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Subject: The Pirate Affair, Chapter 8B of A/B/C.  THE END OF AN ERA! (M/M) ADULTS ONLY!
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-----Beginning of TPA08B of A/B/C---

--------------------------------

It was a typically hot September day, in the year 1720, as the plans for 
the party on board the Bloody Cutlass were nearing completion.

The cook and his boy had suggested that the invitation be expanded to 
include the full crew of both ships.

Captain Frank was both surprised and pleased at the suggestion. He was 
not fooled by the fact that the suggestion had come from the cook's 
new boy. It was obvious that the cook wanted the boy to become part of 
the ship's company. 

The lad was handsome, and Frank's pego would have suggested the 
recruitment anyway. If the man would be willing to share the boy, then 
Captain Frank would propose his being allowed to sign the ships
articles.

As the day progressed, the delightful odors of the stuffed 
birds, cooking in the galley, wafted across the harbor.

A table was placed at the helm and set for four -- the two Captains, 
and their guests.

A second set of tables were placed on the quarter deck. Those would be 
laden with food and drink. Both crews could help themselves.

An hour before sunset, numerous branches of Candlewood were placed 
around the Cutlass as torches.

A longboat from the Revenge came along side, and hoisted several 
barrels of wine and casks of rum on board.

Two empty brandy casks had their tops removed and, in them, the 
caterers prepared a mixture of wine, rum, and fruit juice.

The Captain's table was a smaller replica of the one amidship. The 
birds were browned beautifully and grain stuffing mixed with mango
spilled 
from their insides. Several types of shell fish were placed side by
side.

As the visitors arrived, they were greeted by their hosts as though 
they were long lost relatives or the closest of friends. Yet in the 
pubs of Tortuga they had always been rivals; quick to temper and 
quick to brawl.

Captain Jack Calico was accompanied by two handsome youths. His host 
wondered if one of them might be a gift.

Frank, surmising the possibilities for the evening, suggested to his 
First Mate that he take his repast with the crew. The unexpected extra 
guest of Calico's being the excuse.

Mr. Johnson willingly gave up his seat. He was not a lover of boys 
and it looked to him as though that was what was in store at the 
Captain's table. He smiled to himself at the thought. Calico had a 
reputation as a womanizer, but the two lads he had brought with him 
suggested otherwise.

In actuality, the two handsome youths were Mary Read and Anne Bonny.

As the evening turned into night, both casks were drained and then
replaced with open casks of pure, raw rum.

The crew had drunk heavily, and were now passed out everywhere about the
ship. 

The pairing went interestingly between members of the two ships. Some 
were simply drunk and conversing, others were in the throws of sexual 
exploration. You could hear grunting and groaning from almost every 
corner of the Cutlass.

Despite several attempts to single out one of Calico's guests, neither 
seemed interested in Frank.

It was well past midnight when Calico and his two youths departed the 
Cutlass, leaving most of his crew still on board his rival's ship.

Frank was drunk, horny, and disappointed. The cook and his new boy 
came to the rescue, and took the Captain to his cabin.

----------------------------------------

Everything was very quiet in Cayona as the Seagull slowly entered the 
harbor channel with the Swan Louie in tow.

The Captains of both ships were astonished by what they saw. At anchor 
was the ship that had boarded the Louie and just beyond her was the 
Bloody Cutlass.

They had hardly dropped their hook when the Captains of the Louie and 
the Seagull went ashore to seek an audience with the island's governor.

Governmental authority was vested in Count le Passeur, a wealthy 
plantation owner. His appointment had been made by Jamaica's Governor
Woods, 
whose own authority came as a direct appointment by King George.

In fact, the English King had never heard of le Passeur. The "Count" 
had been an affectation granted him by Woods. 

The Count's real power came from his ability to compromise. The reality 
of the matter was that he had little other choice as his domain had 
no resident armed forces, no budget to pay for one, and no authority 
to establish or to garner taxes.

Nevertheless, in the true spirit of governments everywhere, his 
governing was accepted by the island and its neighbors because he 
seldom interfered with their daily lives.

