Sea Robber

by Tim Severin

  On the poop deck the first mate was cursing, a steady stream of oaths. He had discharged his pistol and was scrabbling in the arms chest, trying to find a blunderbuss. A few paces away the two Danish sailors had dropped their guns and stood helplessly, looking on. Beside the helm Iversen clutched his side, blood oozing through his fingers.

  The first mate found his weapon and turned, ready to use it, when a shot rang out. He grunted abruptly and a bright crimson stain appeared on the front of his nightshirt. For a moment he stood there, bewildered, took a half-step backwards until he came up against the open lid of the arms chest. As he toppled over, the lid slammed shut beneath him and his body lay across it for a moment, before sliding to the deck, dead.

  There was a sudden, still silence and the overpowering acrid smell of gunpowder. Hector hadn’t seen who had fired the fatal shot, but already the first wave of the Revenge’s boarding party – half a dozen men – were taking control of the poop deck. They relieved the two Danish sailors of their muskets and ordered them forward. A buccaneer put his arm around the shoulders of the wounded petty officer and helped him down to the main deck. The first mate’s body was pushed to one side, and a man whom Hector took to be the Revenge’s sailing master stepped up to the helm and began tentatively working it from side to side, trying it out.

  At least two dozen more men from the Revenge were clambering up to the deck of the slaver. In their sea-stained smocks and wide breeches and broad-brimmed hats, they could have passed for the crew of any honest vessel. There was nothing to mark them out as sea bandits. Hector looked into their faces closely, trying to identify anyone among them who had sailed with him in the South Sea. He thought he recognized one or two, but it was impossible to be sure, for they pushed past him without a word. Unlike the chaotic departure of the Revenge, which had been a sham to lull their Danish victims, Cook’s men went about their business briskly and with barely a command spoken. Some took up position by the companionways and hatches, and as the sleepy crew of the Danish slave ship appeared, they faced the muzzles of their captors’ guns and quietly surrendered. A larger group of the buccaneers dispersed about the ship, checking sheets and braces, looking up at the spars, climbing into the rigging, searching out capstan bars, and then stood ready, waiting for orders.

  By Hector’s estimate only half an hour had passed from the time Dan had heard the first sounds from the Revenge as she began to get under way. In that interval Cook’s men had captured a ship almost half as big again as their own and with three times as many cannon, and had done so without loss to themselves. They were complete masters of the Carlsborg.

  Finally Cook himself came aboard with Jacques. The Frenchman looked crestfallen. ‘There wasn’t much I could do,’ he muttered to Hector. ‘I was hustled under hatches the moment I came aboard the Revenge last night. Shut up all night in the cable locker, where I couldn’t be heard.’

  Cook called down to the men still on the Revenge. They were to cast off and resume course. The buccaneer captain turned and glanced at the musket Hector still held, cocked but never fired. ‘That was sensible of you. I didn’t imagine you could bring yourself to shoot at your old comrades.’

  ‘Where are you taking this ship?’ Hector asked. He had an uncomfortable feeling that Cook’s plan was more devious than first appeared.

  ‘As I told you yesterday,’ said Cook casually, ‘we head for the South Sea by way of Magellan’s Strait. But aboard this fine vessel rather than our worn-out tub.’

  ‘And the Carlsborg’s crew? What are you going to do with them?’

  ‘We’ll turn them loose in the Revenge’s longboat as soon as we are safely clear.’

  ‘I trust you’ll allow me and my friends to go with them.’

  Cook treated Hector to an oily smile. ‘If that’s what you want. But it’s not what I would advise. If I were a Dane who had witnessed the capture of my ship, I would think maybe you and your friends had a hand in it.’

  ‘Hector, we’ll not be welcome back at the fort,’ cut in Jezreel. ‘We did nothing to fight off the attack.’

  ‘I couldn’t have expressed it better myself,’ observed Cook sardonically. He smoothed the lapels of his immaculate green coat before adjusting the lace at his throat.

  Hector made one last attempt to regain the initiative. ‘I’d prefer if you gave us the cockboat so that we can head off on our own. Try to reach one of the English forts.’

