Chapter 15: Aba's story

3 August, 1686 Late Evening

After completing his inspection Aba flexed his left arm trying to relieve some of the tightness in his bicep. He had strained a muscle while bellying-up the far aft port cannon and was working it out. His assessment of the Maidens Revenge's weaponry was that all eight cannons were in proper working order and that the ship was well supplied with both powder and ammunition. He had not found any small hand weapons such as pistols, rifles, knifes or sabers normally stored in the magazine locker but he would ask Captain O' Daire about that later. One major concern he did have was with such a small number of crewmen available they would only be able to support two or at the very most three cannons at any time, and to make matters even worse that estimate was based on having well trained powder monkeys available, not women.

Not that knowing the crew's makeup beforehand would have changed anything; he would have signed on even if the crew were comprised entirely of cabin boy's, for no other reason than Jack Scarlet had asked. What he had told Captain O' Daire was as true as the North Star, if Jack Scarlet ask him to sail with him to hell, he would board without question.

Six years past Portuguese slave traders had kidnapped him from the African coast and shipped him to Europe. He was purchased by a Dutch trading company and used on their ships as a bilgy and to load and unload cargo. On their ships, he was always kept chained, or sometimes shackled wrist to wrist or ankle to ankle to one or more other slaves, and stuffed between decks in spaces too low for standing. The heat was often unbearable, and the air nearly unbreathable. Often did he think many of the inhabitants of the deep much happier than himself, and in all probability would have jumped overboard given the opportunity.

Then the Dutch trading company sent him on a armed merchant vessel to the new world, on the return trip the pirate Captain Calico Jack had seized the Dutch trader and because the merchant ship's Captain had thought he out-gunned the pirate sloop he called their bluff and fought, which lead to a complete slaughter of the entire merchant crew. Calico Jack having no use for a black slave had ordered his men to dispatch with Aba when Jack Scarlet had stepped in. Although at the time Aba could not understand English he later learned that Scarlet had lied to Calico Jack telling him that Aba had served with him as the top powder monkey aboard Henry Morgan's ship. Always having a need for skillful powder monkey's Calico Jack agreed to take Aba aboard his ship "the Adventure" with the stipulation of any trouble and Scarlet would pay with his own head.