Pirates a League of Brothers by H, J, Macey (phonics books TXT) 📖

Chapter two

In the following weeks, Dorian busied himself with sabotaging the ships steering and planking. Being careful not to render any of it useless, before he was ready to escape the ship. In this time the pirates had raided several coastal villages, to secure food and water and a few more captives. Dorian knew not where they were, but wherever it was it was hot and humid and the captives could speak no English.

A fact Dorian found out when he was sent down to the hold to water them, and tried in vain to question them. The Captain had a map on the wall of his cabin and Dorian looked at it one day when he took the Capitan's food to him. The Captain was not there, but looking at the map meant nothing to Dorian. He had seen a map like it, in the Capitan cabin on the merchant ship.

That Captain had shown him where India was on the map, but looking at it now didn't show Dorian where they were. The only clue Dorian had to their whereabouts, was where the pirate Captain had left his pencil and compass dividers. That was in among, a large group of Islands far south of India and off to the east.                          

Dorian could study it no longer, as the Captain had returned for his meal. Dorian knew they were not far offshore, for the routine of the ship had been the same each day for the past week. As they were sailing in between a group of islands, it was not safe to sail at night in waters they did not know. So they moored at sunset and got underway at sunrise unless they came upon something of interest to them, they had raided another small coastal village.

They then spent the night drinking and raping the women, while their menfolk were tied up helpless, with some young men waiting to be put aboard. They had left in the morning just after sunrise, with five more young healthy men in the hold. Dorian wasn't allowed ashore, with the landing party and had to watch what happened in the village from the ship moored close inshore. With the rest of the crew left on board, and missed his chance to slip away in the mayhem.

For days now each morning, they had headed towards the rising sun, now in the afternoon, the sun was on their right-hand side. Then with them passing between two landmasses, they altered course towards the setting sun. Though much southerly than they were, Dorian surmised they were heading back towards their home waters. Now he has to complete his destruction of the steering gear and put his escape plan into action before they reached their home port.

Dorian had started a leak in planking at the stern of the ship and had almost destroyed the housing for the heavy shackles that connected the steering cables to the rudder arm. That night he went down again to finish his work but did not notice he was followed by a curious sailor. He had climbed onto the steering gear and was about to start work when the sailor attacked him. Dorian was no match for the sailor and was soon overpowered, then he was dragged to the Capitan.

As they climbed the companionway to the upper deck, the wind and waves began to rise. The Captain ordered the crew to take in sail, as the wind increased in ferocity. The sailor with Dorian was told to tie him in the Captain's cabin, he would deal with Dorian when the storm abated. Only the wind rose higher as did the waves, and the storm soon turned into a raging gale. In the darkness, the ship was tossed about like a cork, and more sail was taken in.

The morning brought no rest bite from the waves, they even seemed higher than in the night. About midday, an almighty cracking sound was heard and the ship heeled over and turned broadside onto the waves. The steering arm Dorian had almost cut through had given way, and the ship was uncontrollable. With no steerage, the ship was at the mercy of the wind and waves, all the lives on board were in peril. There was only one person to blame for this, and he was tied in the Captain's cabin.          

There was no time to deal with Dorian now, the safety of the ship was paramount. With all sail taken in, sea anchors were deployed to slow the ships drift and keep them steady. They could do nothing about the way the ship was tossed about, they could only make sure they stayed safe and not get washed overboard. For two days they endured the wild seas before the wind abated, and the seas calmed somewhat. Now they could inspect the damage Dorian had inflicted, and ponder how to fix it.

For the whole time of the storm, Dorian had been tied to the mizzenmast that passed through the Captain's cabin and had suffered badly with motion sickness. On his return from inspecting the damage below, the Capitan tore off Dorian's shirt and flogged him with a length of rope. With some of his anger spent, he left Dorian hanging unconscious as he held a meeting of his men. They had to do emergency repairs somehow out here in the open sea, that wouldn't be easy with the high seas that were running at the time.

