We had been taking ships and plenty of pelf off the Canaries until Captain Morgan decided we might be getting too much of a good thing. One bright morning, the Captain ordered the Sweet Cutlass to sail south and east for the Ear of Africa and then to take the slow route south along the west coast of Africa to the Cape of Good Hope. Afterward we would pass through the cold winds and mean rip tides of the crossover at the tip of the cape, to sail up the east coast to Madagascar.
Not all the crew was happy with this plan, and the Third Mate and two others asked to be put ashore with their share of our current booty. The Captain, always the perfect democrat, called all crew topside to adjudicate the matter. So there the ship lay with its sails furled against a gentle breeze with the Captain and me up by the wheel and the crew gathered down around the mast.
The Captain calmly asked the Third Mate to tell the crew what he and his two companions wished to do and why. The Third Mate was unruffled, and he said he reckoned that the Sweet Cutlass had gathered as much treasure as was possible during the last four months around the Canaries. He said the month-long voyage around the cape would not be commensurately profitable, so he and his hearties figured they would take their share of what had been gathered now and jump ship. He explained that they would ship aboard some other vessel and continue to work here near the Canaries. Maybe, he said, they would ship back aboard the Sweet Cutlass when it returned from Madagascar—if that ever happened.
The Captain seemed to take seriously what his Third Mate said and nodded his head throughout the man’s case as if he was impressed with the plan. When the Third Mate had finished and swelled up with pride for having done well articulating his plan, the Captain asked the crew whether any other of them wanted to join the Third Mate and his two hearties. The crew was silent and suspicious because they knew their Captain’s calculating moods. The Captain said he reckoned from their silence that that the Third Mate and his two hearties were the only pirates on the ship who were in the deal. His voice boomed out that this was the last call to join the Third Mate or to remain with the Sweet Cutlass on its new voyage to Madagascar. No one answered the Captain’s call to join the Third Mate. In fact, the crew shuffled back a few steps to distance themselves from the Third Mate and his two confederates so that those three men stood alone before the mast.
Then the Captain asked me as First Mate what the death of a crew member meant with regard to each man’s share. I answered that the dead man’s share belonged in equal part to the remaining crew. The Captain nodded and asked what each living man should deduce from that fundamental maxim of pirates everywhere.
I said, “More for the rest of us.”
With a dangerous chuckle the Captain rose to his full height and ordered the Second Mate to shove out the plank on the lee side of the vessel, because three men had opted to leave the ship and he intended to give them a good send off.
A commotion stirred among the crew while the plank was shoved out over the side. The crew knew the meaning of that plank, for many of their victims had walked off it at sword point into the sea.
The Third Mate had now turned pale, and his two hearties were fidgeting back and forth. They seemed to be having second thoughts about their rash decision to join the man in his pig-headed undertaking. The Captain cheerily asked the three mutineers who would like to mount the plank first.
While they were deliberating among each other, he ordered the Second Mate to chum the waters on the side of the vessel where the plank extended. He ordered me to draw and cock my pistol and to maintain order during the proceedings, as he was going to withdraw to his quarters for a moment to relieve himself.
The Captain went back towards his cabin while I assumed the Conn and kept watch over the crew. Meanwhile the first fins cut through the clear, calm water where the chum had fallen. Soon the water would be a chaos of sharks seeking blood with their wide mouths open, and the crew became fascinated with the thought of the feast we would soon provide for them.
The Third Mate called me by my name, “Abe, will you intervene with the Captain in our behalf? I beseech you for mercy.” He quailed as our victims invariably had done before they had walked the plank. “I deserve my share and my hearties also deserve theirs.”
As if he had heard this plea, the Captain emerged from his cabin with three sacks, which he held up so that all the crew could see.
“In these sacks,” the Captain said, “are the shares of loot that you departing men earned.”
He turned to the crew and said, “Each sack contains gold and silver coins.”
He opened one sack and grabbed a fistful of coins and flung it to the deck below so the crew could see the truth of what he said for themselves. No one touched the coins, though there was no mistaking the glittering coins for anything but gold and silver.
The Captain said, “The crew must decide what will happen to the bags of pelf, as man by man the Third Mate and his hearties leave the ship.”
The first man to the plank was the Third Mate himself. The Second Mate bound the condemned man’s hands and escorted him to the end of the plank, where he looked down into gently undulating ocean water boiling with hungry sharks.
When the man was in position, the Captain raised a sack and asked the crew, “Is it fair to give the Third Mate his share knowing his fate?”
When none of the crew answered his question, the Captain asked me, “Abe, what do you think?”
I said, “Davy Jones has plenty of treasure, but he always likes additional company. Where the Third Mate is going, he’ll have more treasure than the Sweet Cutlass had ever conceived of. In that case the pirate rule for sharing the wealth should prevail: ‘The more for the rest of us!’”
The crew murmured their agreement with what I said.
The Captain nodded, and he said, “Each man shall make the determination for himself.”
He flung all the coins from one bag down on the deck and said, “Each crew member can either keep whatever he picks up or fling it overboard to the Third Mate as he sees fit.”
