in which they capture a private ship
Nov. 12th, 2013 01:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smackenzieMaggie woke later that afternoon to mixed news - the rain had cleared off and aside from the chicken and the cow there were no fatalities or serious injuries, but the deck was a mess of downed and broken rigging, there was water in the hold, and they had been blown off course but until the sky cleared some, Severein could not tell them where they were.
"I cannot navigate by the sun and stars if I cannot see them," he complained, when Maggie demanded an answer to what she thought was a simple question - in which direction were they heading?
"Make a guess," she said, stomping off.
The best that could be said was that her ship was still reasonably seaworthy, and she still had all her crew.
Of course a day later half that crew was down with what Maggie hoped was a short-lived flu. The former slaves especially were in sorry physical condition after their captivity, and being soaked and thrown about by a storm did nothing to help matters. They lay about the deck and down inside the ship, weak and feverish and miserable. Ellim, who was the closest thing to a physician on the Black Lightning, administered double rations of rum, on the theory that it would help prevent illness in those who were well and would encourage wellness in those who were sick. It was hard to know how well her cure worked.
The priest took sick as well, but any sympathy Maggie might have felt for him was erased by his tendency to follow her around sniffling and wheezing and complaining.
"What do you want me to do?" she finally snapped at him. He looked wounded, and then resolute.
"I want you to return to Port Doras and let me off this ship," he told her, and sneezed. "I have never been more miserable than I am on this floating death barge."
"If you insult my ship I will put you overboard." She was not even sure she meant it - casting aspersions on the Black Lightning was hardly a reason to throw someone off the ship - but the priest's expression seemed to indicate that he thought she did. In any case, it shut him up, and Maggie had peace from him for the next half hour.
(He predictably wandered off into her cabin, and by the time she discovered him he was flat on his stomach on her bed, half-drunk and only half-awake. He had little tolerance for spirits and like all the afflicted he hadn't been eating much, so his double ration of rum hit him quite hard. Maggie was too tired to deal with him and so left him alone to sleep it off.)
It was a week before most of the crew regained most of their health - and many of the former slaves had shaky health to begin with - but their recovery was rewarded with the sighting of a ship off the port bow. It looked to be a private vessel - slightly too small for a merchant ship, not enough gun ports to be a military ship - and it was flying a flag that the lookout did not recognize. Maggie knew all the main trading company flags, not to mention the flags of any countries whose ships they might encounter, and this new ship was not flying any of them.
"What orders?" Abna asked her. Yora had come up from the gun deck to ask the same thing.
Maggie pulled out her spyglass and tried to focus on the ship, to determine for herself if it was worth chasing and what it might yield if they caught it. She handed the spyglass to Abna.
"Tell me what you see," she said.
"I don't - oh, there it is," Abna answered, swinging the spyglass around until she had it pointed in the right direction. "It does not look military, but I cannot tell if it is a small merchant ship or just a passenger vessel. And if it is only a passenger vessel, where is it going?"
"If it is heading across the ocean to civilization it will have a full hold," Yora commented. "Perhaps someone we might hold for ransom." Few private individuals had the money to maintain a ship capable of sailing such a distance, and especially in these waters it would have to be well-protected against pirates. That meant hiring guards, or being able to maintain one's own small force.
"Can we catch it, is the question," Maggie said, mostly to herself. It was not a large ship and was no doubt faster than the Black Lightning. "Find Doren and ask her if the Black Lightning is fit for a chase." This was directed at Yora, who looked annoyed at being ordered about but who did go off to find the boatswain.
The answer was yes, the Black Lightning was fit for a chase, so Maggie gave the order to follow the new ship and overtake it. They would board it and see what - and who - they had captured.
It took them the rest of the day and the better part of the evening, but with luck and good wind and skillful sail arrangement, the pirates caught up to the small ship towards sunrise. They got close enough to it to throw hooks over its gunwales to pull it closer, followed by planks, followed by yelling, screaming pirates. They had hoped that attacking in the early morning would lend them the element of surprise, but it turned out that the small ship was indeed protected by a small force of armed guardsmen, and soon the deck rang to the sounds of pistol shots and swords against swords as the pirates and the ship's guards engaged in close combat.
