The Pyrate

by Michael Aye

  ***

  Cooper sat in his private cabin unpacking his things. The Bonnie Lass was a merchant ship. She had four first class cabins but as far as Cooper could tell there was nothing first class about them. The lieutenant governor of Antigua had sent for his family now that he was situated on the island. His wife, three daughters, and servants took up two of the first class cabins. A well-to-do planter from Barbados took the fourth cabin, which was next to Cooper’s.

  It had been a wet, nasty day and seemed like it was getting worse by the hour. The trip from Scolfes Inn to the harbor had not been pleasant. A steady drizzle and a southerly wind had caused the streets to be deserted. The clouds made it difficult to see the fortifications in the distance. Waiting on the dock, as his chests was removed from the carriage and placed in the ship’s boat that had been sent to pick up him up, Cooper could see white caps coming alive across the Solent. Rollers were picking up and lapped heavily against the seawall. Heavy, dark clouds hung over the Isle of Wight.

  “We best be on our way,” one of the boatmen said, as the last chest was loaded. “It promises to be a hard and hellish pull now.”

  Giving his mom a quick hug and kiss goodbye, Cooper wondered when he’d see her again. He suddenly felt lost and wanted to tell her how much he loved her. But time did not allow a long goodbye. He grasped Jean-Paul’s hand and with a firm grip, shook it. “Look after mother please, Master.”

  A smile creased Jean-Paul’s face at being addressed as master. “I shall, Cooper. I will with my last breath. Now be off with you.”

  The trip had been lively indeed. Cooper was soaked to the skin as he made his way up the slippery battens and through the entry port. He was shown to his cabin and the chest followed. The mate who showed Cooper to his quarters said, “The captain had planned to weigh anchor this afternoon, but I feel like it will be after the weather moderates, which likely means in the morning.”

  In the silence of the cabin, Cooper wondered what was in store for him. What did his future hold? Would he ever have the opportunity to face his cousin, to call him out? Would there be satisfaction in doing so?

  The sounds of rain grew louder on the deck and swells made the ship rise and fall. The cabin grew darker and Cooper became drowsy. He shoved his remaining unpacked chest aside and stretched out in his cot…a swing. Something he’d never slept on before. Sleep soon overtook him. He dreamed of the night his face was laid open. He also dreamed of the surgeon sewing up his face. He dreamed of the twins, how they’d tip-toed into his room and apologized for his getting in trouble. He dreamed of their administrations which lasted half the night and how, if he hadn’t have had to leave his mother, he felt maybe the ordeal had been worth it. The twins knew how to soothe one’s hurt.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The darkness before dawn, Cooper had learned, was the most depressing part of the day. The sounds of the watch changing and a ship coming to life made it difficult to sleep through. Cooper had never been an early riser. He had gone to bed at dawn on many a day but getting up, “Gawd.”

  They were now in the Caribbean, the captain had said. How he knew, Cooper was not sure. Yes, he had his sextant, calipers, divider, charts, and such, but that meant very little to a landsman such as himself.

  Throwing the cover back, Cooper felt a chill as he shuddered. Dawn was also chilly and damp. It seemed almost as cold as it had been sitting aboard the ship back in Portsmouth. The mate who’d showed Cooper to his cabin had been right. They had not sailed that day or the next either. It had been the morning of the third day that they’d weighed anchor and got underway. At least, that was how his new friend, David MacArthur, had described it. David had been a navy lieutenant, the second lieutenant on a frigate. He had the misfortune of going to seek his captain as foul weather approached their anchorage in Portsmouth. What he found was the captain sodomizing a cabin boy.

  Astounded at the revelation Cooper gasped. “You mean he practiced buggery, right there on board one of his Majesty’s ships?”

