July 31st, 1715, Caribbean Sea
Rain pelted down against Silas’ face. Lightning split the sky and a loud clap of thunder followed. The huge waves crashed against the hull the large galleon, sending everyone on deck rocking back and forth slightly. One of the Spanish soldiers came up from below deck and said something to another that Silas didn’t understand. He’d picked up a few words and phrases in Spanish but nowhere near enough to speak fluently. He leaned over to Alonzo. “What’d they say?”
Alonzo was one of the few fortunate people to be bilingual. “They’re gonna move us down below decks, there’s a hurricane coming.”
Silas looked up at the sky. “Maybe it’ll give us an opportunity to get out of here.”
Alonzo laughed. “And how do you expect us to do that with these?” He gestured behind them to the ropes around their wrists. Two of the soldiers on deck started walking towards them to get them. Suddenly, a third Spanish soldier emerged from the hold, cutting down both guards. He walked over to Silas and Alonzo and cut the ropes binding their hands together. He helped them up to their feet. He recognized this soldier, he had brought them food countless times and Alonzo had a few conversations with him. He said something to Alonzo in Spanish and Alonzo gave him a reply before they both nodded and the soldier walked off.
Silas looked at him, full of confusion. “So what now? What was that even about?” He asked.
Alonzo leaned down and picked up the sword and pistol off of one of the dead soldier’s belt and put them on his own. “We’ve gotta get to one of the gunboats escorting the fleet, they’re fast and more maneuverable, we’ll be able to escape in them.”
Silas nodded. “Well the two of us can’t operate a ship on our own.” He opened the trapdoor leading below decks. “There are a few prisoners down here I think.”
Alonzo followed close behind as Silas went below decks. They moved quietly, swords in hand. They eventually got to the captain's quarters where they had 5 other prisoners tied up. They moved hard and fast, taking all the soldiers out in a minute or so. They untied the prisoners and helped them to their feet.
“Come on lads, we’re getting out of here.”
Once they were all above decks, they ran to the side of the ship. “There!” One of the other pirates pointed at a gunboat within reach of the galleon. Silas jumped onto the rail of the ship grabbing a rope in his hands.
“Alright come on let’s go.” He swung forward and once the rope extended as far as it could go, he let go and dove into the water, swimming a few yards before grabbing onto the side of the boat. He grabbed one of the soldiers by the collar of their uniform and threw him overboard. He then leaped onto the ship. Grabbing his pistol and blasting one of the other soldiers in the stomach. Alonzo placed a well aimed shot in one of the soldier’s head. They dumped the bodies over and everyone climbed aboard.
Silas grabbed the wheel. “Come on lads move it! You two man the cannons.The rest of you on the sails. Let’s get out of here!”
The sails opened up and they got moving. Silas looked over to his left to see the pirates from earlier on the brig sailing away. He spun the wheel in the opposite direction. One of the other Spanish gunboats started following them. But the rear cannons made short work of them.
“Rogue wave to starboard!” Alonzo called out. Silas spun the wheel again, their backs were now to the wave, he hoped they’d be able to outsail it, luckily they did. By now they were clear from the Treasure Fleet, now it was just a matter of surviving the storm, which was looking harder and harder.
“Waterspout!” One of the crew members pointed off the right side. Silas turned the wheel as hard as he could, but the small ship just kept getting pulled closer and closer. The small ship was no match for the strong winds and it sent the whole crew overboard.
Silas coughed up some water. He opened his eyes only to see a musket pointed right at his head. He looked around to see he was on an island with a crew of British soldiers.
The captain walked over to him. “Ah look who’s finally awake. I guess scouring these wrecks wasn’t a complete waste of time.” He looked at one of the others. “Load him up, we’re setting sail for Kingston.”
The soldier nodded. “Aye sir, right away.” Silas was going to protest only to find that his hands were once again tied. He was loaded up onto a schooner and set down on the deck. He watched as they loaded up crates off supplies salvaged from the wreck of the fleet he had escaped from. Eventually, they got moving and set sail.
The captain looked at Silas. “How old are you lad?”
Silas tilted his head. “Excuse me?”
The captain walked over to him. “You seem awfully young to be a pirate.”
Silas nodded. “You won’t believe how often I get that, I’m 19.”
The captain looked confused. “Why not sail with the navy then? You’d be keeping better company than a bunch of scoundrels and lawless apes.”
Silas sighed. “That’s a long story. Perhaps I’d be more inclined to share it if I wasn’t tied up,” He said.
The helmsman called out to the captain. “Sir, the HMS Lawrence is over there.”
The captain stood up. “Pull up alongside them, see if they’ve found anything.” The helmsman nodded and steered the ship to pull up right next to the other schooner.
The captain leaned on the rail of the ship. “Jackson, what have you found so far?”