Then he motioned for the Second Mate to edge the Third Mate off the plank.
So at the same time the Third Mate hit the ocean water with its forest of shark fins, the crew hit the ship’s decks picking up coins—all but the two hearties of the Third Mate, who stood trembling as the Second Mate approached to bind them for their last walk on earth. Down in the water the Third Mate’s body was being torn apart by two gigantic sharks, when a third even larger shark swam between them and took off the man’s abdomen with a single bite. The blood and gore in the blue water drove the feeding fish into a feasting frenzy while the Second Mate readied the next man for the plank.
The Captain looked the bound man in the eye and asked him, “Have you trained with the Third Mate so you can one day become Third Mate yourself?”
The man answered, “Aye, Captain!”
The Captain raised a second sack and said, “This is the man’s share. Is it now a fair share given what’s just happened?” I was about to answer, but the Captain raised his hand to stop me from responding and gestured to the hapless man near the plank to answer his question.
The man looked the Captain steadily in the eye and said, “Captain, with one share re-divided, the amount in the sack, if it be the same as the other that was just distributed, is too small by the amount divided by the number of the crew. So it is not fair.”
The Captain looked at the man fiercely and then asked me, “Abe, what do you think of this judgment?”
Without looking at the Captain, I said, “Judgment is a rare commodity among seamen and it’s worth much more than gold and silver coins.”
The Captain then asked me, “What would you do if you were the ship’s Captain under the circumstances?”
I took a few minutes to consider this, and I answered, “If I were you, Captain, I’d offer the choice of the cat-o-nine-tails or the plank, and if he chose the cat, I’d have a tamed Third Mate. If not, I’d have no Third Mate.”
The Captain then asked the man near the plank, “Will you choose the cat or the plank?”
The man answered, “Captain, I choose the cat-o-nine-tails but with the proviso that my hearty be given the same choice as me.”
The Captain looked down at the seething waters off the lee side of the ship and nodded in acquiescence.
The third man, grateful for his having been granted the chance at life, chose the cat over the plank, and the Captain ordered the plank withdrawn and stowed.
The Captain then ordered the crew to return to their stations on their normal watch routines, all except for the two hearties that were taken by the Second Mate before the mast to sit on the deck and prepare their own cat-o-nine-tails. The Captain returned the two remaining sacks of booty to his cabin while I un-cocked my pistol and shoved it into my belt. I stood the watch as we unfurled the sails and sailed southeast with fair winds and following seas on our cruise to Madagascar.
****
I learned that ocean trade along the West African coast was brisk, and the Sweet Cutlass had its choice of vessels. Most of the trade was conducted in barter, but the trading ships always had some gold and silver aboard. As pirates we had competition that sometimes wanted to prey upon ourselves. So it was as we entered the Bay of Shrimps under the Ear of Africa a pirate ship displaying the Jolly Roger came at us from the shore.
Next to the Sweet Cutlass, our competitor seemed a slovenly scow, but its Captain was no fool and called for a gam with Captain Morgan. The Captain agreed and ordered that his whaleboat be launched for the meeting.
No sooner had the two Captains met between our ships than the pirate vessel fired at the Sweet Cutlass. I was ready for such a ploy, and I ordered all our guns to fire at the main brace of the pirate ship while I saw my Captain draw his knife, leap aboard the whaleboat of the other Captain and slay both the man and his coxswain.
Having destroyed the enemy’s main brace, the ship could not maneuver, so I took the Sweet Cutlass alongside and ordered the men to board and take no prisoners. It took almost no time for our crew to dispatch the enemy’s crew and throw the bodies into the water. Making the Sweet Cutlass fast to the enemy pirate ship, we took our time plundering it of everything of value, especially the guns, powder, cannon balls and scrap shot. Meanwhile, we winched the Captain’s whaleboat back aboard with him and the coxswain inside it.
At the Captain’s orders we scuttled the pirate vessel and maneuvered along the shore until we found the village from which the enemy pirates had come. The Captain anchored out and after dark ordered me to take a prize crew to row the whaleboat ashore to reconnoiter.
I steered by the light of a fire near the shore, and we landed the whaleboat amidst a number of boats along the beach. With our weapons, we advanced on the village where the villagers were assembled around the bonfire that we had steered by. I told my hearties to stand back until I called them. I then proceeded alone to address the villagers, who were startled to see me appear out of nowhere alone with my cocked pistol.
The man in charge of the remnant of the pirate colony laughed at the idea that I would approach him without any apparent reinforcements. When he rose and reached for his own pistol, I shot him through the heart. I called my hearties forward and told the villagers that we had come for treasure and valuables. I said we would do them no harm if they did not resist us, but they decided to take their chances by rushing us with their knives drawn. We slew them all, men and women alike. Then we fashioned torches, lighted them in the bonfire and went from dwelling to dwelling to scout for valuables.