  Cook seemed amused. ‘Maybe you would make it, maybe not. I wouldn’t fancy falling into the hands of someone like that Akwamu chief we saw yesterday. You could be treated very nastily.’

  Hector was conscious his three friends were looking at him, waiting for his lead.

  ‘Do we have another choice?’ he asked.

  ‘The offer I made yesterday still stands. I’ll recommend to my crew that all four of you join our company. They must vote on it, as you know. That’s the custom. But I’m sure they’ll vote in favour.’

  ‘My friends and I have had our fill of buccaneering,’ said Hector stubbornly.

  ‘Then, in view of our long-standing acquaintance and how helpful you’ve been in the capture of this fine ship, I’ll inform the crew that I’m willing to take you on, even if you haven’t signed articles. That way you’ll be free to leave the ship whenever you wish.’

  Yet again Hector sensed that Cook was being dangerously subtle. ‘What would be our duties on board?’ he enquired cautiously.

  ‘Work the ship, stand watches, that sort of thing. Also I need a navigator who has already been around the Cape.’

  ‘But you’re heading through Magellan’s Strait.’

  ‘True. But I’m a cautious man, and if we have problems there, we’ll need to have an alternative route. When you left the South Sea last time, you came around the Cape, so I believe.’

  Hector hesitated, still unwilling to commit himself when Jezreel intervened again. ‘Hector, I think we should accept Cook’s offer. At least until something better comes along.’

  ‘I don’t fancy taking my chances among the black men,’ agreed Jacques.

  Hector looked across at Dan. He was always level-headed. Dan gave a rueful smile. ‘I’m with Jezreel and Jacques. We go to the South Sea aboard this ship. Besides, Hector, it will bring you closer to Maria, and we’d be happy to see that.’

  Hector felt a surge of gratitude. He hadn’t realized his friends were aware of his longing to find Maria again. He’d no idea that his desire was so obvious.

  ‘All ready,’ called the sailing master from the poop deck.

  ‘So is it settled between us?’ asked Cook. There was a glint of triumph in his eyes.

  Hector nodded his agreement.

  Cook raised his voice so that he could be heard throughout the ship. ‘Time to move off. Remember, be slow and calm, as if the Carlsborg is simply heading down the coast to visit another trading post, and the Revenge is going with her.’

  He grinned wolfishly as he turned back to face Hector. ‘We don’t want the fort mistaking us for pirates stealing Company property.’

  ‘I blame myself for telling you that her captain was away with half his crew,’ said Hector.

  Cook shrugged. ‘I’d probably have found out for myself, from gossip among the canoe men. But I only decided finally to take the Carlsborg when you told me you and your friends would be on watch at dawn. The ideal time to capture a ship, and an opportunity I couldn’t ignore.’

  ‘And you counted on our loyalty to Jacques.’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘What if the Governor raises the alarm when he sees the Carlsborg sail off before her captain has returned from the interior?’

  ‘Yesterday, after our little tour of the fort, I called in at the Governor’s office. I told him that my visit had made it clear there was a shortage of slave stock locally, so I would be taking the Revenge farther down the coast to trade.’

  ‘And he believed you?’

  ‘Naturally. He saw us as we left the slave pens. I took
care to add that I would recommend to the Carlsborg’s first officer that he sail in company with me for a day or so, if he wished to pick up a few extra slaves. He would be able to return in time for her captain’s arrival.’ Cook gave a mirthless grin. ‘Before the Governor realizes the Carlsborg is overdue, I propose to make her vanish.’

  With that, Cook walked away.

  Hector slid a hand into his pocket and fingered Maria’s letter once again. His mind was in a tumult. Already he was calculating how many weeks it might be before he saw her again, and he felt a surge of happy anticipation at the thought that every mile the Carlsborg sailed would bring him closer to her. Yet he knew that he was also putting everything at risk by arriving on the coast of South America with a crew of ruffians whom the Spaniards considered barbaric pirates. He promised himself that at the very first opportunity he and his friends would abandon such unwelcome company.