The captain of the Lawrence came up to meet him. “Not much, these wrecks are pretty barren. But we did find this pirate.”
Silas looked over at them to see Alonzo tied up on the deck of the other ship. “Well, we found one too. How about you take this one and get them back to Kingston, we’ll stay here and see if we can find anything else.”
They threw a plank between the two ships and walked Silas across. They set him down next to Alonzo and the two just looked at each other. The two captains waved at each other as they separated. “I’ll see you back at Kingston.”
“Captain! Pirate ship on the horizon!” The helmsman yelled as cannonballs slammed into the hull of the ship.
The captain turned to Silas and Alonzo. “Looks like your mates came to rescue you.”
Silas laughed. “Mate, we’ve been Spanish prisoners for a month now. If they were here to rescue us, they would’ve done it long ago.”
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The British soldiers returned fire but the brig the pirates were sailing easily outgunned them. Cannonballs ripped through their sails, leaving them dead in the water. The ship pulled up alongside them, throwing hooks onto the rails of the ship and pulling them in. Both the pirates and the British were firing muskets at each other. Eventually, the pirates boarded the ship, quickly outnumbering them and forcing them to surrender. The captain of the pirate ship jumped onto the deck of the incapacitated schooner. Silas recognized him as none other than Charles Vane. He’d heard stories of him but he never thought he’d see him in the flesh. He was followed by a man who looked so drunk he could pass out at any moment. Silas figured that must be Jack Rackham.
“Why ‘ello gents,” Vane spoke with a voice far deeper than Silas expected. “I’ll keep this brief for you.” He walked over to the captain. “We’re here to steal all your valuables and leave you to drown.” He then spotted Silas and Alonzo and walked over to them. “And who might you be?”
Silas stood up, getting right in his face. “My name is Silas Caldwell.” On the outside, he looked determined, afraid of nothing. But in reality, he was petrified, he had heard stories of Vane and none of them were any good. Silas felt Alonzo put something in his hand, as he grasped it, he realized it was a piece of wood that came off the ship during the fight. He quickly started trying to cut the ropes around his hands.
Vane smiled. “Oh, a tough guy eh? That’s some strong talk for someone with their hands tied behind their backs.”
Silas could feel the roped getting weaker and weaker. “Trust me, I’m not someone you want to mess with.”
This caused Vane to laugh uncontrollably. “Is that right? And what makes you so sure about that?”
Now was his chance, Silas felt the rope snap. He swung a right hook, punching Vane right in the face. Within an instant, he could feel the metal of a flintlock pistol against his head. Vane spat out some blood laughed.
“I like you kid. He looked to one his crewmates. “Untie the other one. And bring them aboard.” He nodded, grabbing his sword and cutting the rope keeping Alonzo’s hands tied.
Silas, Alonzo, and Vane all sat in the captain’s quarters of his ship, The Ranger. “So, where were you two headed before you got captured?” Vane looked the two of them dead in the eyes.
“We were going to Kingston,” Silas answered.
Vane nodded. “Well the best we can do is Nassau, we just left from Kingston so I wasn’t planning on returning so soon, we’ll set a course, drop you two off and you’ll be on your way.”
Alonzo tilted his head. “You seem in a hurry to leave.”
Vane stood up. “Nassau is too far up north for my liking. The bigger and better scores are down south.”
Luckily, Vane was true to his word and dropped Silas and Alonzo off at Nassau. As his ship was pulling away he walked up to the bow of The Ranger. “Oh, and one more thing boy!” He called over to Silas. “I’d get rid of those rags if I were you, no pirate captain would be caught dead in those.”
Silas nodded. “Thanks for the advice.” Vane nodded and left. Silas looked over to Alonzo. “Come on, let’s go to the tavern, I need a drink.”
Alonzo laughed. “Silas, I couldn’t agree more.”
Silas and Alonzo sat across from each other, both with a tankard of rum in their hands. “So what do we do now?” Alonzo asked.
Silas sat thinking for a moment. “Well we don’t have a ship, and there’s no way we have enough money to buy one. So we’re stuck here.”
Alonzo nodded. “We could join a crew.” He suggested. Silas shook his head. “No, it’d take us years to get the money for a ship. Our only option is to steal one.”
Alonzo raised a brow. “And who would we steal it from? Everyone here is one of us.”
Silas stood up and looked at the docks, particularly a schooner flying a British flag. “Not everyone, British merchants often stop to sell sugar. While they’re off making sales their ships are left practically unguarded.”
Alonzo grinned. “And where are we going to get the crew to sail her?” Silas thought for a moment. “Well there’s plenty of men around that would fit the bill. The only problem is that with the recent surge of British troops most of them have been taken as prisoners.”
Alonzo nodded. “So if we free them then there’s no doubt they’ll sail with us. But there is still one problem.”
Silas tilted his head. “What?”
