Chapter 31: Our Second Ship

We ended up with about twenty prisoners, most of them wounded in one way or another. Their archers had killed two of ours, an archer and a deck seaman, as well as wounding a few more men. The Commander’s training was paying off, though, as none of his Guards or militia spearmen were wounded. One Guard had a sprain from tripping over a not-quite-dead-yet body and we had the usual rash of smashed thumbs and bruised arms and legs, but that was it.

The pirates only had four captives, all women. Two were in the officers’ cabins and didn’t look too bad beyond being filthy, exhausted, and traumatized. The other two were down in the hold and were in far worse shape. I had our women -Ceecee, Donna, and the three seamen’s ‘wives’ who lived up forward- take charge of all four of them and see if they could be saved.

As before, I had all bodies completely stripped before tossing them over the side. All had a weapon of some sort, most had money, and almost all had assorted jewelry. Two of the officers had rings that looked like Eric’s! I grabbed both of them, to put on a string around my neck. Maybe when we got back to Widemouth...

I didn’t tell Donna, though. As beautiful as she was, I was getting everything I needed from Ceecee. Donna wasn’t getting anything. She’d be on that like stink on shit, badgering me to go to the bank the minute we tied up to the pier.

This time, as soon as the fighting was over I had Matto put a boat in the water and go gather up all the dropped oars as well as anything else he found. Bodies, too, although if he wanted to strip them on the spot he could toss them back in the water when he was done. He brought back several oars, some clothes and other stuff, and he even towed back Jen’s cruise missile. It had two feathers ripped off, but that was repairable.

This time, I told Matto and the other officers that we needed to make ‘lower a boat to collect everything’ a standing order, something that was done every time we got in a fight whether I remembered to order it or not. If there was any question, they could ask if I wanted the boat lowered. They should expect my reply to be “Oh, yes, of course. I forgot.”

The cargo was the same assortment that we’d found in the other ships. The captain’s cabin had several chests, and they held jewelry and money. Nothing like what we’d found on my ship, but it would help pay the crew, and my share would help buy the ship if I wanted to keep it.

It didn’t take me long at all to decide that I wanted to keep this ship. It was a little smaller than the Wrong Place, about eighty or eighty-five feet long, but if we shifted the mast aft and added a foremast and bowsprit like we’d done on this one, there would be enough room in the waist to put a single launcher between the masts.

There was already room as it was, just aft of the mast. We could either cut the forward cabin some and put it in the waist, or we could build up the cabin more and put it on top. However, the current rig was optimized for rowing and I didn’t like that. If we turned it into a brig, though, the launcher would have to go in the waist between the masts.

I’m not sure I could explain exactly why I didn’t like galleys. Maybe it was just because I wouldn’t want to spend a whole voyage rowing. I was willing to row when needed, but I couldn’t see rowing all the way across the ocean. I’d much rather improve the rig and let the wind do the work.

Once again we ended up killing a couple of the surviving pirates before the remainder were willing to do what they were told. Each one was stripped and then allowed to re-dress after their clothing had been inspected for weapons and valuables. After that, they were put to work rowing and cleaning the ship while we did what we could to improve the rig.

Simply replacing the yard’s stays with adjustable lines allowed us to swing the yard. It couldn’t sail as close to the wind as Wrong Place could, but it was better than it had been. After a couple of hours seeing how slow the ship was -maybe we COULD have caught them rowing- we stopped again to see what we could do.

We spent some time with the ship heeled as far as we dared to one side, while the pirates went over the high side, scraping everything they could off the hull. They could reach a few feet under water with broken oars and other tools. Once we were satisfied that they’d done all they could, we heeled the ship the other way. It wasn’t much but again every little bit helped. The less drag on the hull, the easier it would be to row and the faster the ship could go. When we got home we’d pull it out and clean the hull properly.

We also ended up tossing some of the cargo and ballast overboard. That didn’t do much either, but the less the ship weighed the less hull there would be in the water. Even simply getting all the water out of the bilges helped lighten the ship.

We learned that the ship, named Thunder of the South, was out of New Isle. That was one of the Pirate Isles that was feuding with South Isle. They had captured it from the South Isle people. That may have been why it had “South” in its name. Apparently they had taken a cargo ship named Dolphin off the mainland several days before, and had sent it back to New Isle with about a third of their crew. They couldn’t just give it the minimum crew to sail the ship, as they had to pass South Isle and might have to fight off their ships before they got home.

