was towed, rowed, and sailed upriver and docked where we could keep an eye on it. That had to piss off the pirates, having one ship sunk, another one crippled and run off, and the third captured. The ship was filthy, but it was also a treasure trove of arms, supplies, and assorted booty they had collected in other raids and never gotten rid of.

The Commander mentioned in passing that he had decided that the contents belonged to the town, in compensation for the cost of repelling this attack. The ship itself should be half owned by the town, since they did all the work in capturing it, but the other half ownership was mine since I had saved the town, built the engines that made destroying or capturing the ship possible, and then suggested this operation before it was too late.

I asked how much such a ship was worth, and he said ships were anywhere from two or three hundred Conchs for a small one up to maybe a thousand Conchs for a nice new big one, but it didn’t matter. Whatever value the town council assigned to it, there was no way the town was going to cough up enough cash to pay off my half, so I was stuck with half ownership regardless of what the council decided.

If I wanted, I could get appointed as Captain and take the ship out trading, but I’d have to split all the profits with the council since they owned half of it. I didn’t have a problem with that, as long as the council also split all the costs of repairing, outfitting, and manning it. If they didn’t want to do that, then they could sell their half to me or someone else who would pay to put it back in use.

What I had a problem with was being in command of a ship I knew absolutely nothing about. I’d have to be owner-aboard, with a real captain actually running the ship until I knew what I was doing.

Anyway, that was a problem for another day. Right now, we still had about three hundred or so pirates outside our gates. I didn’t think it was much of a siege, since we could just cross the river and go do whatever we wanted. Maybe it was them with the problem, since they had limited food and no shelter.

If they wanted to drink from the river, they had all the water they needed. If they did that then they were drinking whatever all the upstream villages had dumped in it. Certainly, Widemouth treated the river as a sewer. I had to assume that Epper’s Mill and every other upstream village did, too. A nice thunderstorm would make them completely miserable. I couldn’t see this ‘siege’ lasting much longer than another couple of days. One way or another, the pirates couldn’t stay out there for long. In fact...

“Sir, how long would it take for them to march to Epper’s Mill? They probably don’t have much food or water, and Epper’s Mill doesn’t have any defenders or even a wall.”