Alonzo looked him up and down. “Vane’s right there’s no way they’d respect you dressed like that.”
Silas grinned. “Then I guess it’s time for a change in wardrobe.”
After a while, Silas had finally picked something out. It had a white undershirt with a green vest and a brown coat. He also bought him and Alonzo a sword and pistol. As he put the coat on, he felt like this was the beginning of a new chapter in his life, whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, he didn’t know. As he came out Alonzo smiled. “Now you look like a captain.”
Silas handed him a sword and pistol. “Well first mate, it looks like we have some work to do.”
Alonzo nodded. “Indeed, let’s get ourselves a ship.”
Silas hid in a bush near the door to the Old Fort. Alonzo strolled up to the road, grabbing the attention of the two British guards standing watch, giving Silas the chance to sneak by. Luckily, there were plenty of struts sticking out of the side of the fort, which Silas used to climb along the side. He eventually made his way to the battlements, his fingers gripped onto the ledge, he didn’t want to climb up quite yet. He shimmied along the side, and as he poked his head up he saw it was clear so he climbed up. He hid behind the corner of a wall and peeked out slightly, scanning the courtyard of the fort. He spotted a few pirates being escorted into a small building, which Silas assumed was the prison. He crept along the battlements, silently dispatching soldiers as he moved.
He stood above the prison and as quiet as he could manage, jumped down onto the roof. He looked around to see if anyone noticed, luckily it seemed nobody did. He slid off and sneaked around the side. He poked his head around the corner to see a guard standing watch at the door. He whistled to try and get his attention and slid a little further back along the wall. Once the guard got close enough, he drove his sword through the guard's stomach and dragged him behind the back of the prison. He checked once more to make sure the coast was clear and went inside.
The prison was a lot bigger than it looked on the outside, mainly because it went downwards underground. He moved through quietly, still dispatching guards. Unfortunately, the last one saw him and he had to use his pistol to take him out. Once the prison was clear he untied all the pirates, there weren’t that many, but there were still enough to sail the ship. He helped them to their feet. “Come on let’s get out of here, just follow me, we’re stealing a schooner. The pirates picked up the weapons of the dead guards.
More guards came into the prison, with swords drawn. “I could have sworn I heard a noise, spread out.” It didn’t take them long to find the escaped Pirates.
One guard turned to another. “Go sound the alarm, quickly!” He nodded and ran out the door. Sparks flew as swords clashed together. The guards were quickly dispatched and they ran out the door.
Once they got out bells were ringing and guards were running frantically.
“Come on this way!” Silas ran up on the battlements, pistol in hand. They ran across the battlements, making short work of the guards. As stood at the battlements above the door, Silas looked over the edge, Alonzo had engaged the two guards standing watch.
“Come on, the wall is just slanted enough to slide down.” He slid down the wall and the rest followed. Silas stuck his sword right through one of the guard’s backs, the other got a pistol to the face from one of the other pirates. They ran through the town toward the docks, shoving past anyone in the way. They had a mob of guards chasing behind them. As they got to the docks, they climbed aboard the ship as fast as they could. Silas took the British flag down and grabbed the wheel.
“Raise the anchor, let’s get out of here!” He looked at two of the pirates. “Man the rear cannons, get those guards off our tail.”
They nodded. “Aye, sir.” Gunboats had weighed anchor and were chasing after them.
Alonzo looked four of the others. “Get off your asses and man those broadsides! We can’t let them follow us.” The quickly ran over to the cannons. The other four were on the sails, two at the foremast and two at the main mast. Silas swung the ship around, hugging the shoreline, to make sure he couldn’t get surrounded from all sides. They were sinking a few ships, but they just couldn’t shake the last one, a schooner. Eventually, they had no choice but to go into the open ocean.
“Sir, the powder!” One of the men said, pointing to a small powder keg.
Silas nodded, grabbing it and heaving it into the water behind them. “Get me a rifle!” He barked.
The man primed and loaded a musket and tossed it to him. Silas took aim on the keg and waited for the ship to brush up against it and he fired.
The blast tore a hole in the hull near the bow, and it sunk down to the depths of the ocean floor.
Silas looked at the crew, there were 12 of them in total, including him and Alonzo. He smiled and walked along the deck. “So lads, a new chapter of your life is about to begin. A life filled with prizes, plunder, adventure, and as much rum as you can drink.” He grinned. “Maybe more.” He stood at the wheel once more. “By the way, we haven’t been properly introduced. My name Silas Caldwell, but you can call me Captain Caldwell. And this here…” He placed his hand on Alonzo’s shoulder. “Is Alonzo Van Bilton, your first mate.” He looked out at the open ocean. “So lads, do you want to make some coin?” He smiled as he was greeted by the cheers of the crew. “Then weigh anchor and loose the sails. We’re getting out of here.”