Chapter 8: Earning her reprieve

I knocked on the Captain's office and was duly summoned into the room.

'I have moved Suzanne's uniform into my quarters, Captain'

'Good', replied the Captain beaming and sent both Suzanne and myself on our ways with a list of jobs. The first one was for Suzanne to hurl her illicit drugs into the ocean, and then we started on cleaning the main deck which had accumulated a surprising amount of grime and dirt from only three days on the open sea. Suzanne wasn't prepared to talk much and the Captain had notified the duty Commander, so word was getting round the crew pretty quickly.

It was tense with other girls on the deck as they eyed us suspiciously. I was grateful when the Lieutenant Anne asked the Captain if I could be sent to the Crows Nest, to pass food, and a message onto Tara.

The climb to top of the mast was difficult with the strong wind, but I managed in less than five minutes. Tara was busy relieving herself in a glass jar when I arrived and averted my eyes until she had finished.

'Well there is hardly a toilet up here', the slim 21-year-old muttered as she hauled her shorts up. I dragged up the basket into the floor of the Crows Nest and shut the hatch.

'I didn't say a word', I replied and handed her a flask of water and some meat pie wrapped in a red gingham cloth.

'Cheers!', she said downing half the water in one gulp.

'Have you heard about Suzanne?', I asked her.

'Suzanne who?', Tara answered, stuffing the meat pie in her mouth. I dutifully recounted the events of the last two hours and her eyes widened.

'Fuck! Well you never know do you? I thought she was sound', Tara told me and passed me back the empty flask.

'Well she only made one mistake', I answered and Tara looked at me.

'You need to be able to trust everyone on your crew. Everyone needs to be honest as when we board a vessel it's the difference between life and death', she told me forcefully.

'And you trust me? Or not? I made several mistakes before I ended up here, which on the face of it is a big fuck up'

Tara looked thoughtful. 'Yes, I think I do. I don't know why but I think if I needed you, you would be there.'

'Really?'

'Hmmmmmnnn ... yeah I think so' came the reply from the bronzing girl. She was busy scanning the horizon as I was packing the remnants of her lunch into the basket.

'Fuck!', she cried out and reached for her binoculars. 'There is a cargo ship, on the horizon due East'.

'QUICK!', she shouted at me.'OUT OF THE WAY'. Tara dived down the hatch and was nearly at the bottom before I had even made it to the first platform. I reached the deck just as the Captain was running into the Navigation Room. I instinctively followed them in, but stayed at the back of the room as excited voices poured over the map.

'Tara and John – go back up there and track the ship. I want hourly updates. If we are getting too close come down immediately and tell us to change course. We will strike at sundown. I want all the crew resting except for Tara, Anne, John and myself. No games. No alcohol, just rest.', the Captain ordered. Bodies filed out of the room leaving just the Captain and myself.

'Captain... ', I ventured, and she turned to look at me.

'What?', she asked fiercely. 'I want you up in the Crows Nest'

'Yes, Captain... '. I was floundering under her gaze. 'It's just ... will you let me fight with you tonight?'

'Cabin Boy ... you have been given an order. If you are not in that Crows Nest within sixty seconds I will throw you overboard before we even reach midday. OUT'

I scampered up to the top of the mast so quickly I had nearly caught Tara up. She smirked as I clambered into the nest and peered over the top.

'Long way down', I told her, but she was focusing on the ship.

'It's a big one', she told me, staring at the spot in the distance through her binoculars.

'Can they see us?', I asked.

'Probably not', Tara replied. 'I checked when I was on the deck. You can't see it. It's only just visible up here'

'So if they had binoculars they might see the nest and the mast?', I asked.

'Yeah ... but they would be getting away from us if they could, and they aren't changing direction at all'

Tara and I had a good chat in the Crow's Nest. It turned out that she came from Cadder too, but moved to Hamilton when she was young. She had a boyfriend, Dave, but was thinking of dumping him because he didn't stay faithful to her and wasn't exciting in the bedroom. He is her fourth boyfriend, who also previously dated her older sister, who in turn is a Captain in the Regular Navy. My life story, which Tara was interested in was constantly interrupted by me needing to give updates as to the position of our target and descending the ladders to reach the deck. On a number of occasions, Tara told me to order a change of direction as we were drifting too far away, or getting too close. Anne had plotted the approximate path of the ship on the map and estimated the direction we needed to take.

As the sun began to set, I was getting excited. Anxious to see if the Captain would let me be part of the raid, but worried about the risk too. This was easily the most exciting thing I had ever done and Tara sent me down to the see the Captain fifteen minutes before the Sun set for the last time. The sky was alight but it was dark climbing down the ladder and I nearly fell.

The ship changed course and we began to close in on the unsuspecting cargo ship. As quietly as possible, the three Commanders were organising the girls while I stood next to the Captain running errands. Music began blaring out from the ship as we closed in. Despite the low light, the ship was coming clearly into focus and thirty pirates were lined up on the side of the ship, with their cutlasses in their mouths. Ropes were ready to be thrown overboard to assist in landing but even though we were out of sight on the Upper Deck, it was clear there was no-one aboard.