Towards the end of June the small flotilla left Singapore harbour and headed out through the Strait of Singapore and into the South China Sea. Ronnie led them in the Highland Lassie. He was the only merchant to sail with them, although he had the financial support of the merchant community, and many of the European and Chinese sea captains who had suffered at the hands of the pirates had volunteered crews and supplies.
He had three heavily armed European merchantmen, supplemented by a detachment of marines, and two Chinese junks, which he knew were reinforced by tiger soldiers from the secret societies. The Company’s ships — the Wolf, the Andromache, and the Diana — followed behind within signaling distance. Ronnie was also accompanied by Mr Oates, who said he wanted to see the matter to its final conclusion, and over his hopeless objections, by Sarah, who had brought along her new Baker rifle.
‘You’d better get him with your first few shots,’ he said, ‘for they’re devilish things to reload. The debris quickly clogs up the barrel, and ye soon lose the advantage of the rifling. Watch it disna blow up in your face––for it’s such a bonny face.’
‘Don’t you worry,’ Sarah replied. ‘I’ve been practicing, and I won’t be wasting shots on the riff-raff. I’ll leave them to you.’
‘Daing Ibrahim told me that Si Rahman believes that killing a white woman has made him invincible,’ Ronnie told her, turning serious.
‘Well in that case, perhaps I should have brought my silver bullets,’ she replied with a grim smile. ‘But I aim to prove him wrong.’
One week later they arrived off Pulau Gaya, where they took on water and cargoes of bird’s nests and tortoiseshell, taking care to let the Malay carriers see the chests of opium that were stored on board the ships. As they lay at anchor that night, a sleek black prahu raced north ahead of them.
Two days out of Pulau Gaya, they came across the Griffin, a marooned British schooner that had struck some hidden rocks. She was close to the point of sinking, despite the desperate efforts of her crew at the pumps. The cargo of rice was lost, since the salt water had reached it, but they took the captain and crew aboard their ships, along with the passengers: two Chinese merchants and the Reverend William Macpherson of the London Missionary Society, his wife, Annie, and their eight-year-old daughter, Jenny.
As he helped them store their trunks below deck, Ronnie warned the reverend about the secret purpose of their mission.
‘Out o’ the frying pan into the fire,’ Macpherson growled, stroking his long white beard, as he grinned back at Ronnie. ‘But there’s aye room for the Lord’s work, whatever mysterious ways he chooses. Annie and Jenny can help out below decks, and I can give ye a hand above,’ he said, as he removed a great double-bore shotgun from his trunk, along with a belt of cartridges.
‘There’s no need for you to get involved in our fight,’ said Ronnie, ‘although I’m grateful for your offer.’
‘There’s every need,’ Macpherson replied, no longer grinning, ‘to send these murderous bastards tae hell.’
Ronnie raised his hands in the air. ‘As ye wish, Reverend.’
* * *
Two days passed, and they made good progress north, but with no sight of the pirates. Then on the dawn of the third day, just as the wind began to drop, they spied a large fleet of armed prahu bearing down upon them from the northeast. Ronnie managed to signal the Company ships so they had time to come forward, but he knew that the pirates with their oar-driven craft would have them at a disadvantage now that the wind had dropped. Yet they had their secret weapon, the paddle steamer Diana, whose maneuvers did not depend upon the wind. Ronnie just hoped it would maintain its head of steam. It had lost power twice already on the trip out, and had had to resort to sail.
As the pirate prahus approached, their lines of dark oars beating the surface of the water like the wings of giant birds, Ronnie asked his Malay helmsmen if he thought they were Illanun pirates. The man said that he was certain that they were, and that he was also certain that the famous pirate Si Rahman led them. Ronnie did not bother to ask him why he was so certain about that. He had the man taken below and kept under watch, as he prepared his ships for battle.
They had agreed upon the basic strategy beforehand. They would try to take out the Illanun gunners with musket and rifle fire when they came in close, and then rake their decks with round shot and grape; they had assembled cannon balls and bags of iron shards on deck in preparation. They had hoped to be able to ram the leading boats, but that was out of the question now that they were becalmed, although every ship was ready to make sail if the wind picked up. And the Diana was waiting for her moment of best advantage.
The Reverend Macpherson gave his wife a pistol and told her to take their daughter below deck. He embraced them, and told his wife ‘You ken what to do if things get hot.’ She nodded politely, as if she were receiving instructions on where to place the hymn books. Then Macpherson took up position beside Ronnie and Sarah on the foredeck, his shotgun cocked and ready.
