The Guns of Tortuga
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
“QUIET!” HUNTER SHOUTER IN A VOICE OF COMMAND THAT MADE BOTH OF US HUSH
He then said, “Later we’ll have a council of war. But the first thing to do is get the ship safely to sea!”
Already sails were dropping and filling with the night breeze, and already the Aurora was gliding away from the wharf. The moon went behind a cloud. I heard, or imagined I heard, the clatter of hooves from somewhere ashore. But if it was Steele, or Steele’s men, they were too late. The Aurora and those who sailed on her were safe.
At least for the moment.
Read all of the Pirate Hunter stories.
Book One: Mutiny!
Book Two: The Guns of Tortuga
Book Three: Heart of Steele
(coming soon)
Affectionately dedicated to my middle son, Anthony Ramón Fuller
—Thomas E. Fuller
And to Amy, “the pirate’s daughter”
—Brad Strickland
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Aladdin Paperbacks edition March 2003
Text copyright © 2003 by Brad Strickland and Thomas E. Fuller
Illustrations copyright © 2003 by Dominic Saponaro
ALADDIN PAPERBACKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster
Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Designed by Debra Sfetsios
The text of this book was set in Minion.
Printed in the United States of America
2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1
Library of Congress Control Number 2002108582
ISBN 0-689-85297-5
ISBN 13: 978-0-689-85297-8
eISBN 13: 978-1-439-10463-7
The Guns of Tortuga PROLOGUE
MY NAME IS DAVID SHEA, though I make do with “Davy.” When my mother died of smallpox in March, 1687, I was sent to Port Royal, Jamaica, where my uncle Patrick Shea was a surgeon. In truth, we had a rocky beginning, but before long my uncle decided to make me his apprentice.
Two of his patients impressed me. The first was Sir Henry Morgan, the famous old sea dog. Though he had aged and become merely an ailing politician and planter, he filled my head with tales of buccaneers and booty. The second patient was Lieutenant William Hunter of His Majesty’s Navy, recovering from grave wounds he had got fighting Captain Jack Steele, the fearsome pirate.
When Lieutenant Hunter went back to sea, aboard the Navy frigate Retribution, my uncle shipped as surgeon, and I went as his loblolly boy. That meant, as I learned, a doctor’s assistant. To my horror, Hunter led a mutiny against the stern Captain Brixton. He and the mutineers, including my uncle, were captured and sentenced to death.
But on the very day they were to hang, the twenty-odd mutineers escaped, and I was swept along with them, like a leaf in a windstorm. Days later we met Sir Henry Morgan once again. He gave us more men, nearly two hundred hardened old sailors, and the fine French-built frigate Aurora. Only then did I learn the truth: Hunter and my uncle were not really pirates, but pirate hunters. They had become mutineers as a disguise, so they could search out and sink the pirates that plagued American waters.
And sure, I joined with them, for an orphan like me had nowhere else to go. It was a fine life.
At least, it was until the morning we met the murderous big Spanish warship….