A Pirate's life

Summer of 1716

somewhere in the caribbean sea

“We’re under attack!” a sailor yelled as cannon fire erupted

“By whom?” the captain of the British merchant ship replied as he rushed out of the captain’s cabin

“PIRATES SIR”

“By the crown… this can’t be…” he muttered in disbelief “all men to arms! Do not allow them to take over this vessel!”

Before the ship’s crew could even grab their weapons, a cannonball hit their hull causing the whole ship to tremble.

Inside the hull was 23-year-old Daniel Cadogan, who hid inside an empty barrel scared for his life after a cannonball nearly hit him.

“Dear god, this is it, I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to sail to America. I will die on my first and last time aboard a ship. And even worse, at the hand of nasty pirates of all things!”

Daniel had not been at sea before, he spent his whole life in his father’s carpenting workshop.

When he moved out of his home he started working in harbors building ships. One day he decided he would like to see more of the world so he joined a merchant ship on its way to America. And that’s how he ended up in this dire situation, 20 days into his transatlantic trip.

While Cadogan was cowering in his barrel, the crew on the top deck were fighting for their lives

desperately trying to retaliate fire with their measly seven cannons.

Smoke from the cannons obscured their vision, there was no way they could see their attacker which made every man on board paranoid.

Out of the gray burnt smelling smoke another bang erupted from a cannon, its flash could barely be seen.

A rattling of chains could be heard soaring through the sky, heading right for the ship’s main mast. The crew knew this would be fatal to the ship, afterall how will you sail a ship with no sail to begin with? This worrying thought which haunted the crewmembers was interrupted by a loud crash, the massive chain shot tore the mainsail clear off. With splinters and wood chips flying everywhere the crew covered their faces, averting their eyes from the much bigger threat that was approaching. Only the captain at the helm could lay eyes upon the beast of a Pirate ship coming from the giant cloud of smoke. With waves crashing against its bow this massive war brig revealed itself from the smoke. A figurehead in the shape of a sparrow decorated the ship’s front and an oak-colored hull painted with black stripes along its sides. Sailing towards the British ship, this vessel had the black flag hoisted. They truly were pirates, there was no doubting that anymore. In disbelief the captain stared into the smoke not noticing the pirates had fired another chain shot at them, the impact of which knocked down nearly everyone on the ship including him.

Suddenly something metallic hooked onto the side of the ship.

“GRAPPLING HOOKS CAPTAIN!! THEY’RE GOING TO BOARD US”

“GET THOSE HOOKS OFF RIGHT NOW BEFORE-”

The captain’s words were cut off by musket shots being fired at the ship.

“Christ they’re close enough to use firearms already” the captain remarked with a rather shaky voice.

Men were trying to find cover, hiding behind the main mast, behind the ship’s railing. Some even went under deck to escape the bullet rain.

Other men weren’t fast enough to hide and fell victim to the marksmen of the pirate ship.

Blood was splattered all over the Quarter deck and the Pirates haven’t even boarded the vessel yet.

The ship was being reeled in closer and closer to the point where the pirates’ intimidating screams could be heard.

The entire crew, or rather what’s left of it, being visibly terrified started to grab their cutlasses in anticipation for the impending pirate boarding while their merchant ship is being reeled in by the grappling hooks.

The pirates now being visible across the ship were fierce looking men with greed in their eyes, ready to take everything on board, even lives.

“Be prepared for everything gentlemen” the captain told his crew while he took out his own saber.

Immediately after, the attack began. A hoard of over 20 pirates entered the ship, yelling at the top of their lungs. They jumped straight over the gap between the two vessels and started attacking.

“DEFEND THIS SHIP” the clearly scared yet brave captain told his crew.

Swords started clashing left and right, screams of genuine fear and desperation came from the merchant ships crew members. Screams so loud they were heard down below by our Daniel Cadogan who still cowardly hid in his barrel.

They´ve boarded the ship! I´m done for! That must be a hundred men above me right now judging by all the stomping! he thought to himself while breathing heavily.

“They are gonna come and find me once they’re done with the lads above that’s for sure. But i won’t let them get away with my things”

His arms firmly pulled his bag, which was also inside the barrel with him, closer to his body as if he were to never let go of it ever again.

