With the added weight from the cache taken from the Merriweather, they pushed the maximum displacement capacity, therefore the captain announced they would be pulling into port where they would offload their booty. It also gave the men a chance to heal from any injuries incurred from their latest battle and have a little down time.
This was Jessop and William’s first time at being invited to participate in leave with the rest of the crew and William was looking forward to it. Jessop was more intrigued by how the disbursement of items worked and where it was going. That’s when he made the mistake of asking Fin.
Fin was in charge of all the cargo brought onto the ship and unloaded off the ship. The morning of leave, Fin had a table set up near the gang plank with his journal, quill, and ink and another leather bound book that seemed to be some sort of receipt or accounting book.
“Looks like a lot of work,” Jessop noticed as he walked past the table to leave the boat.
“What’s it to yous?” Fin snarled.
“Not a thing, just wondered if you needed help,” Jessop offered.
“Not from the likes of yous,” he said brusquely.
“Where does all this stuff go? Do you store it? Or Sell it?”
“You ask a lot of questions, Andrews,” Fin said curtly.
“I’m sorry. Is it a secret?” Jessop ignored Fin’s growing anger.
“Tweren’t none of yer business, Andrews. Thar’s a code we pirates live by and one of them thar is to not be askin’ questions that don’t concern yous. Just keep yer nose clean and do as yer told. Asking too many questions will be gettin’ yous the dead end of me sword.”
“A code? I was unaware. How does one learn these codes? Is there a book somewhere? Or a list?”
Fin forced a most unpleasant smile. “That would be a might bit useless since most pirates are an uneducated bunch, unlike yerself,” he said brazenly.
“Right. Then how can I learn these codes?” Jessop pushed.
“By keeping your mouth shut and your ears open, lubber,” Fin growled slamming his fist into the table and knocking over the inkwell.
William grabbed Jessop at the elbow and pushed away from Fin and his table and to the gang plank to the dock.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” William asked as the two of them fell into the crowd of men making their way into town.
“No. I’m just curious,” Jessop said looking over his shoulder at Fin who was eyeing him and wiping up the spilled ink.
“If you keep it up, Fin’s going to squash you like a bug. He already doesn’t like us, can we try to stop pestering the gorilla and enjoy our first leave off the ship since we were taken hostage?”
“I suppose we could do that. Besides with all the drinking that will be going on, I’m sure someone’s inebriation will answer the questions I have,” Jessop said.
“You’re kind of stubborn, aren’t you?” William added.
“You might call it that, I like to think of it as inquisitive and persistent,” Jessop said.
“Call it what you will, but an idiot is still an idiot, no matter what you call him. Be careful about what you ask and who you ask, for my sake.”
“I will do my best, Will, but I’m not guaranteeing anything.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It is, isn’t it,” Jessop said with a slap on William’s shoulder and a big smile. William could do nothing but laugh out loud at Jessop and his philosophy.
“Let’s get a room at the Cock and Bull, before they are sold out. Heard they have the best food and pretties barmaids in town.”
* * *
Due to the high volume of men on leave flooding the tiny town, five to six men shared a room for those not looking for company of the female kind. William and Jessop took up a room with a few of the crew they knew and liked better than others: Stubby, who had a few partial fingers; Toothless Tom, though to be fair, he did have teeth, just not any in the front; and Jolly Jim, who was always a happy soul, hence the name.
Once that was out of the way, the men made their way to a table to have something other than stale bread, fish, or something that had been preserved in salt for months. Jim had been right in suggesting the good eats. William and Jessop ate their fill and then some. Stubby and Tom were bent on becoming as drunk as possible.
The room was warm and comfortable. William had complained about being cold for months on the ship, but today, he admitted to finally having warmed the chill that had been in his bones for more than two fortnights. Each took turns up in the room taking a much needed bath.
Jessop couldn’t ever remember leaving such filth behind in a tub since he had fallen in Bog’s Creek with Jacob when they were boys. Though bathing was nice, redonning dirty clothes defeated the purpose to some degree.
When he joined his fellow men downstairs, William, Jim, and Stubby were playing a game of liars dice, to which Stubby was undeniably winning. Men stumbled around barely able to walk from boozing as well as getting accustomed to the ground not rocking on a normal basis.
Jessop had noticed this himself and had tottered a couple of times over nothing. After months on a ship, land-legs took a little adjusting, but the alcohol helped, or at least that’s what Jessop told William, which made William drink more.
Jessop listened in on a conversation of Fin’s lackeys going on about this and that. He was not a happy drunk and was loud, obnoxious, and voicing his dissatisfaction with the captain’s treks back and forth from the west coast all the way to Greenland.
“What are we? Kiddies on a swing?” Squid said as his head bobbed in a ‘U’. “West coast, east coast, west coast, east coast. What be the purpose of all this folly?” The men around him grunted in agreement, some sounding angry.