We found the hut that must have belonged to the pirate Captain. It was full of treasure hidden under some carpets in a chest in a hole that had been dug in the center of the earthen floor. We withdrew with that chest, taking care to set all the huts aflame as we departed. We stove in all the boats that lay on the shore in case some pirates who were absent in the jungle might return to pursue us. Then we rowed with our treasure back out to our anchored Sweet Cutlass.
When I presented the chest of treasure to the Captain in his cabin, he smiled and said he thought other pirates lurked all along the coast. They had done the hard work of harvesting treasure for many years, and the Captain said it would almost be sinful not to rob those other pirates of their booty whenever we had the chance to do so. So instead of taking ships that plied the coast with scant treasure individually, we decided to masquerade as a merchant vessel to lure the coastal pirates to attack us. That way we could reverse our roles and do what we had done to the first pirate ship and village.
So our progress south was punctuated by our being raided by pirates whose ships we easily subdued and whose villages we overwhelmed and plundered afterwards. This way we amassed greater wealth by far than we had gathered during our time in the Canaries. In fact, we gathered so much gold and silver, jewels and ores that I wondered aloud whether it would be safe to travel with all that treasure.
The Captain had been thinking along the same lines, so we discussed strategy. We decided that we would have to plant some of our treasure ashore at the earliest opportunity in a place we would surely recognize after many years. We were flying Spanish colors now for disguise and convenience, and we came upon an anchorage crowded with ships with so many small boats rowing back and forth between those ships and the shore that it almost seemed American. We anchored a little farther out from the rest, and the Captain sent me ashore to discover the nature of the port.
I was disgusted to find that the rich port serviced the slave trade. Large holding pens held the slaves. The colony, which was designed especially for this kind of human trafficking, was larger than any of the villages we had encountered so far on our African journey.
Daily auctions of slaves were held in a public square with posts and chains to hold the slaves while the bidding took place. Slavers brought new slaves from the jungles, received their payments and then retreated to a religious house where they prayed.
While not impassable, the security for the slaves was certainly serious. Men with pistols, sabers and knives stood guard. Some of those were black. The slaves themselves were fed well and cleaned daily because the better they looked, the higher the prices they could command.
The trade was in gold and silver coins and bars, and I was impressed that the storehouse for the gold and silver seemed less well guarded than the slave pens. My mind immediately considered how the storehouse might be relieved of its contents during the night. The biggest constraint, it seemed to me, was the sheer weight of the potential plunder.
Coffee houses and trading posts had sprung up around the square with every conceivable African product from ivory tusks to hides of animals, spices of all kinds, and sacks of manioc roots and curious crystals.
A fortuneteller sold prophecies about the right and wrong days for purchases. Liquor, including rum, was available in bottles, casks and kegs, and a tavern sold African beverages that some said had been made from fermented grains. A row of small cabins was reserved for the sex trade, which was linked to the slave trade because the youngest and most beautiful of the female slaves were used there. Merchants could sample the wares for money before they purchased these slaves.
I was surprised to see that the slavers and the slave purchasers all used these slaves. I pretended that I was a potential customer, so I was shown to the amenities. I decided against participating when I saw how young the girl slaves were. When I emerged, I witnessed the public whipping of a very large black slave who had tried to escape. Evidently the stripes made by the whip were considered an adornment by potential buyers, who seemed not to regard the pain that was being inflicted on the slave.
I thought about that slave’s desire to escape, and a vague plan began to form in my mind. I thought of the slaves as the means to get the gold and silver to the Sweet Cutlass. I thought that the best remuneration for their services would be their freedom. What would have to happen was a very rapid overcoming of all guards at the pens and the storehouse, a quick liberation of as many willing slaves as were necessary to carry the gold and silver to waiting boats that would row out to the Sweet Cutlass. I thought midnight would be the best time for executing this plan. I also thought some form of diversion would be necessary to keep the merchants busy while the treasure was removed. The anchored ships would be another problem—they were the greatest hazard to the welfare Sweet Cutlass unless, of course, some warships arrived unexpectedly.
On a whim I decided to visit the soothsayer’s shop where fortunes were told. I was surprised to find that the soothsayer was a beautiful woman with green eyes and auburn hair. Without a word she took my hand and opened my palm, tracing my life line with her fingernail. She tried a half dozen languages until she hit upon English. Quickly with fire in her eyes, she said she had information that I must know and it would cost one piece of gold. I produced the gold coin, and she told me that a French warship would arrive early the next morning to receive the tribute that it collected once a month. She said the vessel stopped at all six slave ports—three to the north, this port, and two more ports to the south before the great diamond desert, so it would be laden with treasure when it arrived.
The soothsayer said she wanted me to spend the night with her for another gold coin, but I had now to get back to the Captain with the intelligence about the French ship.
I gave the woman a second gold coin and told her, “I’ll return one day to spend the night with you.” Her teeth were white, clean and even when she smiled.
She said, “Before you leave me, know that your lifeline suggests strength and a long life. I hope I’ll see you again.”
I replied, “You should be careful about the people to whom you sell your information. Informants are often killed for information far less important than what you’ve told me today.”
