* * *
The ship was finally settling down and the hatches were opened. The sun would be rising soon but it was still raining and pitch black. The waters had finally settled and the ship was no longer rocking wildly. The constant state of fear had kept the exhausted crew up all night.
Patrick wanted to escape the vomit smells from below so he went up topside. He saw that the dead-tired crew was still tied to the mast on long ropes as they performed their duties sluggishly.
Finally, the clouds became patchy and a little moonlight could be seen dancing on the water. Patrick walked to the railing, stretched his arms over his head, yawned and looked out across the waters. Moonlight was slowly becoming daylight and the water illuminated quickly. Patrick’s eyes grew with fear as he saw a silhouette of a sloop become visible five hundred lengths off the larboard side. He screamed in a panicked voice, “Captain! Pirates! Larboard side!”
The deck immediately sprang to life with activity, shouts, and bell ringing. “Battle stations!" the quartermaster commanded in his awkward slow broken Greek accent. "Be ya reedy on da cannons!”
Captain Gibbons hurried to get the sails up on the modified galleon. The Robin had three masts with larger sails and a crow’s nest. Most private captains modified the ships to their tastes, and the Robin was no exception sporting fore and aft jib sails as well.
The pursuing ship was easier to see now and it was more of a large coastal style sloop with one large mast and a smaller aft mast. The pirate ship was also taken off guard and was quickly raising its massive sail as well. The storm had unknowingly brought to two vessels together in the night. It would now be a footrace to see whose crew could catch the wind first.
An exhausted Captain Gibbons immediately took the helm. He steered the ship the best he could away from the pirates, still getting full sail. The wind was helping the Robin but unfortunately, was also giving an advantage to the mystery vessel. Captain Gibbons still was unsure if this vessel in chase was an English privateer, so he ordered his true colors to be flown. The yellow jack was pulled down and replaced with the English Jack. Gibbons waited nervously as he watched the mast of the pursuing ship.
The Captain felt his heart sink as the enemy vessel did not slow or even raise a jack.
For a brief moment, Captain Gibbons considered giving the order to jettison all extra weight to gain speed. He realized this far out to sea, with the size of his crew, they would be dealt a slow death of starvation and thirst if their supplies were abandoned. They would have to stay and fight. It was a grim thought that made Gibbons uneasy.
The quartermaster yelled for silence and the crew listened attentively. Faint echoes rode out across the water. The Greek listened for a minute and then muttered under his breath, "Curses... That’s Spaniard babble dey dribbling out der mouths." He then yelled, reporting to Gibbons, "Spanish privateers, Cap'n. I will see da crew be ready for fightin'."
Captain Gibbons did have some knowledge that gave him a little bit of an upper hand in this chess match. He knew most privateers relied on fear and not actual force. It was too costly and not wise to have holes blown into the prize you were trying to take. The captain calculated they would not shoot first; they would try to cower the Robin into surrender. The Spanish might take on his crew, but Gibbons was well aware that captured captains were usually killed or ransomed. Either way, this would not end well for his skin.
The Spanish sloop was now quickly closing the distance. With his spyglass, the captain could see over a hundred armed men on the sloop’s deck preparing to fight. The captain knew his ship was out manned and out gunned. The Robin only had six carriage-style French garrison guns that actually worked. They were poorly retrofitted on the deck and below. The Robin's cannons rested on Vauban marine carriages so they would not fly backwards off the deck when fired. The carriages had thick mahogany cheeks and large wood-banded wheels. Captain Gibbons's plan was to bring the Spanish sloop as close as possible and cripple the sails with the Robin’s smaller cannons.
A fake surrender would be staged to bring the Spanish close. Mandrik instructed all men above deck to raise their arms in the air as the Spanish vessel closed in tight. The ships were now turning broad side to each other as the Spanish crew could be seen preparing their grappling hooks to throw into the Robin's rigging. Captain Gibbons was putting enormous trust into his master gunner’s hands and waited for his gunner to start firing. Gibbons was making a big gamble. Only four of the Robin's cannons were in range of the Spanish sloop.
Below deck, Isaac was loading the gunpowder in the gun tube with a ladle and watched as the other gunner’s mate loaded the 12-pound ball. A loud metal-on-metal screech pierced Isaac's ears as the ball was shoved down with the ramrod. The Master Gunner then used his gunner’s gimlet and poked it into the vent on the cannon to make it ready for the priming powder. He then broke open his dry powder bag and used his powder horn to prim the seat. He carefully loaded the priming quill, which was really a spirit-soaked wick, into the gun tube and down into the powder. The master gunner lined up the cannon, aimed it high at the Spanish sloop’s mast and took the smoldering linstock from his gunner’s mate. He moved out of the path of recoil and blew on the slow match of the linstock until it was bright orange. The master gunner turned the linstock sideways and lit the quill. Calls quietly went out under deck to light the wicks of the other cannons.
The Robin opens fire!
Pirates of Savannah Trilogy: Book One, Sold in Savannah - Young Adult Action Adventure Historical Fiction Page 9