  “Aye,” MacArthur confirmed. “I was not seen so I rushed back on deck and collided with the first lieutenant. I grabbed his arm and shouted, ‘Follow me quickly.’ Thinking it an emergency, Martin, that was his name, followed me through the companionway and into the captain’s cabin. The captain had his back to us and was thrusting away like a great bull on a cow. He gave out a great sigh and fell forward just as Martin shouted, ‘Captain, God in heaven, man.’ The cabin boy grabbed his ducks and fled. The master-at-arms was called and without telling him the charge, he was told the captain was under arrest. Martin called for a boat and had himself taken to the Port Admiral’s office. Within the hour, in a driving rain, the captain was taken ashore in chains. Statements were taken from Martin, the cabin boy, and myself. However, we didn’t know how strong and politically powerful the captain was. Before the day of the court martial, Martin was told the cabin boy was found floating against the seawall. Lieutenant Martin was then attacked one night by a band of thieves as he left the George Tavern. He was robbed and left with his throat cut. Then, I was awakened and pulled from my cot in the wee hours of the morning, accused of rape by some tavern wench. I was given an option…face charges or resign my commission. Naturally, I resigned. The captain had the power and the money to do away with two witnesses. I think I was left alive just so I could suffer and know I could be next…at any time, at any place. Aye, the captain was ruthless, utterly ruthless. So, here I am a sailor, a naval officer without ever having the prospect of commanding my own ship.”

  “Why are you going to Antigua?” Cooper asked.

  “My mother has cousins there. One of them has a coastal trader and another one is a harbor pilot. I was told they’d get me on somewhere. It’s not a warship but it’s the sea.”

  Cooper then asked, “What happened to the sodomite captain?”

  “Well, his navy career was over. Even though he was not convicted by the court martial, everyone knew the truth. His family, besides being rich and politically powerful, had a lot to do with the Honest Johns.” Seeing Cooper’s confusion, MacArthur added, “The Honourable East India Company. It would not surprise me to see him commanding a ship for the Bombay marines.” Laughing as a thought came to his mind, MacArthur said, “The Bombay marines, we used to call them, the Bombay buccaneers.”

  Cooper had heard of the private navy of warships protecting convoys for the East India Company.

  “No sir,” MacArthur said. “With Captain Buggery Pope’s old man a director for the company it would not surprise me to see the sodomite walking his own quarterdeck again.”

  ***

  Dressing in the dark was not hard, as Cooper had fallen asleep in his clothes. The only thing he’d taken off was his boots. Sniffing his armpits, Cooper wrinkled his nose. Damn, what was it they said? When you smell yourself, others have smelled you for three days. No wonder the Williams girls wore so much perfume.

  Sir Jonathan Williams, the lieutenant governor of Antigua, had a nice looking wife, Elizabeth. Would her features hold up to the island’s mosquitoes, fever, and hot sun? All would take its toll on a woman more used to London’s weather. His daughters were something else. Before long, Sir Jonathan could be a rich man by marrying his daughters off to the right planter’s son. Lucy was the oldest and she was a ripe cherry ready for the plucking. Cooper was not too sure her fruit had not been plucked already. All three girls had traded their beautiful dresses for sailors’ slops. They didn’t want to ruin the dresses on all the oakum and tar that seemed to be everywhere on a ship. The sailors were all to ready to donate the slops, which accentuated every curve the girls had, to say nothing of showing off their fine set of breasts.

  Lady Elizabeth probably wouldn’t have condoned the way the girls dressed. However, she succumbed to a terrible illness the first day out of the channel. Her meals had been carried to her and as soon as she ate, the contents of her meals came back up. MacArthur said he’d never seen such a case of seasickness. So the good lady had b
een consigned to her cot. The girls had pretty much had the run of the ship, with their flashing eyes, flirting and even making coy comments to the sailors.

  Lucy was the oldest, with her and Cooper both being eighteen. On more than one occasion, she had brushed up against him in the narrow passageway between their cabins. Cooper knew she did it on purpose, the little tease. Linda, who was only two years younger, was learning the art well from her older sister, Lucy, who was the master on innuendo and tease.

  Only Laura, who was still a child, talked straight and honest. Being a curious girl, one afternoon sitting on deck watching the sunset in the western sky, she crossed over to Cooper. Tracing the scar across his cheek, she humbly said, “That must have hurt terribly.” The wound had healed but left a very obvious scar.

  “It did,” Cooper admitted, feeling again the burn and terrible pain as the riding crop had bit into the flesh.