What to do with Dorian was another question, keelhauling was a punishment no one survived. He had already had fifty lashes, his back would be scared if he survived any other punishment they gave him. Selling him, didn't sound enough punishment for what he had done. No, a long lingering death, was what the sadistic Capitan thought fitting. Getting the ship seaworthy, was the uppermost priority at present, Dorian's punishment would have to wait.

The seas were still wild after the two-day gale, although the winds had dropped it still drove the crippled ship before it. Drifting sideways the waves tossed the ship from side to side, making it difficult to move about let alone work with any accuracy. At night the clearing skies allowed the Capitan, to gauge the direction the drift was taking them. He declared to his frighted crew, they were in the open waters of the Indian Ocean.

The drift was taking them west towards their home waters, with hundreds of miles of open water. When the seas calmed they would repair their ship and sail home to safety, most seamen were afraid of the unknown. The earth was flat and if you sailed too far from land, you fell off the edge of it. Mists covered the rocks that sank ships, and sea monsters lived in the middle of the sea. As the night faded and the sun rose a huge wall of mist was sighted, and it was in the direction the drifting ship was headed.

Most of the crew panicked and prayed for deliverance, the rest of the crew turned to their Capitan for guidance. If the seas were calmer he would have lowered the longboats, and towed the ship. Only the waves and wind would have swamped them, more sea anchors would maybe slow the drift. They wouldn't stop it, the ship was destined to enter the mist. So the Capitan broke out the grappling poles, they used to hold onto a captive ship. He then ordered his men to stand at the gunnels, and keep watch in the mist for any rocks that appeared and fend off with the poles.

Chapter 3

It was eerie in the mist, only the sound of waves lapping against the ship, and the wailing of frightened men could be heard. Dorian had regained consciousness, and although racked with pain. Watched through the cabin windows, as the terrified crew were swallowed up by the mist. To become shadowy ghostly figures; only to disappear completely twenty feet from the cabin window.

For long moments they strained their eyes in the mist, then just as quickly as they entered they emerged into the sunlight, and a new panic gripped them. Less than a mile away was a reef, beyond that an Island that was not on the charts and the ship was still drifting toward it. As the reef drew nearer, the Capitan realised the ship was caught in a maelstrom that flowed through a gap in the encircling reef. The rising tide was flooding through the gap quite fast, taking his ship with it.

The top of the reef encircling the Island was visible above the seas, only where the sea rushed through the gap was no reef visible. The Capitan estimated the ship would pass through the gape with ease, only the depth of the water at this part of the reef worried him. He quickly told his crew to brace themselves for a collision with the reef, and the possibility of a violent heeling of the ship when the ship struck the reef side on.

Some crew members lased themselves to the windward gunnels, some to the masts while others wedged themselves where they could hold on for dear life. When the reef disappeared from view, the Capitan yelled a warning just before the ship struck the reef and heeled to starboard. The ship shuddered, as the sound of her bottom could be heard scrapping over the reef. Then she righted herself, to bob about in the rushing waters inside the reef that was now a lot charmer.

Now, much relieved at their survival, the crew looked over the sides of the ship, and down into the clear blue waters beneath them. They were in a channel in the shallow lagoon, swept clear by the inrush of the sea at the rising tides. It filled the inner lagoon that the reef surrounded, and made this trench their ship was in, sweeping them down towards the entrance of a bay. They busied themselves with the sea anchors, manoeuvring them to the stern to bring the ship heading around.

The effect was almost immediate, stern onto the rushing water the ship slowed its wayward drift. With less of the ship, to push against, and with the drag of the sea, anchors slowed her considerably. They entered the bay at an estimated four knots and then slowed to wallow in the deep water in the middle. The Captain shouted orders and his crew lurched the longboats, then taking ropes from the bow and stern towed their ship sideways towards the gently sloping shore.

Dorian could guess what the Captain was doing, he had seen small ships careened at low tide on the River Thames. The Captain was going to careen his ship at low tide to inspect her bottom and see what damage the reef had done to her. When the ship's keel grounded, the lines were made fast ashore, and adjusted