“From your expression and the lines in your palm, I knew you would not kill me, not today anyway.” With that enigmatical statement, she pushed me towards the door and said, “You have to run. There’s not much time left to do what you have to do.”
I returned to the whaleboat and had the coxswain row as fast as possible to the Sweet Cutlass where the Captain awaited my report. I arrived in the late afternoon, and the Captain and I spent a long while discussing what we should do. The Captain was very interested in the imminent arrival of the French warship, but he kept his mind focused on the gold and silver stream. When he had digested all the information I had gleaned, he asked me to bring the Second and Third Mates to his cabin for a conference. There the Captain outlined his plan of action, and it was better than anything I could have devised, though I had my doubts about the details of execution.
According to the Captain’s plan, our crew would be divided into four teams, one led by the Captain and the other three led by us mates. We mates would strike that very midnight on the shore and at the anchorage while the Captain with a skeleton crew would sail out to meet the French warship.
So in the dark we mates shoved off in the whaleboat with six of the crew. We dropped the Second Mate off at the nearest merchant ship and then continued to shore where I showed the Third Mate where the storehouse was and told him and two men what they were to do as soon as possible after the explosion out on the water.
I instructed two hearties to seize and prepare two boats from the many on the beach for immediate departure when treasure arrived. I took the two remaining pirates with me to slit the throats of the guards and liberate the slaves from the pen.
My hearties and I had eliminated the guards at the pen when the explosion occurred on the merchant ship where the Second Mate had been dropped off. After that, the entire shore area came to life in a chaos of shouting and excitement. I opened the gate of the slave pen and motioned for the strongest male slaves to follow me to the storehouse, where the Third Mate and his men had already earned their share by killing the guardians of the gold and silver and found where the booty was hidden inside the enclosure.
The other slaves from the pen followed me and the slaves I had chosen, and a new idea occurred to me. In the storehouse, I passed out bags of gold and silver coins and bars of gold and silver to the slaves to carry down to the waterside where they were to put them in the two waiting boats. When all but a couple of bags remained in the storehouse, I threw their contents on the floor and motioned for the slaves to pick up what they could carry and run for the jungle. When they had scampered off in glee, I set fire to the storehouse and ran with the others to the whaleboat.
Setting out from the shore in the whaleboat with my men, I saw other men rowing towards the merchant ship that had suffered the explosion. At the same time, we were rowing as fast as possible out to the Sweet Cutlass. From the shore it would appear, I surmised, that the crews of ships that were farthest from shore were prudently returning to preserve their vessels. Looking back at the shore, I saw that by torchlight the denizens were scrambling to discover what had happened at the storehouse and at the pen. Some with torches had spread out looking for escaped slaves in the jungle. No one seemed to be interested in climbing into a boat to follow my crew.
We rowed and rowed, and ahead of the whaleboat appeared the Second Mate, swimming in the water and laughing his head off. I swung him aboard just in time before another great explosion rocked the merchant ship that the Second Mate had booby-trapped. The ship was riven by the blast and sank rapidly, while the rowboats that had tried to help looked on. Our three boats converged where the Sweet Cutlass should have been, but it had weighed anchor and was already proceeding to the north to intercept the French warship.
I signaled the other boats to pass leaders so that the three boats could proceed as a group in a line to the rear. We rowed in that line in the wake of the Sweet Cutlass. The wind was not strong, and our ship was undermanned without us. I looked for the Captain’s sign at the rear of the ship, and I saw it bobbing up and down in the ship’s wake. I ordered the boats to stroke harder, and I fished out the empty keg with the line attached. Hand over hand we pulled at the line while we continued to row towards the ship. I saw that on the starboard and port side lines were extended, and suddenly the great ship came about in a familiar maneuver. I signaled for the two boats to spread out to the right and left while the Sweet Cutlass continued to come about and then regained its course behind us. As the ship passed, the two boats and the whaleboat caught the lines extended to either side, and the transfer of the treasure and men began in earnest.
The gold and silver were hoisted aboard the Sweet Cutlass and taken immediately to the Captain’s cabin. The slaves were told to lie on the deck by the mast, where they were provisioned with rum, apples and bread. When the two boats we had used for treasure and slaves had been emptied, they were abandoned to the open sea.
Meanwhile we in the whaleboat worked the davits and hauled the boat into place while the ship’s watch team unfurled the sails. We all prepared to encounter the French warship. We sailed the rest of the night hugging the shore as much as possible, but we never found the French warship. Was the soothsayer’s intelligence wrong?
The Captain laughed at the idea. He said that the French never could be on time for anything, even when gold and silver were at stake.
At dawn, the Captain told the helmsman to reverse course to the south again, and as the sun rose in the east over Africa the Captain went to his cabin to survey the piles of gold and silver bars, the thirty bags of coins and the six bags of uncut diamonds that had been taken in that one night.
The Captain resolved to take the course that the French warship was supposed to have taken and to visit the remaining two slave ports to the south to collect a similar booty. He advised us mates to look lively on watch and to brief the lookouts to be alert to sails on the horizon. We were now, he said, as much a rich prize as any he had ever taken. The Captain also had an idea about the slaves we had taken on board, and he asked me to help him communicate with them.