As the Illanun fleet surrounded them, the leading prahu, which was much larger than the rest, armed with long black canon and swivel guns, and decked out with bright flags and feathers, came into hailing range. On the central platform stood a tall dark man with long black hair, clad in scarlet robes and a silver breastplate, with bright red feathers dancing in his headdress. They all knew who he was, Si Rahman, the leader of the Illanun pirates who had killed Sarah’s sister and her family, and the unfortunate Captain Ramsey and his son Adam, along with countless others. They could see the magic charm that hung from his breastplate, a twisted length of human hair that he turned between the fingers of his left hand. In his right hand he held a huge Tampilan sword, decorated with bright red feathers around its scabbard.
He hailed the Highland Lassie, and called out that he had come to trade his spices for some tobacco, and meant them no harm. He requested permission for some of his party to come aboard.
‘I have him in my sights,’ said Macpherson, ‘but I’ll give you the honour, Mrs Simpson.’
‘So do I,’ Sarah responded. ‘I don’t much care who kills him, so long as he dies.’
Ronnie gave Mr Oates the honour of responding to Si Rahman’s request.
‘Permission denied,’ Oates called out in a load clear voice. ‘We have not come to trade but to kill you Si Rahman.’
The moment he said this, Sarah and the Reverend Macpherson fired together, and Ronnie signalled for the fight to begin. Musketry, round shot and grape poured into the Illanun craft, which instantly returned their fire. They had obviously been prepared and waiting for their own signal, which they had received from Si Rahman, who now stood waving his sword in the air and directing the attack.
‘Fuck it,’ said Macpherson, ‘we missed the bastard.’
Sarah said nothing, and was already reloading. She wondered whether she should have brought the silver bullets. Don’t be so stupid! she chided herself. He’s just a man and can die like any other.
The battle raged for half an hour, with neither side gaining an advantage. The defenders managed to inflict heavy casualties on the Illanun craft, and prevented the pirates from boarding. They also managed to sink a few prahus, but others waiting in the rear quickly took their places. They also took their own casualties, including Mr Oates, who caught a musket-ball in his chest, and died in Ronnie’s arms.
‘Make sure you kill him,’ were his last words.
When the fight was at its height, Sarah caught a movement behind her from the corner of her eye. She turned to discover to her horror that Jenny was up on deck, with musket balls and poisoned darts flying all around.
Sarah ran back and grabbed her arm. ‘You must go back down below, Jenny,’ she cried out above the din of battle. ‘It’s far too dangerous up here.’
‘Mama needs your help down below,’ the girl replied briskly, ignoring the carnage around her. ‘Some of the sailors were using torches to find the gunpowder, and they started a fire. Mama says we need to remove the gunpowder, and put out the fire.’
Sarah nodded her head quickly, and followed Jenny down into the hold, where she was amazed to find Mrs Macpherson giving instructions to the crew, and carrying barrels of gunpowder away from the flames.
‘Help me with these barrels, Mrs Simpson,’ she called out. ‘The men can take care of the fire.’
By the time they had carried the barrels to safety, the sailors had managed to put out the fire, and the danger was averted. Sarah insisted that Mrs Macpherson keep Jennie below, despite the girl’s obvious desire to see what was going on above.
‘You’re a brave girl, Jenny,’ she said, as she prepared to return to the fight, ‘and so is your mother. But you’ve done enough. Take a rest, and maybe a drop of brandy––you both deserve it.’
When Sarah returned to the foredeck, the Illanun fleet had pulled back, but they all knew it was only to regroup and prepare a fresh assault. There was scarcely a breath of wind, and it was only early morning, so the pirates knew they had plenty of time.
Then the Diana fired up her engines and seized the moment. She steamed out and alongside the pirate prahus, her paddles churning the water and her chimney belching black smoke like some demon out of hell. Or so it seemed to the pirates, who were completely taken by surprise, since they had never seen a ship moving without wind or oars. The Diana’s guns poured shot and grape into the pirate decks as she drew level with them, carving bloody swathes though the ranks of their warriors. She did one sweep from her starboard mounted guns, and then turned around and swept the pirate decks again from her port side. Her guns were now too hot to continue firing, but she had not yet completed her surprise assault upon the enemy. For she returned for a second double sweep, this time venting the hot steam from her hoses directly onto the pirate decks, burning boiling flesh from bones and melting eyes from their sockets.
The pirates were thrown into total disarray, and the carnage was terrible to behold, as bleeding and scalded bodies littered the water around them. But the pirates were not finished––not by a long shot.
‘They’re as angry as hornets whose hive has been attacked,’ said Lieutenant Hyde, in charge of the marines on the Highland Lassie. ‘And that’s when they’re most dangerous. They’ll be coming in for the kill this time, and they won’t stop until they kill us or we kill them.’
