|
Bright moonlight streamed through the open stern gallery windows. Venus rocked easily in the gentle swells as Allen paced along the back of his cabin. He puffed on his pipe, thinking that he would prefer the open deck. But he knew what O'Reilly would have to say about that. Of course it was his ship and he could do what he wanted, but he was right. The crew needed to be left alone to do their jobs.
He could always go up to the quarter deck, which was rightfully officer country, but what would be the point. There was nothing more to do there, and the crew would still be wondering what he was up to.
"The joy of the sea, and the loneliness of command," he said to himself, "and all that it entails."
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Yes."
"First Lieutenant's compliments and he reports that Mary Jane is showing two green lights on her mizzen yard."
"Thank you. I will be on deck in a moment."
Two days earlier, just after their close call with the Royal fleet the two Allen's had met and worked out a few signals they could use with each other. Now, apparently his father's ship had spotted something, or rather, two somethings.
A minute later he joined Cunningham on the quarterdeck. On the starboard beam, the moon was full and well above the eastern horizon. A silver shimmer shone across the water. Just ahead of moon's trail on the water Mary Jane was a ghostly cloud of sail. Two green lights hung from a yard on her mizzen mast.
Allen glanced up. Two similar lights hung from Venus' mizzen, acknowledging his father's signal.
"Evening cap'n."
"It is lovely up here. What has my father seen?"
"Not sure yet sir. He raised and lowered a white light as soon as we indicated we'd seen the signal. Whatever it is, they're off to starboard somewhere."
Allen nodded.
"I'd like to think that if they were closer to us we would have seen them first."
He sighed.
"I suppose father thinks he's going to deserve a larger share of the money."
"You're assuming there will be money. Besides, if there is money, won't he be entitled to a finders share?"
"It's not the money that bothers me, it will be having to listen to him bragging."
"Perhaps, you should worry about that after we take a prize."
Garibaldi and O'Reilly joined them on the quarterdeck, having checked on the men in other parts of the ship. Garibaldi chuckled quietly in the moonlight.
"Perhaps you can give him the joy of shepherding a nice Spanish family and their sheep."
Allen laughed.
"Yes, he missed that one. If that is what we have, I shall not complain if he wants a larger share."
He turned to the seaman handling the signals.
"Signal him to take the lead."
A few minutes later a light bobbed up and down on a rope at Venus' foremast. Mary Jane turned to starboard in response, moving closer to whatever she had spotted. Venus turned as well, taking a station off her companion's starboard quarter.
Allen strained his eyes looking out over the dark water. Even with the moon casting a bright light, he could not see the target.
"Some one on Venus has good eyes," Garibaldi remarked.
"Yes. I can't see a thing."
"I hope were not chasing phantoms," O'Reilly, "the crew are all awake."
The three men peered into the night. After long minutes, Garibaldi pointed.
"There."
For a few more seconds Allen could see nothing, then a pale spot appeared out of nowhere on the horizon.
"Whoever saw that first, deserves a reward of some sort," he said, "the man must have eyes like a bat."
He glanced up at the sails, judging the wind, thinking about distances.
"Tell the men not on watch to get back to their hammocks. Gentlemen, I'm going back to my cabin to get some sleep. Nothing is going to happen for awhile. We all need to be rested when it does."
"Yes sir."
"Aye aye, Cap'n"
Allen went below. As soon as he was in his cabin he relit his pipe and went back to the gallery windows to gaze at the moon. He couldn't sleep, at least not now. He couldn't see the ships they were chasing either.
So he would look at the moon.
###
After a few minutes the ship settled back into the nightly routine. It was still Cunningham's watch, so he stayed on the quarter deck. After a minute he turned to the helmsman.
"Just follow Mary Jane. No need to ask for orders unless he makes a radical change."
"Aye aye, sir."
Cunningham watched the distance sails glowing whitely in the moonlight. He tried to work out their probable course and destination in his head. After a time the deck tilted under his feet as the ship changed course. Another bell into the watch Mary Jane changed course again, with Venus following.
Cunningham frowned in the dark. He walked to the railing at the and looked at the stars, felt the wind on his face. He thought again of courses and destinations and smiled.
"The old man knows his business."
Then, "why I'm surprised, the son learned it somewhere."
###
"I think I might get used to this stuff."
Garibaldi smiled at Allen.
"Did I not say, 'you will learn to like coffee?' Here, have more it is good for you."
"Well, it wakes me up."
The sun was just coming over the horizon. Mary Jane led the way, half a mile ahead of Venus. The two ships were now off the starboard bow.
"Did the men get their breakfast?"
"Yes sir. We gave out an extra ration, I'm not sure when we might eat again."
"Very good."