  Laura kissed her finger and then touched the scar. “There,” she said in all sincerity. “Now, it won’t hurt anymore.” Cooper smiled at the girl’s words. Seeing him smile, she smiled back and gave him a hug.

  Seeing this caused her sisters to laugh and giggle. Laura swung around and stomped her feet. “You two are so mean.”

  “We’re sorry, we didn’t mean to be,” the sisters said, giggling and whispering together. Lucy rose up and walked toward Cooper, “Likely, a wound over some girl.”

  “You’re wrong,” Cooper said with a smirk. “Two girls…sisters in fact. They couldn’t keep their hands off of me and I was forced to kill their husbands, in a duel, one right after the other. I was a bit tired in the second duel and the sod got lucky. I had to run him through.”

  The girls became suddenly silent and pale. “You…your joking,” Lucy mumbled.

  “There’s the scar,” Cooper said. The girls suddenly had to go check on their mother.

  As soon as they were out of sight, MacArthur, who had been sitting next to Cooper, smoking a cigar stood up and thumped the butt over the side. “What a tall tale. Of course, you gave them cause to stop and think.” As MacArthur and Cooper had become close friends, Cooper had shared his story over a cheap bottle of wine one night. “We are both victims of wrong doings,” MacArthur had said. “One day we must find a way to right the wrong that has been done us.”

  “We will,” Cooper said. “I vow by all that’s holy, Phillip Finylson will rue the day he lied about Cooper Cain.”

  ***

  The days had dragged into weeks. The weather had only been rough on one occasion, with gale force wind and rain coming down in sheets. The next day brought fair winds and sunshine. They had only passed a few lone ships and one convoy returning to England from the Indian Ocean. Cooper, MacArthur, and Clyde Smyth, the planter from Barbados, had finished breakfast and was finishing their last cup of lukewarm coffee.

  “Chocolate is much better,” Smyth said. “Not as bitter and just as stimulating.” Draining his cup, he leaned back and reached for his pipe. Before he could pack it with tobacco, they heard the cry from topside, “Sail ho.”

  Excited, the men made it on deck just a few steps ahead of the William sisters. The captain was leaning against the weather riggings with a telescope in his hand. What MacArthur had termed a glass. The early dawn chill had already been replaced by a scorching sun. Otis, the William’s servant, had stepped on a deck seam where the tar oozed and now suffered with a blister on his foot.

  With the sun so bright, Cooper was amazed the lookout could sight anything, but MacArthur hissed, “Lazy bugger. He’d feel the cat on a navy ship.”

  Shading his eyes with his hand, Cooper said, “From the looks of her sails she’s a small ship, not big as this tub, but a sleek lady. A brig or one of the American brigantines, I’d say.”

  “Deck thar, she’s coming about, she be,” the lookout called down.

  Cooper watched as the blue sea rose and fell with white caps being tossed about every so often.

  The captain slammed the glass closed with a snap. “Yonder ship has swung around to run parallel,” he said, speaking to the mate. “She’ll be up to us before long.” Glancing about the deck, the captain spotted the sisters. “You girls there get off the deck and go to your cabin now.”

  Never being spoken to in such a manner before, the girls realized something was wrong and made haste to their cabin.

  “Why is he so upset?” Cooper asked his friend. “We’ve seen ships before.”

  “Aye, Coop, but now we’re in pirate waters and that ship looks menacing to me.”

  “Why, we’re bigger,” Cooper said.

  “True, but that one’s got teeth. Look at the gunports. I count nine on this side. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had two guns forward and aft plus swivel guns on the quarterdeck and in the tops. The captain has cause for concern, friend, we all have.”

  Cooper watched as the ship closed with its tall pyramid of sails. She was a beautiful ship. Spotting the British flag, Cooper was about to point it out when it came down rapidly and a black flag was run up. The flag had a skull and crossed cutlasses with blood dripping of the blades. Pirates! They were being attacked by pirates.

  BOOM…a forward gun was fired on the pirate ship. A splash went up a few yards in front of the bow.