His declaration of an amnesty for the pirates had been an intelligent 
move. With only the occasional armed forces visit from Jamaica, he could 
never have enforced any other policy. 

Another key factor was that much of the economy of the tiny island 
nation was based on trade with those outlaws. 

The victimized captains were greatly displeased by the governor's 
attitude and reaction to the case they had laid before him.

He had pointed out that none of the crew of either the Revenge or the 
Cutlass had broken any of Tortuga's laws and he warned them that, as 
far as he was concerned, any attempt to take issue with anyone on the 
island or within the protection of her waters would lead to the 
banishment of the aggressor.

So in the next few days those on board the Swan Louie watched 
helplessly as their cargo was unloaded from the Revenge and sold to 
the local merchants and farmers.

At the same time, some 150 miles south of Tortuga a series of events 
were taking place that would alter the course of events throughout 
the maritime world.

His majesty's ship Endeavor had reached Jamaica with an order from 
King George. The document was of the highest priority, and it was 
international. In a rare instance of solidarity, both France and Spain 
had countersigned the command.

All Pirate ships were to be seized and their crews brought to trial. 
There would be no exceptions. The order went on to list specific ships 
that were the most wanted. The Bloody Cutlass, Captain Frank, and its 
crew were at the top of the list. Second was Captain Jack Calico and 
the men of the Revenge.

The charges were many and included piracy and murder. The punishment 
dictated was hanging.

The decision of Tortuga's Governor had not been acceptable to the 
Louie nor the Seagull. The two men felt that no fair minded government 
would encourage such injustice. While the island was small and 
isolated, it was a part of a larger authoritative structure. Tortuga's 
Governor was appointed by Jamaica's Governor, who in turn had been 
appointed by the King.

Under the cover of night, the Seagull left Tortuga; destination: St. 
Jago de la Vega, Jamaica. The Captain of the Swan Louie was a passenger. 
For the next week the Swan Louie would be under the command of her 
first mate.

Even though both the Swan Louie and her captain were French, the 
governmental community in the Caribbean had become an homogeneous blend 
of English, Spanish, and French.

Not too many years in the past, these three nations had been at each 
other's throats and even a version of piracy had been not only condoned, 
but promoted as a tool of limited warfare; however, economic
interdependence 
had now become too great an issue. Thus, in the world of 1720, sovereign 
nations sought the help of their neighbors.

All of St. Jago was a buzz over the edict from Europe. While the Seagull 
was being moored, her long boat was taking her passenger ashore.

The governor's plantation was just beyond the outskirts of the city.

It was while he was arranging for the rental of a horse that he heard 
the rumors concerning the new mandate.

In October, retribution was close at hand. The governor of Jamaica, 
hearing of Calico's presence sent several armed sloops to intervene 
and capture the Captain and crew.  

A trap was now set in place. In Tortuga the Swan Louie would accept a
rich 
cargo for transport to the Carolina's. 

Sloops would be hidden among several small islands along her course. 

Back in Tortuga, the First Mate of the Swan Louie was negotiating with 
the Revenge, through a local sail maker, for the purchase of the 
Louie's stolen sails. Quid pro quo. To this extent, Count le Passeur 
was of some help: he loaned the Louie sufficient funds to ransom her 
sails, taking a deed to the ship as security.

The Governor, was walking a very tight rope in his rule of Tortuga. 
His grandfather had been the island's first leader and had been 
appointed to that position through the influence of the East India 
Trading Company.

The company had many holdings throughout the Caribbean, including 
Tortuga. 

The Swan Louie was a Company ship.

Most of the week during which the Seagull was gone from Tortuga was 
spent re-fitting the Louie's sails.

The sun had yet to rise when the Seagull slipped quietly back into 
Cayona's harbor. 

Immediately her longboat was lowered, and both Captain's went ashore 
carrying a sealed pouch from Jamaica's governor addressed to the 
Count.