The slaves were glad to have been freed, but they were apprehensive about their future if they were set back on the shore. The one slave who could understand any language that we pirates knew was the huge black who had been whipped the day before. I explained to him that the Captain would put them all ashore if they liked. If that did not suit them, they had a choice that they must make at once. Either they became members of our crew, or they visited the sharks in the ocean. The huge black man said a few words in the native Bantu language that all the slaves seemed to understand, and his fellow former slaves murmured among each other.
The huge man smiled and told me they were proud to join the Captain and his crew.
That is how the Sweet Cutlass gained ten of the fiercest fighters I have ever witnessed in a pirate crew. The former slaves adapted well to life at sea. They stood watches immediately under instruction and they learned fast. Our Third Mate became their leader, and I helped whenever special communication was necessary. Problems with morale were handled exclusively by the huge black man, who had a special regard among them. I later learned that he had been a chief among his own people, and it showed in his bearing and attitude.
The two slave ports to the south were much the same as the one we had raided with success. Our credibility among the slave traders was increased because of the presence of apparent slaves on our ship. We did not ask the slaves to go ashore to help us combat the slavers, but they volunteered for the job. They contended that their skills with language were superior to ours for the purpose. So when we struck at midnight on two occasions and opened the pens that held the slaves, our former slaves explained what was happening to the newly freed slaves. They also killed the slavers with such a vengeance that I could not withhold them from extending their retribution to the entire slaver community. We gained much gold and silver on both occasions, and we also gained twenty additional crew members, all former slaves. Because they could be trained by people they saw as their own extended family, the newbies learned quickly. None chose to live with the sharks.
So by the time we reached the Cape of Good Hope, we were a jolly ship unlike any other pirate vessel the world had known since ancient times. The Captain and crew were extremely happy that they had garnered a fortune from harvesting gold and silver; the former slaves were ecstatic that they had been freed and gone on to free others. The warm sentiments did not help much as we crossed under the Cape of Good Hope and ran through the rip tides and the cold winds that had blown many ships onto the inhospitable shore.
We soon plunged north and east along the east African shore towards Madagascar, and the Captain called for a meeting of us mates and the huge black we called Benjamin, who was chief of the former slaves now.
The Captain said that he had a plan that he hoped would satisfy everyone. He had two problems that needed to be solved, and the only way he knew to solve them both, he said, required the division of his crew into two parts, one part remaining on the Sweet Cutlass and the other part taking control of another ship of the same kind. In effect, he wanted to expand the piratical enterprise by fission and employ two ships working in tandem rather than one ship working alone. The Captain let his words sink in, and then he asked for comments from all of us.
I answered that the Captain’s plan would probably work under conditions. First, the Captain would have to find an appropriate Captain for his second ship. Second, the Captain would have to determine how the two ships would operate together and share spoils. Third, the Captain would have to decide how to seize the ship that would be the Sweet Cutlass’s companion.
The Second Mate then said that the crew now had natural divisions that were unique. By this, he meant that one portion of the crew understood only a foreign language and only one man could interpret for them. He implied that all the former slaves should be allocated to one ship instead of being distributed among the two vessels.
The Third Mate followed by stating that in any case additional crew members would be necessary to fill out the watch teams on both vessels. The most difficult decision—and it was the Captain’s to make—was the fair apportionment of treasure according to pirate tradition since in the past the shares equaled the number of the surviving crew on one vessel. Would shares be according to vessel or according to the combination of vessels? The Third Mate suggested that if they could split into two crews, perhaps in future they could split again, so this fundamental determination had to be made right at the start so that feuding did not break out.
Benjamin, like the Captain, had listened carefully to everything that had been said. He asked the Captain’s permission before he spoke, but when he spoke, he was direct and eloquent. First, he said, the First Mate was every bit ready for command of his own vessel, so the Captain’s choice of a Captain for his companion ship was already made. Second, he said, the communication problem among former slaves was being solved through work since all of them knew their duties now and fit into the watch teams as they were. He said he could interpret as necessary for both ships. The man known as Reuben, who was Benjamin’s second, could serve as his surrogate aboard the second vessel. Third, he said, the problems of recruitment would vanish if the Captain saw a way to increase his crews by freeing slaves just as he had already done. As for splitting treasure, what could be more valuable than freedom? The former slaves had already been given a priceless gift, and they were all very grateful. Benjamin said that the Captain would not only be the leader of his own ship, but the commander over both ships together. Shares of all the treasure split across all the pirates would be most fair, but the Captain should have an additional share because of his dual role. Having said these things, Benjamin became quiet.
The Captain was lost in thought for a long while. When he shook his head and became conscious of his fellow pirates again, he said that they should share a few bottles of rum together. He extended that to the entire crew, and the ship was allowed to luff sail and rock in the ocean while everyone had his ration of rum, including the cabin boy and the lookouts that came down from the crow’s nest. When the imbibition’s had been taken, the Captain called for a meeting of all the crew at which he would make an announcement.
