Chapter 26: Mountain Isle

When we left Safety Bay for Mountain Isle, we were down to forty-some-odd ships. We’d sent two warships back with the convoy, but we’d turned Eagle 2 into a warship so we still had seven plus our six escorts. Of course, since Flying Arrow was serving as the King’s flagship and Eaglet was used as a message courier, it was really only six and five.

We still had thirty transports, plus one fat pig of a cargo ship we were using as a supply ship. We called it the “Larder”. With the men spread out among all the ships, none of them were too cramped.

I know, nobody else cares about all the numbers. Get on with the story, Jason. Only, that’s part of the story, dammit. The numbers were a large part of my job. I wasn’t a “Y’all follow me!” leader here so much as a resource manager like an accountant.

As Baron Jayport, I was responsible for a fleet, a base, a baby shipyard, and a thousand or so of our men out here, between the sailors and the soldiers. All of my men needed transport, food, and water, and no one was going to organize it all except for me or one of the Heros and they all had their own concerns. Maybe someone else could deal with all the details after I’d shown them what to do and what to worry about, but until I had a staff I could trust it was all on my shoulders. Believe me, I was working on the staff!

As Duke of the Marshes, I was responsible for several more ships from Widemouth and another couple thousand men from Widemouth and the Long Lake. Thankfully, that hat allowed me to feed everyone from the “Duke’s farms”.

The big hat was Lord High Admiral of the Hunter Island Royal Fleet. King Tom and Sir Tony were trusting me to get all these people where they needed to be, well fed, properly supplied, and as well rested as they could get on these tiny ships. After five years on the water I didn’t sweat our battles anywhere near as much as I sweated how much food and drinking water we had.

We also had one of Michael’s ships with us. The Mayor had offered to send some people with us to help us navigate and identify who we were looking for, but we had pointed out that we couldn’t promise to bring them back. We’d probably be going straight to Central Isle once Mountain Isle had been dealt with. Further, we didn’t think it proper to just leave his people on Mountain Isle after we were done, as the surviving locals would probably not be happy. They needed a way to get home after we were done.

We had finally agreed to let one of his ships accompany us, sort of as neutral observers for the wargames. He vetoed sending one of his faster warships, as he didn’t really trust us to not take it with us when we were done. That was fine with us. Whatever he wanted to send, as long as it could keep up with the transports. And as long as they didn’t mind us putting thirty or so Marines onboard to ensure that nobody tried to warn Prince Alfred ahead of time that he had guests coming.

He sent what was probably the least valuable of his ships with us, a cargo ship. It was short, wide, and slow. It had a fancy name, “Meadow Crest” or something, but we took to referring to it as “Michael’s Cow”. I don’t think the crew liked it, but what were they going to do? They could scowl, or they could laugh. Either would have the same effect on us. It got stuck with the transports and the Mayor’s advisors/observers/spies stayed on Flying Arrow so that they could converse with Tom.

We were headed to Mountainside City, at the south end of David’s Cut The Cut was about a third of the way from the eastern end on the north side of Mountain Isle. If we’d all realized how much trouble this would be earlier, we probably would have gone there first. It wasn’t just beating north against the wind to reach the island, we also had to tack back and forth to get between Mountain and Central Isles just to get on the north side, then again beat against the west-northwest wind for a couple of days to get to David’s Cut.

All of the brigs could tack back and forth and eventually get there. It was a lot of work, tacking every few hours, but it was a lot better than rowing. Everyone else, the transports and the Larder and the Cow, well, they had to row. Still, rowing for five days was a lot easier than rowing for several weeks, and that’s what the pirates all had to do when returning home from our corner of the world.

The fleet captured three more ships on our way. The ones from Mountain Isle and Central Isle were ours, there was no argument there. We were keeping them unless we decided to strip and sink them. One was purely a cargo ship and we added it to our gaggle. We would go through its cargo at our leisure. The other could be converted to a small warship, an escort, or a fast freighter if we wanted. We could put that off until later. Maybe we could sell it at one of the mainland cities.

The one that had come from Central Isle and was headed to Safety Bay was a source of disagreement, as the captain was known to our advisors and he quickly swore allegiance to Michael. The first I heard of this, of course, was when Eaglet came up looking for me, with “R1G8I” flying. That meant “(Repeated) Shark go to Flying Arrow immediately.”

We were out ahead of the fleet, scouting and hoping we could find another pirate ship to capture, so we put the rudder over as soon as we could read it and once we had the sails set to run downwind we passed by Eaglet to see what was going on. Actually, they came about also, but left most sails furled until we had caught up with them.

We ran downwind side by side until they’d answered every question they could, then Eaglet turned off on another errand for the King. That was fine, as long as it was available when we needed it.

They didn’t need my flagship to deal with a riot in the transports; they wanted me to go talk to Tom. I still hadn’t come up with a good way to identify VIPs. The letter “U” and a number would work, as long as everyone had the same list of VIPs, but did we really need that expansion? If we said that King Tom was VIP number one, and I was VIP number two, that could be “RU2GU1I” which was longer than the original.

And, it would leave the question of where I was to find the King. What if he’d moved from the last place I’d known him to be at? The original signal was better for that. Maybe “RU2G8I” for “Admiral Jason go to Flying Arrow”? That would be best, as it made it clear that I was the one needed. That signal would allow me to leave Shark, our biggest and best warship, on the job out looking for trouble if I was willing to move onto Eaglet as my taxi. Now THAT was worthwhile.