  THREE

  THE LANDFALL off the broad entrance to Magellan’s Strait was both disheartening and confusing. The weather, hazy with frequent rain showers, made for poor visibility, and the tide, flowing out of the Strait, created an ugly current of at least six or seven knots, which was more than the ship could manage. The only land in sight was a low barren island, a dismal yellowish-brown, a cable’s length to starboard. A single black albatross, which had followed the vessel since early morning, was now gliding over the boulder-strewn beach, searching for food.

  As he stood by the helm, Hector glumly set aside any hope that this was where he and his friends might be able to leave the ship.

  ‘Not much of a place, is it?’ observed William Dampier morosely. As navigator, he was responsible for the landfall. Hector had always liked him. Long-faced and lugubrious, Dampier had sailed on the previous South Sea raid. He’d admitted to Hector that his real reason for voyaging with the buccaneers was not to win plunder, but to have the chance to observe and record the natural world. He kept notes of whatever caught his interest, whether plants or animals or local people and their customs, tides and the weather, and wrote his observations on scraps of paper, which he kept dry in a stoppered bamboo tube. Now he had a chart in his hand and was trying to identify exactly where they were.

  ‘It would help if we knew our latitude more accurately,’ he muttered.

  ‘Little chance of that. This overcast looks set,’ Hector observed.

  There was sharpness in the air, a chill that had been increasingly noticeable these past few days. Hector was wearing a thick jacket and a heavy scarf purchased from a shipmate. The sultry warmth of the Guinea coast was a distant memory. Behind them lay 4,000 sea miles from Africa, covered in little more than six weeks.

  ‘Our first snow,’ muttered Dampier, shaking the chart to dislodge a flake that had drifted down on it.

  ‘What do you think? Should we attempt the Strait?’ The question came from Cook, who had joined them by the helm.

  ‘We’ll be sailing into dirty weather,’ replied Dampier. Ahead of the ship, the sky was turning a menacing blue-black as if a great bruise was slowly spreading up from the horizon. Flickers of sheet lightning lit the underbelly of a cloud bank forming in the far distance. To emphasize Dampier’s warning, a sudden gust of wind made the vessel heel abruptly, causing all three men to stagger and lose their balance.

  ‘Are you confident this is the entrance to the Strait?’ Cook asked.

  ‘As sure as I can be, with such poor charts,’ answered Dampier.

  Cook chewed his lip. Hector had noticed the same habit when the captain had been thinking about stealing the Carlsborg.

  Away to the south an expanse of blue-grey water was already churning into white caps. Turning to Hector, Cook asked, ‘You’ve been the other route, around the Cape. What did you think of it?’

  ‘We were travelling in the opposite direction and were lucky. We had an uneventful passage.’

  ‘Nothing like the fierce storms we hear so much about?’

  ‘Fresh winds, no more than that.’

  ‘Our ship swims better than most.’

  Hector agreed. The Danish West India-Guinea Company would find it difficult to recognize their stolen vessel. After Cook and his men had turned their prisoners loose in the Revenge’s longboat, the buccaneers had set to work with saws and axes and chisels. The Carlsborg’s high poop deck had been ripped out. Next, the forecastle was dismantled. Anything that might slow the vessel in a chase or make her cranky in bad weather was discarded. Deckhouses were knocked down, topmasts shortened, twenty of her cannon lowered from the main deck and repositioned where once there had been a half-deck for stowing slaves. Gun ports were cut. Very soon the tall, stately merchant ship was transformed into a low, lean predator. When all was ready to receive them, the stores and supplies were shifted out of the Revenge, and the carpenters went back aboard their former home with their mauls and axes and smashed great holes in her lower strakes. The Revenge sank within an hour and left no trace.

  In a final flourish the buccaneers chose a new name for their ship. At Cook’s suggestion, they called her the Bachelor’s Delight.

  ‘We’ll find it hard to beat up into the Strait,’ commented Dampier. A heavier flurry of snow swept across the water towards them. Hector shivered despite his warm clothing.

  Cook made up his mind. ‘Then let us trust in the Delight. We’ll not use the Strait, but go around the Cape. That way we avoid bad weather here, and there’s less chance the Spaniards will detect our arrival.’ He patted Hector on the shoulder. ‘And you, young man, can give us the benefit of your experience.’