The Captain stood next to the steering wheel, and I stood by his side when he made his historic, game-changing speech, which was interpreted to the former slaves by Benjamin.
First, Captain Morgan thanked the crew for working well together and for earning more treasure in the last three raids than his ship had earned in its entire history.
He said, “Everyone aboard will share in the wealth in the pirates’ fashion, with one share for each man regardless of origin, color or time in service.” He hesitated for a moment to let that thought sink in. Hearing no objection, he pressed on.
The Captain continued, “I’m going to add a ship and split the crew between the two vessels so we can take twice the treasure in raids that can be coordinated. My current First Mate Abe will become the Captain of the second ship. Technically, the second ship as well as the Sweet Cutlass will still be under my command, though the second ship will have some measure of autonomy. The former slaves are now full partners in our pirate ventures. They’ll be split evenly between the two ships, with Benjamin remaining on the Sweet Cutlass. Benjamin will serve as interpreter for all the former slaves.”
I saw that Benjamin swelled with pride upon hearing this news. The Captain had more to say.
“Shares will be treated on an equal basis across both ships with the entire crew of both ships sharing equally regardless of which ship had the most treasure to its credit. Any augmentations of the crew will be drawn from wherever seemed appropriate at the time, including other newly freed slaves.”
The crew murmured in assent and smiled at this novel idea.
The Captain said, “I cannot well predict when all this will happen, but it will happen at the earliest opportunity and preferably before the ship ports in at Madagascar. I’ll have other announcements in the coming weeks about who specifically will be allocated to each of the two ships when the time comes.”
The Captain stopped and looked across his crew, taking the time to look each man directly in the eye. Then he ordered everyone to get back to their duty stations with the normal watch rotation. The stunned crew did as the Captain ordered.
During the ensuing weeks, the crew discussed the Captain’s plan quietly among themselves. When the final lists were determined, the Third Mate and I were paired so that when I became Captain, he would become my First Mate. At the transition the Second Mate would become the Captain’s new First Mate. I was proud of my new assignment but somewhat saddened that I would not be working directly by the Captain’s side. I felt ready for my new role working in tandem with the Captain and crew of my former ship. Since the allocations had been determined, all the crew looked forward to our finding the ship that would be the Sweet Cutlass’s complement.
We were nearing Madagascar when early one morning we espied what was probably a French-flagged vessel, with roughly the same size and rigging as the Sweet Cutlass. The Captain had examined the vessel through his spyglass for fully ten minutes before he passed the glass to me and asked me what I thought of the ship off the starboard quarter.
I liked what I saw and told the Captain it would do as the complement. With a nod the Captain directed a course to intercept, went to full sail and ordered the crew to prepare to board the ship.
It took eight hours to come within striking distance, and our initial volley was the wakeup call for our prey, which raised the Jolly Roger, came about and prepared to ram us. So the falsely flagged vessel was a pirate ship like ours, and now we were in a battle for our lives as well as our ship. The Captain took the Conn and ordered me to direct our fire on the closing vessel’s masts. I ordered the batteries to fire at will, so smoke filled the air as the guns went off in a kind of rhythmic rotation.
Simultaneously, the Captain ordered the crew to man the port side and prepare to board with grappling hooks and lines. This confused our prey, which failed to understand the Captain’s intentions. The pirate ship’s Captain fully expected to ram us to starboard and to board on that side, but Captain Morgan was not an easy mark. In the final minutes, he ordered the Sweet Cutlass to come about to port, and the prey found itself unprepared for missing its ram and for a boarding in parallel to its starboard side from our port. For the Sweet Cutlass, this maneuver was our bread-and-butter signature move and a contributing factor to our success. We added to that surprise a massed boarding by a predominantly black boarding party, holding knives in their mouths and brandishing sabers. I shouted the guns to silence because in the melee that followed, I did not want friendly fire. The ships became bound by lines with grappling hooks, and now the joined vessels allowed free play of both crews across both decks. The Captain and I were in the thick of the fight, but I knew that the victor would be the crew whose Captain survived. So I ordered Benjamin to guard the Captain with his life, and I spirited myself over the side on a hanging line and raced through the fighting to the helm of our rival.
I did not wait for an invitation but pitched my knife so I held it by the blade. As quickly as I could, I hurled it fifteen feet into the heart of the rival pirate Captain. The man knew he was hit and the game was over, but the fight raged on. I shouted to Captain Morgan that his rival was dead. I noticed that Benjamin was taking down two assailants who had been trying to kill my Captain. Now Benjamin raised both arms and in a terrible, booming voice said something in his native language. The former slaves stood back from their work for a moment to allow their adversaries to hear what Captain Morgan was saying.
The Captain sharply ordered everyone on both ships to lower their weapons because he had an offer for all ears. All pirates from both ships stopped fighting to listen.
Captain Morgan announced, “My worthy rival has been killed.” He gestured towards me, and I pointed to the place where that dead Captain lay.