Maggie yelled orders as best she could while trying to find an advantage against the man who had engaged her. He fought like a military man, and she wondered as she parried and dodged and thrust whether or not he had served in a navy, and if so, which one. He was good - he was paid to be so - but she had years of training as well, and she was determined to take this ship and acquire some kind of plunder with which to reward herself and her crew.
It was more bloody and more exhausting than she had planned on, but her pirates eventually managed to take the ship. The guards had fought hard and well, but they were far outnumbered by pirates and were just overwhelmed. By the end of the fighting, half of the guards were dead and most the rest wounded, but the ones left alive were given the same choice Maggie gave everyone on the ships she captured - join her crew or be put overboard.
Surprisingly, only two of the guards elected to join. The rest of them were lowered into the sea in the small ship's only rowboat.
Most of the ship's crew, however, preferred to throw in their lot with the pirates. The ship had been carrying an aristocratic family from Tanne - who seemed quite shocked and not a bit appalled when someone mentioned the slave ship with a letter of marque from their king - and Maggie decided the best bet would be to hold them for ransom. There was a representative from the Tannen king in Port Doras, she knew, and perhaps he would be willing to pay for the family's freedom.
Abna took some pirates and searched the ship top to bottom for treasure. They emptied the galley of provisions and silver-plate, they collected arms and armor from the guards' room, they took clothes and jewels from the state rooms, and they discovered, much to their delight, several barrels full of gold and silver hidden among the barrels of wine. Abna made an inventory of everything, so that when the Black Lightning docked at Port Doras, everyone was sure to get an equal share. She split up what could be split, and the pirates carried everything back to their own ship. Maggie had the flag taken down from the small ship's main mast as a trophy, and when everyone and everything was off the ship, she sank it.
The man who had owned it, a tall, round lord of someplace or other, cursed her and insulted her in the most gentlemanly way possible, although from the anger in his voice it was clear he wished to use much stronger, more vulgar language. He could learn a great many words from her crew. She laughed at him.
"Surely you have heard of Red Maggie," she said, "exiled naval officer and pirate captain. Surely you have heard that she shows her captives mercy by leaving them alive. Consider this a small payment for the purchase of your life and the lives of your family."
He told her she would rot in hell. She told him he sounded like the priest on board her ship. And then she left him to Abna's tender mercies and the dubious comfort that the hold could provide.
"Now we may head for home," she told Severein, "if you can figure out which way that is."
There was celebrating on the Black Lightning that afternoon and well into evening as the pirates started spending their windfall as fast as they could while still at sea. They played cards and threw dice and placed bets on the most ridiculous things. They broke into the private ship's wine barrels. They tried on the clothes that had been taken out of the private ship's wardrobes, fighting over furs and silks and satin shoes with jeweled buckles.
(Pirates, like sailors in law-abiding navies, conducted their business on board their ship mostly barefoot. But that did not mean that they could not appreciate a pretty dancing shoe, or that they might not want such a thing for when they were land-bound again.)
Maggie drank and danced with her crew, singing rude pirate songs at the top of her voice and enjoying the profitable day. She had money again, her crew had money, they were still light on supplies but if they should pass an inhabited island they would stop and fill the hold with as much fresh food as they could. She was not worried. She was full of confidence in herself and her crew - she was Red Maggie, pirate captain of the Black Lightning, and nothing could stop her.
"I am going to raise a navy," she told Doren, waving her arm and spilling what was left of her wine in a gesture meant to encompass not only her crew, but the crew of the Cormorant, wherever they were, and all the crews of all the pirate ships that ever set sail from Port Doras. "A pirate navy. A glorious, fearsome thing. I will bring the Usurper to her knees."
"Promise a royal treasure and you will have more followers than you can count."
"I will. Oh, I will." Maggie grabbed Doren's face with her free hand and kissed her soundly on the mouth. "You will come with me, and you will see."