‘Bring your marines forward,’ said Ronnie, ‘and direct your fire on that mad dog Si Rahman. He’s managed to survive all our efforts to kill him so far, and his followers believe he is invincible. If we can kill him and dispel that myth we might be able to break them up. I want all guns firing at Si Rahman when he comes in again.’
They did not have to wait long. The oars rose and fell as the slave masters drove the war prahus forward once again. Drums rolled and gongs crashed, and the warriors clashed their swords and spears against their shields as they roared out their curses and war cries. As the pirates came in close once again, they poured a hail of musket fire and poisoned darts and arrows into the merchantmen, and fired round-shot into their sides close to the water line. One lucky shot took out one of the Highland Lassie’s guns, spraying the gunners in a bloody wave across the lower deck. As Si Rahman’s prahu approached them once more, he tore off his breastplate in a raging gesture of defiance, baring his chest to them and raising his great Tampilan sword in one hand, his talisman of female hair grasped in the other.
‘Fire on him,’ screamed Sarah, as she and Macpherson and the marines emptied their weapons on him.
But when the smoke cleared, Si Rahman still stood there unharmed, urging his men forward. A great roar went up from the pirates, as they followed the man whom they thought was protected by special magic.
‘They’re under our guns now,’ shouted Lieutenant Hyde, ‘and it looks like all our ships.’ The pirates were closing in for the kill, and preparing to board.
‘I’ve had enough o’ this sharn,’ said Ronnie in a low voice. ‘Hyde, Macpherson, bring some men and follow me.’
He ran down to the twelve-pounder on the starboard deck, under which the pirates were closing.
‘Is it loaded?’ he yelled to the gun crew.
‘Aye, sir,’ the head gunner replied, ‘but they’re in too close now!’
‘Stuff some wadding down the barrel to hold the shot, and prepare to fire,’ Ronnie cried to him. ‘You others––help me raise this gun!’
The head gunner used a ramrod to push some wadding down into the gun barrel to keep the shot from falling out, while the others grabbed some spars from the deck, and raised the gun carriage so that the barrel pointed down into the Illanun war craft, directly at Si Rahman.
‘Now let’s see who’s invincible!’ he yelled, and taking the taper from the head gunner, fired off the twelve-pounder. The recoil blasted them and the gun back across the deck. They struggled to their feet and ran back to look over the side. When the smoke cleared the war prahu of Si Rahman was gone––there were only blasted strips of timber drifting upon the bloody water to mark the spot where Si Rahman had gone to join his brother.
Now the men on the Highland Lassie let out a great cheer, a roar of victory that was heard and caught up by the other ships. The pirates fought on, but the tide of battle had turned against them, and the spirit seemed to go out of their fight as the news of the death of Si Rahman spread throughout the pirate fleet. As the pirates’ prahus began to turn around and flee, the first mate came running up to Ronnie and pointed up at the main mast, where the short sails were cracking in the rising wind.
‘Make sail,’ shouted Ronnie, ‘and let’s hae after them!’
The Highland Lassie and the other merchant ships were slow to get under sail and pursue the enemy. Their crews were tired, and they had borne the brunt of the forward battle. But the Wolf and the Andromache remained fresh, and their crews had trained for just this opportunity. The men-of-war raced after the pirate prahus, and fired withering broadsides from port and starboard as they drove through the scattered pirate fleet, and rammed any boats that they caught in their way. The Diana, now under both steam and sail, sped among the scattering prahus and raked their decks with grape, inflicting heavy casualties. Of the hundred or so prahus that had attacked them, about fifty were sunk, and many of the others were set on fire or badly damaged. By midday, the battle was over, as the remains of the pirate fleet fled in different directions, and the Company ships returned to join the merchantmen. Those who had survived prayed to their God or their ancestors, and attended to their dead and wounded. Reverend Macpherson delivered a short sermon of thanksgiving aboard the Highland Lassie, and conducted the service that committed the dead men to the deep.
Afterwards Captains Stanley, Chads and Congalton came on board the Highland Lassie to congratulate Ronnie.
‘Well done, Mr Simpson,’ said Captain Chads. ‘We’ve taught them a lesson they won’t forget in a hurry. We’ve not seen the last of these pirates, but I think today marks the beginning of the end for them. We will hunt them down again as we hunted them down today, until we have rid these waters of their vile breed.’
Captain Congalton stepped forward. ‘I thought you might want this, sir,’ he said. ‘One of the lads found it in the water, and said he saw Si Rahman waving it around.’
He handed Ronnie the length of twisted hair. Ronnie turned to Sarah, who took it from his hand, and burst into tears.
‘It is done, my love,’ he said, putting his arms around her. ‘It is done.’
‘It is done,’ she whispered, and buried her head in his chest.