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

fastened to the triangular sail. They would hold the foresail to the rope when pulled aloft, and the square sails were lashed to bamboo poles for the mainsails.

 

They were almost ready to trail the boat under sail, a few more tides and the hulls would float again. They had floated twice since they had brought the hulls, from the other side of the Island. Since then there had been tropical storms, lashing the Island for days at a time. The storms had delayed the finishing of the boat but In two days, it would be a full moon again meaning the hulls would float at midday.

 

Matto had dived into the shallow waters at low tide and secured a rope to a rocky outcrop, so they could secure the boat in the deeper water. With the boat afloat all of the time, Dorian and Matto would be able to sail the boat in the spacious bay. Before taking it out onto the shallow lagoon, for long training sails around the Island. Two full moons past before Matto, with sign language and the few words they had taught each other, said Dorian was ready to sail away.

 

From the goats and pigs, they had eaten Matto had made water carriers from internal organs and pig skins. Woven baskets were filled with fruits and vegetables, and cooked and dried fish were wrapped in banana leaves to keep them fresh. All were stored in the forward ends of the hulls; a living area was in the after-end of the right-hand hull. Spear canvas ropes and bamboo poles were in the left hull, just in case of repairs being needed.     

 

From an upturned turtle shell in the hut, Matto filled two pigskin pouches with small shiny round balls. Each time Matto pulled flat seashells from the ropes by the rocks, Dorian had seen Matto place the balls in there, after he had cleaned the shells out before cooking them. Dorian had seen these shiny balls before; his mother wore two strings of them around her neck. Dorian could remember holding them and playing with them; when his mother nursed him when he was smaller.

 

One last thing Dorian received only this was from Seeua, with her finest yarn she had woven a fine cloth. From it, she had made Dorian a male Polynesian sarong, which she gave him as she and Matto went with him to say their goodbyes. After many hugs, Matto took Dorian out to the twin-hulled boat in the small black canoe. Only to return to stand with Seeua, to wave their goodbyes, as Dorian manoeuvred his boat with long ore and rudder out of the bay.

 

As he slipped through the entrance, Dorian turned once more to see them waving him goodbye. Then he felt a light breeze as the boat entered the lagoon, and hoisted his triangular foresail to let the wind drive the boat through the water. With the long ore no longer needed, it was safely stowed and Dorian steered the boat towards the brake in the reef. This was the first time he had been this close to it and tightened his grip on the tiller.

 

Now the tide had turned water was spilling out of the lagoon, and into the open ocean and the boat was caught up in its flow. Dorian had to keep a steady course to stay in the centre, away from the jagged edges of the reef. He had no fear of grounding, the pirates had sailed out and their draft was much deeper than his. The daggerboards that hung down between the hulls and gave the boat stability, where only four feet at most; compared to maybe twenty feet the pirate ship had.

 

Happily, Dorian watched the top of the reef slip by him, as he passed through the gap. The vast ocean now lay before him, and it was a calm ocean with a light breeze driving a long low swell northwards. Bringing the boat about he put the wind on his rear, and adjusted the foresail to maximise the wind. Then he hosted the mainsails, and was surprised at the speed his boat was going when the sails were set as this was the first time, he had all sails up.

 

With no charts or compass, it was guesswork for Dorian to know which way to head to find civilization. He knew if he kept the rising sun and moon on his right, he would be heading northwards. From his memory of seeing the charts on the merchant and priests ship, he knew of the vast landmass to the north. Reaching that he would sail along the coast until he found a port, to enquire his whereabouts.

 

With his course set, he tethered the tiller and sat for a meal, as he passed through the curtain of mist surrounding the Island. Once more back into brilliant sunshine, Dorian looked behind him, Matto and Seeua's Island home had vanished. It was hidden from the outside world, by the mist that rose from the sea. It had been Dorian's fault the Priests had stumbled onto it, would he be able to find it again in this vast ocean.

 

Dorian had a simple sailing plan, during daylight hours and good weather, he would sail with all sails up to make as much progress as possible. At night he would travel slower under the foresail only, taking short naps during the day. This way if he came across the land in the night, he would hear the sound of waves on the shoreline. Until then Dorian settled down to long lonely hours, maybe days of boredom scanning the sea for land.

 

On the second day, Dorian spotted a white speck in the distance and altered course towards it. Closer still the speck turned out to be a ship's longboat, it's bow was smashed and splintered. The white canvas cover was lousily tided but propped up like a tent over the longboat. Dorian had dropped his mainsails and quietly closed with the longboat, then dropping the foresail he manoeuvred his boat alongside.