The crew was fighting for their dear life but to no avail. The plunderers slit their throats and slashed their bodies with their sabers. The British captain was able to kill 2 pirates who tried to corner him. He got a good look on the quarter deck and saw what horrors the pirates had bestowed upon his ship. He saw how these plunderers utterly massacred his men. One pirate really seemed to like this act of murdering men because his devilish smile grew bigger with every kill he got. He looked around with his head turning fast from left to right as if he couldn’t decide on who to kill next.

The captain had to put a stop to this immediately. He needed to surrender. He knew he couldn’t win this battle but he could save the lives of the few men that were left fighting these seadogs. Pirates will typically stop their attacking if you were to willingly surrender since it is easier to steal loot without potential casualties that way and the captain was well aware of this.

One of the pirates seemed to be quite fond of throwing people overboard, and he was more than capable of that. He was an older looking big, burly man with muscles of steel, caramel tanned skin and big bushy eyebrows which seemed to obscure his eyes accompanied by a ruffled gray beard. He did not flinch even once when the ship’s men tried to strike him, he simply blocked their sword attacks with his hands, disarmed the men and hurled them overboard. He accomplished all of this while smoking a pipe too. This Man was experienced, no doubt about it, it’s like he had been at sea for ages.

That must be their captain. the captain thought.

He yelled “LAY YOUR WEAPONS DOWN. WE SURRENDER!!!”

his gaze quickly shifted to the big, burly man, “You!” he said “ tell your men to stop attacking! Haven’t you heard? We surrender!” The captain’s men quickly joined in with him.

“By all means we surrender! Take whatever you want but please don’t kill any more of us!”

The British crew’s cutlasses quickly fell down to the floor and all the mens arms were reaching for the sky. The big man started laughing wholeheartedly with his rough sounding voice.

“Sorry cap’n, I ain’t the one callin the shots around here. Ya gotta take matters up to the boss”

The captain, seeming dumbfounded, asked himself “who in the world could be the captain if it isn’t him?”

“BOSS,” the big man yelled, “they’ve surrendered.”

“Excellent work lads” a young sounding voice exclaimed pridefully from the other ship.

All eyes turned to see a tall figure jumping aboard the vessel, and pulling out a flintlock pistol.

The crew couldn’t believe their eyes, now that the pirate captain stood before them they could lay eyes on this terrible man, and to their surprise, it was a woman? She had long hair,red like autumn leaves, braided in a ponytail and wore a violet, almost royal looking coat. Her vicious grin revealed a golden tooth among her griddy looking yellowed teeth. The woman adjusted her tricorn hat with her gun and took a look around the ship.

“Well then ya bloody redcoats, what kind of booty have ya got for me on board?” she spoke, fixing her eyes on the British captain. He was as frightened as he was confused, “A female pirate?” He said “In all my years crossing the sea I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Well cap’n, you got a nice story to tell yer grandkids then now don’t ya?” she taunted, patting him on his shoulder.

“Alright lads! Take everything you can carry! Especially the food ya hear me?” the pirate captain called out to her crew. “In the meantime i’ll see myself to this ship’s captain’s cabin to see if we find any plans of other merchant ships trade routes, unless of course… someone would object to that.” she grinned, turning her head to the British captain.

His eyes narrowed “Piss off Ginger, take whatever and leave us be-”

The pirate captain swiftly rammed her knee right into his stomach before he could complete his sentence.

This left him in tremendous pain and gasping for air.

“Nobody calls me Ginger ya seadog, got that?”

“Would coward suit you better then?” he said, breathing heavily.

“Explain yourself.” she said, slowly pulling out a dagger out of its sheath.

“What kind of coward are you to let your men fight for you and then come aboard and strut about as if you did all the work? Real captains fight alongside their men!” the captain accused.

The red haired captain now had a sinister look on her face and started twirling around her dagger.

“It’s quite simple ya see cap’n, I needed to see if my crew was still capable enough after we had been on land for a while. We don’t want em to get rusty right? Besides…” , the pirate captain grabbed his arm and quickly rammed her dagger through the captain’s hand and into the ship’s main mast, “if id have fought alongside my men, we wouldn’t be havin this conversation.”

The British captain was yelling in pain and was desperately trying to remove the dagger.

“J- just who are you woman?” he asked with heaving breaths.

“Depends on who you’re askin lad, but I’ll tell ya what. My enemies call me Captain Meredith.”