  Dampier handed Hector the chart. The tip of the continent, the Land of Fire, was drawn in uncertain outline. Large spaces had been left blank. Various islands and channels had been added in such a way that they looked suspiciously like guesswork. Hector placed his finger well below the final cape.

  ‘To be safe, we should go here, to fifty-eight degrees, before we turn to the west.’

  ‘But there we risk meeting ice islands.’

  ‘Better than running into cliffs,’ grunted Dampier.

  COOK’S DECISION appeared to be a good one. For the next ten days the skies remained cloudy and the temperature continued to fall, but the crew of the Bachelor’s Delight had an easy time. With a favourable breeze on her quarter, the ship pressed forward through a sea that teemed with whales, seals and penguins, and there was scarcely any need to trim the sails.

  ‘Not long before we are in the glorious Pacific,’ gloated Jacques. He had emerged from the galley where he had been concocting a stockfish broth. Prone to seasickness, he was relieved to have a steady deck beneath his feet.

  ‘We don’t know what the currents are doing. They might be pushing us off-course,’ observed Hector uneasily. The weather seemed too settled and favourable. He looked questioningly at Dan, who had been watching a small school of dolphins for the past half-hour. The animals had been cavorting energetically, close beside the ship. Now they had moved farther out and were showing themselves less often. Oddly, though, the sound they made as they emptied their lungs was just as loud.

  ‘They know a storm is brewing. They are warning us,’ said Dan.

  ‘Then they would be better off speaking with our captain,’ said Jacques, who was sceptical of sea lore. Hector, however, respected Dan’s opinion. Like many of his people, the Miskito had an uncanny ability to read sea signs.

  Making his way to the quarterdeck, Hector found Cook already making preparations for heavy weather. The mast stays were to be doubled, and the anchors brought inboard to reduce the strain when the vessel pitched in a head sea. All the remaining deck cannon were to be sent down into the hold of the ship to increase stability.

  Shifting the heavy guns was delicate, dangerous work and it took almost the entire day before the artillery was safely stowed and lashed, the covers over the deck hatches doubled, and the storm canvas brought up from the sail lockers. ‘Your Indian friend was right,’ said Cook. Sinister black clouds were stacking up ahead of the ship, and
the sea had turned an ominous, sullen grey. A succession of steep, hollow swells was building. Each time the ship sank into a trough, Hector had the feeling that the ocean was mustering its strength, waiting to unleash its full power. ‘Tell our cook to prepare hot food while he still can,’ Cook ordered, ‘I fear we are in for a long blow.’

  By nightfall the first violent squalls were striking. They came out of the south, sudden angry blasts of wind that buffeted the Bachelor’s Delight, sweeping away anything that hadn’t been securely fastened down. Jacques could be heard cursing in the galley, as his largest cauldron tipped, slopping out the soup and dousing the cookhouse fire. The ship’s crew were experienced mariners, and a sense of foreboding settled over them as they listened to the steadily rising sound of the wind.

  By midnight it had shifted and was coming out of the west, the direction in which they had hoped to progress. It moaned ceaselessly in the rigging as it rose to a full gale. The advancing swells heaped higher until they began to break, tumbling forward in lines of broken water. Sail was reduced to a minimum as the Delight rode out the onslaught. It took four men to manage the helm and steer the ship so that she sidled across the ranks of waves. Soon the seas became so steep that the vessel lay back at an alarming angle as she rose, then tilted and plunged forward as the crest passed under her and the bowsprit plunged deep into the water.

  ‘Thank God we’re not aboard the Revenge now,’ Dampier shouted to Hector above the roar of the wind. ‘She would have shaken to pieces.’

  The two men were on the quarterdeck at daybreak, taking turns as members of the watch and trying to shelter from the constant spray whipping into their faces. There was an unexpected curse from one of the helmsmen. ‘Spritsail’s gone. Can’t hold her steady,’ he roared. Looking forward down the length of the ship, Hector saw that the tiny sail set on its own small spar far in the bows had been torn away. It no longer served to help balance the ship’s steering.