They had hung around the mainland for a few more days looking for anyone else, and had decided yesterday to go on home. If they caught up with their prize, they could escort it to safety. Hmmm. Was their prize something that we should try to catch? We were going that way anyway.

When the crew heard that the Dolphin had several barrels of ale they all voted for catching it. It wasn’t Long Cut ale, the pirates agreed that that was the best, but it was still good stuff and if we caught up with the ship we’d get it for free.

This time I gave Filo Lieutenant Jono and his entire duty section’s sailors, with the usual orders to head for Widemouth, plus ‘acting Guard Commander’ Tomas to lead four shieldmen and ten militia. I was keeping everybody else so I could fight if I ran across anyone else. I also left him a third of the money in the chests, so that if he got to a port without us he could pay the crew.

I took with me the only surviving officer, a rather coarse individual who seemed to think that he should command simply because he was bigger than me. If all he respects is size, then we’ll do this by size. I accepted his reasoning, told him that he was right and he should only obey someone bigger and stronger than him, and asked Big John to beat him senseless.

When he woke up, I named him ‘Ox” and told him that he would be beaten by a bigger man every time he disagreed with me. From then on, any time he acted disrespectful or dismissive I had Big John beat him. Ox seemed to come around fairly quickly. I suspected that Big John might also be getting some personal services from Ox, but I didn’t want to know. Don’t ask, don’t tell.

I promoted Big John, Garth, and Jen to acting Lieutenants. I didn’t think that Big John was anywhere near as bright as Michael was, but as long as he had me, Matto, and Michael available he could stand a watch on the quarterdeck so the rest of us could get some sleep. If we got into a fight I wanted Garth and Jen at their launchers, but meanwhile it could only help us to have more officers who could run a ship. Thunder was going to need a Captain and at least two lieutenants, right? And warship officers didn’t exactly grow on trees.

Phil and Mickey were positive that the prize ship would be rowed and they would make good way during the day, but that they would lay to, anchor, or even beach the ship at night. They were heading almost straight into the steady east wind so they couldn’t use their sails, and the rowers needed to rest every night so that they could row the next day. They would stay in sight of the island just to keep their position, then when they reached the corner where we found Sea Fortune they would head a quarter north of west and keep going until they reached the Isles.

I would call that west-northwest or WNW, but everyone was different. Sure, a half north of west would be ‘northwest’, and a quarter north of west would be half of that. WNW.

Without compasses, chronometers, sextants, and star tables, all they could go by was dead reckoning and pilotage. The Pirate Isles were WNW of the southwest corner of Hunter Island, almost dead into the wind. They’d be rowing for a long time.

We would have to tack back and forth. We would head southwest, as close to the wind as we could, for half of the day. Then, we would tack back to the northwest until we closed on the island. Hopefully, no one rowing due west with the island just on the horizon would be able to avoid us.

Oh, yeah. Everyone with us on this voyage from Small Cove to Widemouth just got their pay doubled. From two to four Pinches, for the crew. From one to two, for the trainees. Filo goes from five as a senior lieutenant to ten as prize captain, doubled to twenty because of the combat. For the passengers, two times zero is still zero, though.

We caught up to the Dolphin after three days. They had a long journey ahead of them, at their speed. When they saw us coming up from the south, they reversed course to east and raised their sail but that didn’t make them any faster, really. It just allowed the rowers to fight.

Ox agreed that it was their prize, and the prize captain was a fine fellow named Bart. More formally, he was Ugly Bart, if we needed to differentiate between two or three different Barts. We pulled up beside them, furled the mainsail, and did our best to match their speed. When we hailed them they said they were the free trader Porpoise, out of the mainland with a cargo for New Isle.

I was keeping Big John handy in case any training was needed, and told him that this time, when Ox passed out, he should just pitch him over the side. Food was expensive and good drinking water hard to get. If he was going to lie to us, we had no reason to waste our food and water by feeding him.

“I swear, I’m not lying. That’s Ugly Bart. And Simin right beside him, with the cutlass out.”

“What was their cargo?”

“Ale and pork. Salted pork in barrels, for the Brotherhood. I don’t know what else.”

We ourselves could use both. It would be better if we could heat food, but still it was something that would keep body and soul together. I picked up the trumpet again. “Lay to, and stand by to be boarded. We are going to inspect your cargo.”