After we had paused to let everyone consider what we had revealed, the Captain announced, “I intend to combine the treasure and the surviving crew members of both ships in a single venture, with no prejudice whatsoever. Any pirate who objects to this proposal will be killed immediately and fed to the sharks. All who agree to join me will be given a place in the new crews befitting his current role. I’ll count to three to hear an objection, and if none is forthcoming, everyone will drop his weapons on the decks and await further instructions.”
The Captain did not have to reach the count of three when weapons began to fall on the decks of both ships. Benjamin then ordered the ex-slaves to pick up all weapons and place them before the mast of the Sweet Cutlass. The Captain ordered the crews of both ships to muster before their respective masts. He ordered those of his own crew who had been designated as members of the complementary ship to gather their belongings and proceed to their new vessel. He told me to take charge of my new command, and I gladly did so.
When I was ready I asked the three mates of the captured ship to stand forward. The First Mate I offered the position of Second Mate under my command. When he appeared to be reluctant, I drew my pistol and shot him in the head. I then offered the position to the Second Mate, who eagerly agreed to serve. I offered the position of Third Mate to the current Third Mate of the captured vessel, and he also agreed to serve without cavil. I ordered the Second Mate to identify half of the captured crew to ship aboard the Sweet Cutlass within the next ten minutes. I told my First Mate to see that the division was carried out and the identified men left the ship with their belongings and joined the crew of the Sweet Cutlass.
Within ten minutes the transfer had been completed. I ordered my First Mate to sort out and set the evening watch and to clear the decks of the dead and the wounded. Anyone wounded too severely to serve was to be given the coup de grace and hurled overboard with the other dead. I told my First Mate to repair the damaged rigging and await the order to move ahead based on Captain Morgan’s orders. When the First Mate told me he was ready, I called over to Captain Morgan that I was ready to separate ships and proceed after him.
Captain Morgan asked me, “Captain Abe, what are you going to call your new vessel?”
I had thought about this for as long as I knew I was going to have my own command. Without hesitation I told him, “Night Lightning.”
At this name he laughed deep and long. He then ordered his men to cut all binding ties between the Sweet Cutlass and the Night Lightning, set the evening watch and unfurl all sails. I did the same, and when the Sweet Cutlass pulled ahead into the night, I saw the light on its fantail and ordered my helmsman to follow it.
Satisfied that the Night Lightning was on the right course with the watch set, I proceeded to the dead Captain’s cabin and there found silver and gold, charts and maps marked with the location of buried treasure. Hiding in the closet was the former Captain’s cabin boy with blue eyes and straw blonde hair. I smiled to show him he had nothing to fear.
“You have a new master. Fetch me a bottle of rum.”
The boy did gladly fetch one from a store of bottles and kegs in a special compartment in the Captain’s cabin. The boy spoke a little English along with his French, so I thought we would get along just fine.
“I know the places where the best ladies live in Madagascar. They are very good in bed, but they know everyone and everything that is going on in east Africa.”
I knew I had found a treasure beyond comparison. I told him, “You are now the Captain’s cabin boy for the Night Lightning.”
He liked the new name for the ship and repeated it to himself so that he would remember it. By the time the First Mate had come to report the ship’s status, the boy was asleep in his cot.
My First Mate told me that all was well. He said he would shadow the midwatch, and I told him I would shadow afterward until the morning watch. I showed the First Mate some of the gold and silver pelf that had been hidden in the cabin, but I did not mention the charts and maps I had found with the locations for treasure clearly marked on them. I realized that I was already learning the prerogatives of being a ship’s Captain.
The next morning’s sunrise was resplendent. A pair of whales swam alongside the ship as if they were traveling in company. The only other ship on the horizon was the Sweet Cutlass dead ahead. The crew mustered after their morning meal, and I said a few words indicating that we should be ready for action at an instant’s notice. I ordered a meeting of the mates by the helm to discuss the plan for the day, and they went below on the weather decks to tell the men what I had said in their own ways.
When they had finished and the men were at their assigned duties, the Second Mate and Third Mate came to see me as much to gauge their new Captain as to be sure I knew of their loyalty to me.
I looked each one in the eyes before speaking. “I don’t care whether you like me or not. I intend to increase the wealth of all the crew through our common labor, but I also demand of every hearty his total effort to make us a success. Anyone not doing his utmost will be liable to the lash or worse instantly, and that applies to mates as well as ordinary crew. Choose others who can succeed you if either of you should die in battle. Give me your prospective replacements’ names by the end of the afternoon watch.” I spoke with authority, and the men seemed to respond favorably to my clarity.
Seeing them off, I retreated to the Captain’s cabin and reviewed the Captain’s log. I drew a line under the last entry that the former Captain made, and I wrote my initial notations in that log. I had just completed my entry when I heard a commotion at my door. The First Mate entered my room to say that the lookout in the crow’s nest had sighted a warship on the horizon abaft the port beam with constant bearing, decreasing range. I gave the order for the crew to take their battle stations, and I was very glad we had missed the main brace in our boarding exercise on the previous day.
Both our ships were flying false French colors when the English warship came into close visual range. My men stood by their cannons ready to fire, and the crew lined the port side ready for action as well.