  “Reduce sail and prepare to heave to,” the captain ordered the first mate. He then grabbed a ship’s boy and ordered, “Strike the colors and run up a white flag.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Grappling hooks shot through the air and were pulled taut. Slowly the two ships were pulled together. Cooper looked across at the pirate ship in awe. A trace of fear went through him as he got a closer look at the menacing hoard standing next to the pirate ship’s bulwark. The pirates were armed with blades, pistols, boarding axes, and pikes.

  “They mean business, don’t they?” Cooper said to MacArthur.

  “The men are well-armed,” MacArthur agreed. “But look up, that man in the tops has a swivel gun aimed at the deck of this ship. One wrong move and a lot of us will be reduced to fish bait.”

  The two ships bumped and then came together with a grinding noise. They were so close that it would not have been but a large step across if the ships had been the same height. However, with ropes hanging from up top, men swung up and over with ease. They have had a sight of practice, Cooper decided. After several of the pirates landed on the deck of the Bonnie Lass, another man swung across.

  “That’s their captain,” MacArthur whispered. The man had no uniform to show his rank but he carried such an air of authority Cooper had little doubt that MacArthur was right.

  The man was tall and spare. His features were like a man who hadn’t eaten well or who had been ill. His hair was iron gray, very thick and wavy. His face was gaunt; and his hands and face was tanned dark brown and almost leathery.

  “I’m Eli Taylor and captain of the Raven. You have just fallen to us, sir. However, do as you are told and no bodily harm will come to you.”

  Cooper’s captain bowed and introduced himself, “I’m Ezra Nylinger, captain of the Bonnie Lass.”

  “Former captain,” Taylor was quick to point out.

  Pirates had continued to swarm aboard from their ship. It now looked like forty or more of the buggers crowded the deck of the Bonnie Lass.

  “I would be obliged to you, Captain, if you would muster your crew and passengers on deck,” Taylor said.

  Captain Nylinger nodded and spoke to the first mate. As he went to get the crew and passengers, several of the pirates followed him.

  “I must tell you, Captain Taylor, that we have one lady passenger who has been abed the entire voyage.”

  Nodding, Taylor said, “We will be gentle but we must look for ourselves.

  There was no need as at that moment, Lady Elizabeth and her three daughters came on deck.

  “Damn,” MacArthur hissed. “You would have thought the girls would have pulled a dress over those slops. The way Lucy and Linda look is trouble in the making. Look at those rogues?
” As usual MacArthur was right.

  Whistles and cat calls filled the air. Lust will make a man do crazy things and Lucy was one lusty-looking female.

  “My word,” Lady Elizabeth shouted. “Have you men no decency?”

  “More than she does,” one man called out.

  “Humph…I’ll have you know I’m the wife of Sir Jonathan Williams. He is the lieutenant governor of Antigua.”

  “My arse,” MacArthur hissed. “She’s gone and done it now. They probably would have taken our valuables and anything that might prove useful but now they’ll take the girls for sure and use them for ransom. Woman should have kept her mouth shut.”

  “Have no fear, my lady,” Captain Taylor said. “Not a hair on their head will be harmed. I’d say one hundred pounds for these two is a fair price. Until such time as arrangements can be made they’ll remain in our safekeeping.”

  One of the pirates stepped forward and grabbed Lucy. “I’ll keep this one safe, ha!ha! Safe for me ownself.”

  A massacre almost took place. Several of the Bonnie Lass’ crew members took a step forward including Captain Nylinger. Hammers on muskets and pistols were cocked as weapons were drawn.

  “You keep your crew under control, Captain, and I will do the same with mine,” Taylor shouted. He then turned to the pirate, who still gripped Lucy by the arm. “Unhand that girl, Finch. She is ship property and her ransom shall be divided into shares.” The pirate glared but didn’t release his grip. “Now,” Taylor roared; as he did so, several of the pirates turned their attention to Finch.

  While the Bonnie Lass’ seamen were on deck, several pirates had gone to survey the ship. “Nothing in the hold but two feet of water,” one of the men volunteered. “She’s a leaky old sow, bottom is likely rotten. Doubt she’d bring a farthing as a ship. She is worth more as firewood, I’m thinking.”