Allen looked at the ships they were chasing. Both were large merchantmen, either heavily laden or ballasted, he obviously hoped for the former. The further ship seemed beamer, slower, it seemed to have only a single gun on either side of the poop deck. The nearer ship had four gun ports, but was showing only three guns.
"Father did a good job closing them during the night."
"Indeed he did", Garibaldi said, "when he spotted them the were upwind and to seaward. Now we have the weather gauge, and they have less room to maneuver.
"How so?"
Garibaldi pointed. A couple of miles to starboard the water changed color and breaking waves were clearly visible.
"I've sailed these waters before. There are large reefs that way."
"Why would a good sailor let himself get boxed in like this?" O'Reilly asked as he climbed to the quarterdeck.
"Because," said Cunningham coming up behind him, "Mr. Allen didn't give them much choice."
"How did Father do that?" Allen asked.
"He didn't let them know they were being chased. We slipped around behind them, if they saw us they probably didn't think we were much interested in them. My guess is their destination is Nassau. They've been sailing a steady course all night."
Allen looked at the two ships. He could see activity on their decks, but they seemed to be concentrating on their sails, not the guns.
"We are two or three days sailing from Nassau. If they can make it to the channel, they can turn and run before the wind. Their best chance is good sailing not fighting.”
“We’ll be at the channel leading westward, by nightfall, in my estimation,” Garibaldi said.
“We might want to take action soon. I’m going to hazard a guess that the entrance to that channel will be a bit busy.”
“The channel is twenty-five miles wide or so. It isn’t like entering port.”
“Yes, of course, but still we don’t want them to actually get there.”
Allen frowned. He had the two ships very nearly trapped, but the escape door was slightly ajar. From the course Mary Jane was steering it seemed apparent that his father saw the same problem. All four ships were steering across the wind. Venus and Mary Jane had a slight, very slight, advantage in speed. If they attempted to turn to cut off the merchantmen, there was an excellent chance the two ships could slip past him.
He sighed. It was a repeat of the slow chase after taking their first prize on the previous voyage. Only this time he was doing the chasing. There was nothing for it but to try to angle in slowly until they came within range.
He hoped they would do so before another ship happened upon the scene.
###
The end of the chase came quickly, when it came. Just after three bells on the noon watch the leading ship fired at Mary Jane. Mary Jane promptly fired back, although the range was still seemed a bit long. To the surprise of everyone on both privateers, the merchantman immediately hauled down his flag and luffed into the wind.
The second ship was forced to turn toward Venus to avoid colliding with it's companion.
"What is that yelling?" Allen asked.
Shouts and curses were audible across the water, followed by what seemed to be screams of rage.
"Some one is upset," Cunningham remarked blandly.
No one on Venus could make out what, exactly, was being said. The two ships were drawing closer.
"Ready the guns!"
"Aye aye!"
Just as Allen was about to order O'Reilly to open fire the report of a pistol could be heard from the other ship, followed by more yelling.
Then the vessel's flag came down.
Cunningham and Allen looked at each other blankly.
"Well," Allen said, "He seems to have surrendered to us."
###
"He's the worst captain any of us have ever sailed under," the ship's mate said, gesturing toward Captain Gore. The man was tied to a belaying rail in the waist of "Greene," the larger of the two ships the Allens had captured.
"Not really a proper captain," another of the ship's crew snarled, "just the owner."
Allen smiled. Like all sailors, these men didn't have much to say about a lubber, especially one that saw fit to tell them how to run their ship.
Allen took off his hat and ran his fingers through his air. They came out wet. All four ships were anchored just outside the shoals that had trapped Greene and "Stuart."
"Well I must say I don't think you were well treated."
"And I'm guessing we'll get no better from you, neither," another crewman growled.
Murmurs of ascent and nodding heads greeted that comment from the other men.
"Well," Allen said a bit forcefully, "you guessed wrong. I have no qualms about taking money from the him, but I will do my best for you men."
It had not been easy to get the story from the gathering of angry men. Some parts of it were not clear, such as how Gore had come to be acting as captain to both of the ships he owned. But a few things were clear.
They had taken slaves from Africa to Charleston, sold them at (presumably) great profit. The ships were now loaded with cotton, tobacco, rice and indigo; some of which would be traded for molasses which would be taken back to England. The men did not know what would happen there, but they had not been looking forward to it.
Allen looked around. Most of the faces looking back at him registered distrust. The man who seemed to be the leader was nodding.
"We figgered it could not get worse. None of wanted to fight for that..."
Allen held up a hand.
"I understand. I'm glad you chose not to fight. As I said, I will do my best for you. Mr. Garibaldi will act as your captain. One of my father's men will command Stuart. We'll find a place to settle accounts."
|
Login
Register
FAQ