The English ship fell slowly behind the Night Lightning, and I waited for any sign of hostile action from our rear. The wind gave my ship the advantage if the English ship chose to attack, and I wondered why its Captain had so insistently closed as if my ship were his target and then decided to pass astern. I thought it must be clear to the Englishman that we were travelling in company with the ship ahead. By closing on my ship, it had perhaps missed the identity of the Sweet Cutlass entirely.
Perhaps, I reasoned, the English ship was looking for some other vessel sailing these waters. The ship passed astern without any sudden threatening maneuvers, and then it continued on a track orthogonal to ours until it was far too distant for any action against us. I consequently ordered my crew to stand down from their battle stations and to set the normal sailing watch again.
We followed the Sweet Cutlass to a small cove off the west coast of Madagascar and we dropped anchors there. Captain Morgan called for a gam, so we met in between our anchored vessels in our whaleboats where we talked about what to do with our combined treasures. We decided that we would take a portion of our pelf from both ships and bury it at a place in this cove that we could relocate easily. I mentioned to Captain Morgan that just such a place had been indicated on a map among the personal belongings of the departed Captain of my new ship. The Captain affected not to have heard what I told him. I was not surprised that he might be jealous of my discovery. He said we would gather our treasures into two chests and proceed separately in our whaleboats to a point just outside the view of the anchorage. We were to arrive there at an hour before sundown accompanied by one expendable person and a coxswain each.
I knew the drill from long experience, and I selected one of the surlier of the captured crew members as my expendable person. He helped me lower my chest of treasure into my whaleboat and rowed around the point of land that put us out of view of the anchored ships.
Captain Morgan’s whaleboat had preceded us, and the Captain and his man were already ashore while his coxswain waited patiently by the whaleboat for their return.
My own whaleboat made land beside the other, and my man and I carried the chest and a shovel inland after the Captain and his man. We all arrived at a place where an ancient tree hung over an enormous rock. There Captain Morgan placed the heel of his right boot against a slot in the rock, and he marched thirty paces directly to the east. There he threw down the shovel he was carrying and told his man to dig.
I did the same and ordered my man to help dig with the man the Captain brought with him. Captain Morgan then He brought out a bottle of rum and invited me to drink with him. We drank together while our men dug, and we had nearly finished the bottle of rum when my man struck something hard and the two men scrambled to unearth what lay below.
My man brought up a skull and what looked like a femur. He showed them to me, and I nodded. Captain Morgan nodded also.
Captain Morgan’s man then split the skull of my man with his shovel and pulled his lifeless body next to the hole they had excavated together. He placed the two chests side by side at the bottom of the hole and was about to begin filling the hole with dirt when I cocked my pistol and shot him through the heart.
I heaved his body into the pit and placed it on one side of the chests. I pulled my own man’s body into the pit and placed it on the other side of the chests. Draining the last of my rum, I threw the bottle into the pit. With one shovel I worked to fill the hole, and soon Captain Morgan was helping me fill it with the other shovel. We worked rapidly, and soon we were smoothing the surface to remove any indication that the earth had been disturbed that evening.
When we satisfied ourselves that our work would not be detected, we laid some foliage over the area and retreated to our whaleboats where in semi-darkness our coxswains awaited us. Separately we were rowed back to our ships, guided by lights we had ordered to be lit on board at sunset.
Before I retired in my cabin, I consulted the map that showed where treasure was buried to verify that the site where Captain Morgan and I had buried our own treasure had the same location on the map as the mark that had been made on it. I wondered at that coincidence and recalled that Captain Morgan had affected not to hear me when I had mentioned the map earlier that day. Was the map somehow connected to Captain Morgan’s prior exploits in this area of the world? Was the location where we buried our treasure the repository of other chests like the ones we buried this afternoon? I made a few notes on the edges of the map and hid it among my belongings in my cabin. I then ordered my cabin boy to bring me another bottle of rum.
He mentioned that some of the gold and silver had disappeared from the cabin and that a small chest was also missing. I told him that I had noticed that also. I was mightily pleased that my cabin boy was so attentive.
He rejoined that he had overheard two of the crew talking by the apple barrel. They muttered among themselves that a man had accompanied the Captain ashore in the whaleboat but the man had not returned. One said that he was glad the man had not come back because he was a very bad man, always finding fault even when a job was done well. I was curious about how the crew was reacting to my decisions, but I wanted to exude confidence.
I waited for the boy to say more, but the boy had nothing more to say on that account. He asked me whether he could do me another service that night.
“Not now, so get some sleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”
As the boy settled into his cot for the night, I sipped my rum and brooded over what had happened to bring me to this strange place and to grant my wish of one day becoming the Captain of my own ship.
After midnight I wandered out of my cabin and walked the deck of my own ship. A late night watch stander bid me adieu. We looked out over the still bay water together at the other ship at anchor there, the Sweet Cutlass, with the orange flame of its stern lamp barely visible. The watch stander smoked a shank of hemp and invited me to look at the stars with him. He said the stars had brought us here. I thought he had a point.