Who-all needed to be on the VIP list? Certainly, the King and Sir Tony and Eric if he was here. Me as fleet admiral. Basically, anyone who was responsible for more than one unit. My senior captains who acted as squadron commanders, like Filo. The senior army officers who commanded entire landing forces, like Widemouth’s Commander.

It looked like the VIP list would have to change with every operation, unlike the rest of the signal list which could be stable for centuries. That wasn’t a big deal; we had less than a dozen people who might be tasked separately from their unit. I had my list written out on a waxboard starting with Tom, Tony, and myself as 1, 2, and 3 before we pulled up beside Flying Arrow.

It gave us a little more flexibility. I could be singled out as “U3”. Or, my ship could be singled out as “1”. Last, the ‘group’ flag let my whole force be tasked with “1V”. We even had an ‘except’ code in “UX” so if Tony was bogged down in an assault somewhere and needed more men and wanted all the transports but didn’t want the King to go into danger, he could send “8VUX8” and get all the transports but not Flying Arrow itself.

Anyway, Tom wanted my thoughts on the latest captured ship. That seemed simple to me. We shouldn’t be bothering Michael’s ships, but Pelican hadn’t been one of Michael’s ships when we captured it. Its crew only claimed to be with Michael after we had captured it and they got to talk to the Mayor’s men. It was a legitimate prize.

Next, we really only had three choices. We could keep it. That would annoy Michael and his men, but they had no grounds for complaint. It was never their ship in the first place. We could give it to Michael. That would annoy our men who had risked their lives to eliminate a danger to our people. At this point, we had so much loot and treasure that everyone on the expedition was going to be counted a wealthy man, so one more ship wasn’t going to hurt us. We certainly didn’t need another ship, but we shouldn’t just take away our men’s due share simply because they already had some.

Or, we could find some way to split the ship between the two sides. I didn’t even bring up the fourth option of “just let it go again”. That wasn’t happening.

“What is its cargo?”

“It’s mixed. Some food, some metal-ware, some timbers. Other stuff.”

Right, wood wasn’t exactly rare on the islands, but they were running out of trees. Wood was used in buildings, in ships and boats, and as fuel for heating and cooking. Everyone cut whatever trees they had for immediate use instead of leaving enough to keep growing more.

They had no central authority to make them leave the trees alone, and it wouldn’t be long before they completely ran out. Wood was already valuable enough to make it worth the trouble of transporting it from one island to another.

“Well, we don’t need the cargo, do we? We don’t need it here for the fleet, and Hunter Island doesn’t need it either. What is the metal-ware?”

“Mostly copper and brass items. Pots and household items.”

“Hunter Island could use that, but Widemouth is making enough copper, brass, and bronze to sell elsewhere.” I looked at Michael’s ‘advisors’. “Is the cargo valuable to you?”

They all bobbed their heads. The one who acted as their spokesman said “Very. We can always use food, we have little metal, and we are running out of trees.”

“Perhaps Hunter Island could sell you what you need. We have food, we have metals, and we have trees.”

I turned back to Tom, the King. “Since we don’t need the ship, and we don’t need the cargo, I recommend turning Pelican over to Michael with a request that he pay us half of the value for both, the same way we’ve been doing with other ships we catch. It’s a good test. If Michael wants to be our friend, he’ll send us a ship with the payment. If we don’t get that payment within a couple of months, we’ll know that Michael isn’t really our friend.”

He replied “Right. And we will come and replace him the same way we replaced Landon.”

Sir Tony interjected “Wait. Why don’t you people have banks? Your Mayor should be able to use them to pay his debts instead of sending a ship.”

I wanted to know that, too. Eric should have been able to take his Damsel into the local bank instead of sailing all the way to Widemouth.

Their spokesman said “We don’t know. I have heard that we once had banks in our cities like the mainland cities have. I suspect that they got tired of constantly being robbed.”

Huh. If each bank had access to a portal like I thought, no robbery attempt was going to get anything from the bank itself. The bank’s ‘vault’, if it even had one, probably wasn’t on the same planet as the bank. The robbers might get something from the customers, but not from the bank itself. On an island that had a timber shortage, destroying the building for its wood would probably earn the robbers a better payoff.

Tony suggested “Well, if Mayor Michael can impose order on Safety Bay and prevent robberies, maybe the bank people will come back. Having a bank in your city makes a lot of things easier.”

“We will pass that suggestion on, Sir Tony.”

That was about it. Politically, Tom needed to show that he wasn’t sacrificing his peoples’ safety for his own reasons. I’d supported doing what he wanted, giving Pelican to Michael, even making it seem like it was my idea to get him off the hook. We’d get paid for it, so the men would be happy. Michael got both the ship and the cargo, so he and his men would be happy. And the crew didn’t get enslaved, which would probably make them happy, too.

After that was done, I showed Tom, Tony, and the other officers my suggestion for identifying VIPs in signals before I took off again. They understood my examples. I was right, they hadn’t needed Shark but calling the ship in was the only way to get me. Using the “U” and a number would be better.

Vengeance captured one more pirate ship right after we had passed between Mountain Isle and Central Isle, while we were beating west along the coast. That one was full of troublemakers. I mean, it carried about two hundred and thirty or so men. They had come from one of the smaller islands surrounding Big Isle and they were on their way to Central Isle to offer their services to the King of the Isles in his campaign to re-conquer all the other Pirate Isles.