 

Using the long ore, Dorian hooked the longboats gunnel and pulled it alongside. His action brought movement on the longboat, as a young man stumbled from under the canvas. His startled face staring at Dorian, as he wielded a dagger in defence. His sudden appearance also took Dorian by surprise and there were a few tense moments, as both of them, looked at each other suspiciously.

 

"My name is Dorian," Dorian said as he broke the tense silence, holding out his hand to the young man. As the tension drained from his face the young man lowered his knife, "Lars Nordman" he replied in a thick accent, that Dorian recognised from his times down at London docks. "Are you from Holland?" Dorian asked taking his hand and helping him onto his boat.

 

"Yes, and you are English yes?" Lars asked in his best broken English, now openly friendly. As Lars climbed aboard he tethered the longboat to Dorian's twin hulls, so it would not drift far. "Please, have you water, I have been adrift for four days?" Lars asked as he looked over Dorian's boat. "Yes of course," Dorian said reaching into the deckhouse, to retrieve a pigskin water carrier.

 

"There are fruits and dried food in the forward cabin?" Dorian said indicating he should go down and help himself. Dorian sat and had some fruit himself, as he watched Lars tuck in with relish. "What happened to put you adrift in a smashed longboat?" Dorian asked as Lars chowed on the cooked dried goat he was enjoying. "Four days ago we were attacked by pirates, I was standing on the seawards side of the longboat when a cannonball struck it.

 

The next thing I know is I'm in the water beside it, and my ship and the priests are moving farther away. There was nothing I could do but watch them disappear into the distance, I tried to put up the sail, but the sea rushed in through the smashed bow. So I made a tent and hoped wind and tide would take me somewhere, but here you are my saviour, where are you heading for?"

 

Dorian saw the bemused look on Lars's face when he answered, "I don't know Lars, I have no chart or campus, I have no idea where I am or where to go!" Then Lars sat sipping water and eating as Dorian recalled his parent's death, then his capture by the pirates. How he escaped death on the Island, when Matto and Seeua rescued him and how they built the boat. "Ther's a small boat's campus on the longboat but there's no chart's!" Lars said smiling.

 

He climbed back onto the longboat, in a locker in the stern of it he pulled a wooden box. Opening it he revealed there was a campus set into it, then he handed it to Dorian. "The canvas cover sails and ropes are worth savagings Dorian there's nothing much else," Lars said as Dorian took the box from him. With the salvaged stored away, they set the longboat adrift then Dorian reset his sails.

 

Lars used the campus to set a course to the north, and hopefully friendly India. "What are your plans when we get back to civilization?" Lars asked as they sat in the afternoon heat, in the shade of the deckhouse. "Don't know now, when Matto and I were building the boat, I wanted to get back to England and my grandparents. Only now I'm not so sure, they were old when we left them, and I'm not sure how long that was."

 

"Building the boat took a long-long time as we had no proper tools, the hulls were woven from bamboo and covered with tar. Nothing is holding the boat together but strips of bamboo bidings, and handmade rope made from fibres from coconut husks. The sails are made from the husks as well, I never did count the full moons I was on the Island. I only know I had my tenth birthday just before the pirates attacked, and that was March 1963." 

 

Dorian put down the coconut he was drinking from and looked questionably at Lars, as he, in turn, smiled at Dorian shaking his head. "That can't be right Dorian! That would make you thirty-one years old, it's 1684 now and you only look thirteen or fourteen. I'm fifteen myself if your right you would have been on that Island for twenty years." Lars said laughing making Dorian feel foolish, "no Lars I'm not wrong my birthday is the 25/ March/ 1653."

 

"Okay Dorian I believe you though it doesn't make sense, we have just made friends lets keep it that way." Dorian nodded lifting his coconut saying, "to friendship Lars Nordman, I am Dorian Gray and I'm pleased to meet you." He said clinking his coconut against Lars coconut laughing, "now what are you going to do when we reach land?" Dorian asked as he adjusted a sail so the wind filled it better.

 

"Good question Dorian, all I have is what I am wearing. I don't know what's happened to the ship I was on, all my worldly goods were on it. I run away too sea at twelve after my mother died, I haven't been home since just moved from ship to ship. Will have to look for a new barth to feed me, or become a beggar." Lars answered a little lightheartedly, but his eyes showed he was far from being jovial.

 

In the far east, the moon had already risen as the sun quickly dipped towards the western horizon. As the light faded, Dorian made his first decision as Capitan of his boat. "I'll take the first watch, Lars go get some sleep in a dry soft bed." Lars made no offer of argument, "I-I Capitan," he just said smiling and made his way below.

 

The moon was high in the sky when Dorian heard Lars moving about below. When he appeared on deck he had a two half's of melon in