Doren just grinned, and said she would, of course she would, for royal treasure she would do a great many things.
words: 1886
total words: 19,119
"I cannot navigate by the sun and stars if I cannot see them," he complained, when Maggie demanded an answer to what she thought was a simple question - in which direction were they heading?
"Make a guess," she said, stomping off.
The best that could be said was that her ship was still reasonably seaworthy, and she still had all her crew.
Of course a day later half that crew was down with what Maggie hoped was a short-lived flu. The former slaves especially were in sorry physical condition after their captivity, and being soaked and thrown about by a storm did nothing to help matters. They lay about the deck and down inside the ship, weak and feverish and miserable. Ellim, who was the closest thing to a physician on the Black Lightning, administered double rations of rum, on the theory that it would help prevent illness in those who were well and would encourage wellness in those who were sick. It was hard to know how well her cure worked.
The priest took sick as well, but any sympathy Maggie might have felt for him was erased by his tendency to follow her around sniffling and wheezing and complaining.
"What do you want me to do?" she finally snapped at him. He looked wounded, and then resolute.
"I want you to return to Port Doras and let me off this ship," he told her, and sneezed. "I have never been more miserable than I am on this floating death barge."
"If you insult my ship I will put you overboard." She was not even sure she meant it - casting aspersions on the Black Lightning was hardly a reason to throw someone off the ship - but the priest's expression seemed to indicate that he thought she did. In any case, it shut him up, and Maggie had peace from him for the next half hour.
(He predictably wandered off into her cabin, and by the time she discovered him he was flat on his stomach on her bed, half-drunk and only half-awake. He had little tolerance for spirits and like all the afflicted he hadn't been eating much, so his double ration of rum hit him quite hard. Maggie was too tired to deal with him and so left him alone to sleep it off.)
It was a week before most of the crew regained most of their health - and many of the former slaves had shaky health to begin with - but their recovery was rewarded with the sighting of a ship off the port bow. It looked to be a private vessel - slightly too small for a merchant ship, not enough gun ports to be a military ship - and it was flying a flag that the lookout did not recognize. Maggie knew all the main trading company flags, not to mention the flags of any countries whose ships they might encounter, and this new ship was not flying any of them.
"What orders?" Abna asked her. Yora had come up from the gun deck to ask the same thing.
Maggie pulled out her spyglass and tried to focus on the ship, to determine for herself if it was worth chasing and what it might yield if they caught it. She handed the spyglass to Abna.
"Tell me what you see," she said.
"I don't - oh, there it is," Abna answered, swinging the spyglass around until she had it pointed in the right direction. "It does not look military, but I cannot tell if it is a small merchant ship or just a passenger vessel. And if it is only a passenger vessel, where is it going?"
"If it is heading across the ocean to civilization it will have a full hold," Yora commented. "Perhaps someone we might hold for ransom." Few private individuals had the money to maintain a ship capable of sailing such a distance, and especially in these waters it would have to be well-protected against pirates. That meant hiring guards, or being able to maintain one's own small force.
"Can we catch it, is the question," Maggie said, mostly to herself. It was not a large ship and was no doubt faster than the Black Lightning. "Find Doren and ask her if the Black Lightning is fit for a chase." This was directed at Yora, who looked annoyed at being ordered about but who did go off to find the boatswain.
The answer was yes, the Black Lightning was fit for a chase, so Maggie gave the order to follow the new ship and overtake it. They would board it and see what - and who - they had captured.
It took them the rest of the day and the better part of the evening, but with luck and good wind and skillful sail arrangement, the pirates caught up to the small ship towards sunrise. They got close enough to it to throw hooks over its gunwales to pull it closer, followed by planks, followed by yelling, screaming pirates. They had hoped that attacking in the early morning would lend them the element of surprise, but it turned out that the small ship was indeed protected by a small force of armed guardsmen, and soon the deck rang to the sounds of pistol shots and swords against swords as the pirates and the ship's guards engaged in close combat.
