Chapter 13: In Pursuit

Everyone stayed at the railing watching the distance between the ships with interest. By late afternoon it was obvious Jake’s ship was slowly gaining; however, it was not going to be possible for them to catch them until dark. The two captains considered trying a cannon shot at the pirates, but they realized the distance was too great to have any luck and make an effective hit. Jake remarked, “I am concerned they will change course after dark and head in another direction, then we’ve lost them.”

The old admiral stared after the fleeing ship and shrugged his shoulders, “I know, but what can we do? Once the sun is down, all they have to do is make sure there are no visible lights on board, and then move in any direction they please.”

Jake smiled at the Frenchman, “That gives me an idea. Let’s make sure we don’t have any visible lights. There is no point in letting them know where we are. Agreed?”

“Yes. I’ll speak to the natives, and you give orders to the crew about no lights.” The two sailors moved among the crew explaining what they were doing. Finally, the sun was gone, and twilight faded into darkness. Just when both men feared they had lost the pirate ship to the cloak of darkness, an almost full moon slipped from behind some clouds bathing the sea in bright light.

The stark contrast between the black hull of the fleeing ship and the white of the sails made for an eerie sight, the sails appeared to move through the night without any support. Even though it wasn’t a full moon, the pirate ship’s sails were illuminated like it was high noon, and unless the moon slipped behind a cloud for a long period, the pirate ship remained visible, and easily followed. The crew members were able to watch the pirate ship throughout the night.

The two sailors noticed their assumptions were correct about the pirates changing course to slip away. The pirate’s ship tried dropping off to starboard, hoping they could sneak away in the dark. Jake ordered the helmsman to correct course and the bow came around to keep heading for the pirate ship.

Throughout the night the two ships sailed on, each one trying to maximize the efficiency of their sails. Dawn started to lighten the eastern sky and Jake and Destand noticed during the night they had gained on the fleeing ship. With luck, by mid-afternoon, they would be in firing range.

The vessels raced on for the next few hours. Jake’s ship was a nest of activity as the natives worked with the ship’s crew trying to improve their speed in moving the cannons into firing position. They also worked on ways to shorten the time needed to reload until finally, the crew felt they had the natives as ready as possible, and now all they could do was to wait for the two ships to draw close enough to fire.

Towards noon, without any warning, the pirate ship suddenly fell off the wind and their sails went slack. For some reason the pirate ship had turned away from the wind and now sat with limp sails, rocking in the waves. Destand quickly instructed the crew to take down some of their sails; however, despite that order, the distance between the two ships decreased rapidly.

Jake turned to the old Admiral, “What do you think they’re doing?”

“Perhaps they feel their best chance is to just stop and fight it out. We discussed this before; I am sure they have no idea how many men we have. My guess is since they knew how many of the crew was left from The Elizabeth, they feel they have us outmanned.” Destand shrugged his shoulders, “Or at least they feel the odds are as good as they are ever going to be.”

Nodding, Destand added, “I doubt if they know we have the natives aboard.” Destand then clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Yes! They must feel they have the advantage and want to fight us now.” Jake watched as the older man’s enthusiasm started to wane, “But the thing that troubles me ... if I were the captain, I would never make such an assumption.”

Jake shook his head, “From what I’ve seen so far from the pirate’s is their tendency not think things all the way through. Sir, the more I think about it, I firmly believe the pirates think they have us short manned and they want to fight us now.”

Destand stared at the pirate ship rocking with the waves. “I certainly hope you’re correct. In addition, they have no idea about our native crew, and they also are not aware some of the natives know how to shoot a cannon.” No sooner had Destand finished speaking than they saw a puff of smoke come from one of the cannons mounted on the stern of the pirate ship. A few moments later they saw the splash from a cannon ball not too far from their bow, and then they heard the cannon’s roar. Looking at the pirate ship they noticed a large piece of the poop deck and much of the railing from the ship’s stern was missing.

Jake pointed to the pirate ship, and asked, “Sir, look! What do you think happened?”

With a chuckle, Destand answered, “I’d say they got greedy and put too much power in their cannon shot. See, over on the main deck there,” Destand pointed, and Jake saw the cannon lying on the deck. “Look! They even split the end of the cannon open. The recoil tore the cannon loose from the ship’s deck, and also tore out part of the stern.”

Jake instructed two of natives to go to the bow and make ready with the bow-cannon. Just as they were about to touch fire to the wick, they saw another puff of smoke come from the cannon on the other ship’s bow. This time the cannon ball landed much closer.

Jake gave the command to fire their bow cannon and the cannon roared with ear-piercing noise. Everyone held their breath, waiting to see where the ball would land. The ball struck and a hole appeared in the pirate ship at the water line on the starboard side. The members of Jake’s crew went wild. As quickly as they could, they reloaded the cannon. But before they could fire again, the pirate ship fired another volley. The pirate’s cannon ball still fell short just beside Jake’s vessel; but too much of the spray from the ball landed on the deck to suit either of the pair.

Destand called out, “That was too close. Can you see if you can hit a little higher, and perhaps put that cannon out of commission?”

“Let’s try.” By now, the two ships were much closer, and Jake instructed the native gunners how to aim their cannon higher. The gunners understood the concept of an arc and how to gage the movement of the ship. When the ship was in the correct position on a wave, they aimed their cannon at a location they thought would hit the upper level of the pirate ship.

Flames shot from the end of the cannon and again the noise made everyone’s ears ring. A few seconds later, they could see more parts of the railing across the stern of the pirate’s ship disappear in splinters and shards of wood. Jake’s crew watched as the pirates started running for cover.

Destand called down to the men manning the cannons below deck to make ready and then gave instructions to the helmsman how he wanted the two ships to pass by each other. The Admiral called for the crew to open the starboard cannon ports. They complied and shortly two rows of cannons stood grinning in their open portholes, ready to wreak havoc on the pirate ship.

Jake noticed the pirate ship also had pulled up some of their cannon portholes, but less than half were open. The young captain did not have the time to figure out why there were so few ports open on the pirate ship since he was too busy getting the bow cannon re-loaded. Jake heard Destand give the order for the main cannons to fire. One cannon after another fired from the top-tier, and then the bottom tier released its destructive load. Parts of the pirate ship seemed to vanish before their eyes. The pirates managed to shoot two of their cannons. One ball fell short of the ship and the other one struck high on the bow. As quickly as they could manage, Jake’s ship turned, and prepared to fire the cannons from their port battery.