“An’ why are we stopping in here, on Diamond Island, every time we pass. I’m thinkin’ the captain is double crossin’ the crew—selling items and not sharing the profit withen us,” he went on. An affirmative aye and more grunts followed from his audience.
One of the men agreeing with Squid blurted, “What’s he doing o’er thar past the bluffs?”
“I think he’s ’avin ’imself a woman shacked up in them woods.” A hoot of hollering laughter rolled through the men at the table.
“Secret meetin’s. Unknown whereabouts. It smells of monkeyshine ta me. If Fin was the cap’in, we’d know what’s what.”
“Yah!” someone said slamming his stein down sloshing out its contents.
“Fin don’t hide things from us. ’E’s a right good pirate, ’e is,” another slurred.
Another bunch of grunting endorsements were spewed from the crowd at the table when Squid’s eye caught Jessop’s watching them.
“Whatchya lookin’ at, boy? Gitch yerself an earful, did ya?”
Jessop hadn’t realized he was staring at the men and swiftly turned his head towards his own table’s conversation.
“Let’s get outta here, men. Come on,” Squid said with a glare of distaste directed at Jessop, to which he acted as if he didn’t notice with a laugh at something William said.
“What was that about?” Jim said sitting down with a pint of brew next to Stubby after his bath.
William offered, “Jesse here, is itching to get his bones broken by old Fin.”
“What? Bad idea, lad,” Stubby said.
“I’m not trying to offend him, I just asked him a question,” Jessop retorted.
“Or ten,” William said after a gulp. “And now you’re eavesdropping on his bootlickers letting off a little steam?”
“I wasn’t eavesdropping, or at least I hadn’t meant to.”
“Sure you weren’t,” William added sarcastically as the other men looked at Jessop with concern.
“Fin is no one to be maddenin’. He’s a short fuse and lighting tis a bad idea,” Jim offered with a lisp.
“Indeed you’re right. That was not my intention, I just asked him who it was that bought the loot we had for sale and he spouted off about some pirate code I was unaware of.”
“He,” *hiccup* “does like to,” *hiccup* “throw that into,” *hiccup* “his conversations,” Tom said.
Stubby said, “Doesn’t he just!”
“First off, I can tell you who buys our treasures,” Jim offered. He took a sip of beer before continuing, “We’ve been selling the arms and supplies to the patriot troops. They meet us here every so often in two smaller ships and we sell them what we’ve raided from the royal navy,” he explained.
“Why smaller ships? Wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to do it with one large ship?” Jessop asked.
“Maybe, but smaller ships is less likely to be haulin’ weapons and less likely to get stopped by the Brits,” he said.
“I see. Do the patriots think it will come to war?”
“They’re already planning fer it and gatherin’ men.”
“And the captain’s an advocate for the cause?”
“Yes. That’s why he sells to them so cheaply and why everything is so secretive.”
“Indeed. It would have to be. Why here though?”
“I’m thinking it has to do with one of his anonymous buyers who lives on this island. Plus Great Diamond has a sheltered port where we can do our business without being seen by ships passing by.”
“Why anonymous?”
“Who knows…maybe he’s a wanted man, or maybe he has ties to the patriotic war brewing in the colonies. For whatever reason, the captain has kept his word and made good on keeping his identity a secret. Some think this secret fellow is one of George Washington’s men or he himself.”
“The general?”
“The very one. Though I doubt he could be away so often without someone noticing.”
“My thoughts too, but they say he has a secret circle of spies that do his bidding. Word is it’s one of these fella’s the captain meets. They say it might even be a woman.”
“A woman spy? Highly unlikely,” Jessop remarked.
Jim raised his eyebrow to the comment as if he wasn’t so sure.
“And this…code. What is it?”
“The pirate’s code? Some follow it, some don’t. It’s just a set of rules to live by,” Jim said.
“I didn’t think pirates abided by any rules.”
“To a degree. I mean, the ship has rules. We follow those, but some like Fin who take the rules to another level, feel the code is what makes a successful pirate crew.”
“So what are these codes? Are they written down somewhere?”
“I suppose they are, but as to where, I certainly know not. They’re really just common sense. Don’t steal from your mates, always be ready for battle, every crew member gets a vote, fight to the death for your ship, don’t bring a woman aboard…stuff like that.”
“I see.”
“Some crews add their own rules, so not all are the same, and most are loosely interpreted as the needs that arise.”
Jessop nodded in acceptance of understanding.
“What about this ill will towards the captain? Is it an issue?”
“There’s always a few who disagree with the way things are run. It’s human nature I fear, but my hope is these men were just talking, not organizing a coup of mutiny.”
“I understand.”
“Good. Now keep your distance from Fin. He’s bad news.”
“I’ll take that under advisement.”
“Do that, Jesse. We kind of like you and your fancy inventions.”
They all clanged their steins and cups together. “Thanks,” Jessop added.