Maggie yelled orders as best she could while trying to find an advantage against the man who had engaged her. He fought like a military man, and she wondered as she parried and dodged and thrust whether or not he had served in a navy, and if so, which one. He was good - he was paid to be so - but she had years of training as well, and she was determined to take this ship and acquire some kind of plunder with which to reward herself and her crew.
It was more bloody and more exhausting than she had planned on, but her pirates eventually managed to take the ship. The guards had fought hard and well, but they were far outnumbered by pirates and were just overwhelmed. By the end of the fighting, half of the guards were dead and most the rest wounded, but the ones left alive were given the same choice Maggie gave everyone on the ships she captured - join her crew or be put overboard.
Surprisingly, only two of the guards elected to join. The rest of them were lowered into the sea in the small ship's only rowboat.
Most of the ship's crew, however, preferred to throw in their lot with the pirates. The ship had been carrying an aristocratic family from Tanne - who seemed quite shocked and not a bit appalled when someone mentioned the slave ship with a letter of marque from their king - and Maggie decided the best bet would be to hold them for ransom. There was a representative from the Tannen king in Port Doras, she knew, and perhaps he would be willing to pay for the family's freedom.
Abna took some pirates and searched the ship top to bottom for treasure. They emptied the galley of provisions and silver-plate, they collected arms and armor from the guards' room, they took clothes and jewels from the state rooms, and they discovered, much to their delight, several barrels full of gold and silver hidden among the barrels of wine. Abna made an inventory of everything, so that when the Black Lightning docked at Port Doras, everyone was sure to get an equal share. She split up what could be split, and the pirates carried everything back to their own ship. Maggie had the flag taken down from the small ship's main mast as a trophy, and when everyone and everything was off the ship, she sank it.
The man who had owned it, a tall, round lord of someplace or other, cursed her and insulted her in the most gentlemanly way possible, although from the anger in his voice it was clear he wished to use much stronger, more vulgar language. He could learn a great many words from her crew. She laughed at him.
"Surely you have heard of Red Maggie," she said, "exiled naval officer and pirate captain. Surely you have heard that she shows her captives mercy by leaving them alive. Consider this a small payment for the purchase of your life and the lives of your family."
He told her she would rot in hell. She told him he sounded like the priest on board her ship. And then she left him to Abna's tender mercies and the dubious comfort that the hold could provide.
"Now we may head for home," she told Severein, "if you can figure out which way that is."
There was celebrating on the Black Lightning that afternoon and well into evening as the pirates started spending their windfall as fast as they could while still at sea. They played cards and threw dice and placed bets on the most ridiculous things. They broke into the private ship's wine barrels. They tried on the clothes that had been taken out of the private ship's wardrobes, fighting over furs and silks and satin shoes with jeweled buckles.
(Pirates, like sailors in law-abiding navies, conducted their business on board their ship mostly barefoot. But that did not mean that they could not appreciate a pretty dancing shoe, or that they might not want such a thing for when they were land-bound again.)
Maggie drank and danced with her crew, singing rude pirate songs at the top of her voice and enjoying the profitable day. She had money again, her crew had money, they were still light on supplies but if they should pass an inhabited island they would stop and fill the hold with as much fresh food as they could. She was not worried. She was full of confidence in herself and her crew - she was Red Maggie, pirate captain of the Black Lightning, and nothing could stop her.
"I am going to raise a navy," she told Doren, waving her arm and spilling what was left of her wine in a gesture meant to encompass not only her crew, but the crew of the Cormorant, wherever they were, and all the crews of all the pirate ships that ever set sail from Port Doras. "A pirate navy. A glorious, fearsome thing. I will bring the Usurper to her knees."
"Promise a royal treasure and you will have more followers than you can count."
"I will. Oh, I will." Maggie grabbed Doren's face with her free hand and kissed her soundly on the mouth. "You will come with me, and you will see."
Doren just grinned, and said she would, of course she would, for royal treasure she would do a great many things.
words: 1886
total words: 19,119
