Chapter one
Little Laverne Chantelle looked over the edge of the ship and out onto the endless ocean. She was so caught up in her daydream that she didn’t hear the footsteps of her father coming toward her.
“Vernie?”
The little girl turned to look at her father. Standing 5' 9" tall with cream skin, he had a knowing feel about him. He had stern, wide, brown eyes, a wide face and dark, shoulder length, brown hair.
“It’s time for supper”
Little Vernie took her fathers hand and went to eat.
When they walked into the dining room the crew was talking amongst themselves. When supper was served the voices only got louder. As they were finishing up one of the men asked Vernie a question. A simple question but one that made the whole crew silent with her answer.
“What do you want to be when you grow up miss Laverne?”
She thought for a second then answered confidently,
“I wanna be a ship captain like my papa.”
The crew, stunned, looked around at each other then a laughter arose from them.
“You can’t be a captain little miss!”
“To think a woman as a ship captain?!”
“It’s bad enough luck just having a girl on board! And to captain it?!”
Vernie didn’t understand. Why couldn’t she do the same as her father? The men continued to laugh but not one chuckle came from Captain Chantelle. Instead he lowered his head to his daughters level and whispered in her ear,
“You can do whatever you put your mind to”
This made Vernie smile. She would hold on to that encouragement for the rest of her life.
After supper Laverne walked around with her father until bed. He tucked her in, told her he loved her, then went out on deck with the crew to drink and play cards and man the ship. The crew was quite loud but Vernie was used to falling asleep to the noise. Usually it only took her a few minutes to doze off, but she had a funny feeling in her stomach that night. She looked out her window and instead of seeing sea for miles on end…she saw another ship. After watching it move towards her for a few minutes she decided to go tell her father. She got up out of bed and walked out onto the deck. She walked around a bit looking for her father when she finally found him playing a game of cards. She tugged on his jacket until he looked at her.
“Papa…there’s a ship coming towards us.”
“It’s fine darlin’, go back to bed.”
Laverne did what she was told and went back to bed, but she didn’t go to sleep. She couldn’t stop thinking about that ship! An hour went by and she was still thinking about it. She lay in bed when all of a sudden she heard a loud bang. Vernie sprung out of bed and ran to find her father. When she found him she was too stunned to speak. She just clung to his leg.
“Vernie! Listen to me, if things get worse I want you to find a boat or something to float on and get out of here! Do you understand?”
Several more cannons shot. Vernie nodded.
“For now go back to our quarters.”
Once again, Laverne did as she was told and went to her bed. While she was there she heard a lot more canons, from both ships, and from what she could hear it didn’t seem good for them. People were shouting and she watched them through the window in the door,
“Load the cannons!”
“The lower levels are flooding!”
“I’m not sure we’re gonna make it.”
Though Vernie was frightened it all seemed so exiting to her. She watched the crew running around and yelling when the boat started to tip. Everyone slid down to the opposite side except for Vernie who was in the captains quarters and a few others who managed to hold on. Her father was not among them. The boat kept tipping until it snapped right in half and sank down with most of the crew, and her father. The second half of the ship evened out but Laverne knew it would probably sink down right after the first half. She knew she had to get off. She made a rope out of the bed sheets and climbed out of the window. When she got in the water she was instantly chilled. She had to find something to lay on. After a few minutes she found a nice piece of wood to float on and sat watching her fathers ship sink. Everything she ever knew was gone. She layed on the wooded plank and cried herself to sleep.
When Vernie awoke she was on land and there was woman standing next to her.
“She’s alive!” She shouted.
The woman was Tall and crooked with tan skin. She had rounded, brown eyes, smooth eyebrows, defined cheekbones and elbow-length, wavy, black hair.
“Sweetheart, what’s your name?”
Laverne rubbed her eyes and looked around,
“Vernie…” she answered
“What’s your full name dear?”
“Laverne Chantelle.”
“Chantelle?” The woman whispered, “is your father Captain Chantelle?”
Vernie nodded,
“She’s a pirate!” The woman exclaimed
Vernie looked around nervously.
“Don’t worry hun, we’re all pirates here. I’m Lucile Harwood”
Vernie gave a little smile which stopped after hearing Lucile’s next question,
“Where is your father?”
“He went down with the ship…I don’t know if he made it.”
“And your mother?”
“She died in childbirth…”
“Oh poor thing!” Lucile said taking Vernies hand. She took her home, sat her by the fire in a blanket and made her some soup.
“Your gonna be just fine little Vernie.”