At noon, a horse drawn wagon arrived at the dock, and several longboats 
were loaded with an obviously valuable cargo, and taken to the Swan
Louie.

The Louie's crew had been told that the cargo was destined for the 
Carolinas and contained much gold.

That night a heavy guard was set on the ship, and the crew allowed one 
last visit to the pubs before departing the next day.

At two A.M., Captain Frank and Captain Jack Calico met aboard the 
Revenge. The plan was that they would also depart Tortuga, but they 
would do so several hours after the Louie departed. The Revenge would 
follow the Swan Louie. The Bloody Cutlass would follow the Seagull.

If the Seagull stayed in Cayona, the Cutlass would then depart to aid 
the Revenge in her capture of the Swan Louie.

This time the Louie and her crew would not be spared. The same was 
planned for any ship that might be with her.

Afterward they would change their colors and make for Havana.

The Louie departed on schedule. There was no sign of activity on the 
Seagull. It was obvious that she was not going to convoy.
Never-the-less, 
the Cutlass played it safe and waited.

The First Mate had set two special watches onboard the Revenge. These 
were lookouts. Their responsibility was to make certain they were not 
being followed.

As the day progressed their confidence grew. It appeared they would 
have little difficulty in overtaking and capturing their prey.

The Louie was neither being speedy, nor deliberately slow. They 
intended to be captured, but they would pick the spot.

The sun set. The sky darkened.

A whip-crack of thunder made the Revenge vibrate; tiny drops of moisture 
fell like a witches' potion from the sky.

The helmsman pointed at the patch of dark clouds that lay to the north 
west of them. "Looks like we might be in for a bit of a squall."
 
His remark was answered by a deep rumble from the heavens and then a 
sharp crackling of lightning, which momentarily diverted his attention.

Rain began to hammer against the deck, like furious knocking.

He pointed toward an odd shape of clouds,  "You can imagine it, can't 
you? A dragon, soaring over the water, and coming this way ..." He 
tilted his head towards the thunder. "... Landing on the Swan Louie and 
lashing its tail." 

The First Mate looked at his shipmate and nodded slowly, as though 
he'd shared and understood the vision.

Their attention was to the north. 

Darkness settled, and the Swan Louie came into sight. She was running 
a single light. Rain reduced visibility. 

Slowly the Revenge approached the Louie's stern. They were less than a 
mile from their prey when a bright flash of light that could have only 
been gun powder flashed from the Louie's bow. 

The Revenge was not aware that they were just north of a small island 
and, thus, they did not see the fast sloop that was rapidly moving 
toward them off their port stern.

Before the Revenge could hook the Louie, she was grappled by the 
unseen vessel. It was a surprise attack.

The sound of the hook hitting her stern was answered by a half-dozen 
armed Pirates. In the lead were two youths that fought like the devil 
was whipping them. The first goal was to break the hold, unloosen the 
grapple, and attempt to push the attacker away. But at least ten men on 
the sloop were pulling hard, so that there was never any slack in the
line. 
Even before the two vessels made contact, cutlass-armed men, swinging
their 
blades, swooshed on board the Revenge.

A large, red bearded man, with a cutlass held in his teeth, swung across 
the narrow gap that laid between the two ships.

He dove across the deck toward Anne, knife extended. She jumped to the 
side, avoiding him by inches. She raced toward a large box to climb upon
and thus gain an advantage, but the man scrambled across the deck and 
beat her there. He grabbed her arm while running and swung her against 
the main mast. Her cutlass spun across the space and rattled as it 
crashed onto the deck, out of sight.

She hit the timber face-first. Her eyelids fluttered, then she fell to 
the deck in a heap.

She didn't get up. She didn't move.

The soldier kicked her to the side. The pirate appeared to be
unconscious, 
or hopefully dead.

The pirate had been fighting with a mate. The man scanned the ongoing 
battle. He did not see the young pirate's shipmate. But if not there 
then where ... ?

He noticed that the cargo hatch was open.

The man ran to the edge of the space and peered down. It was too dark 
to see. He predicted with a shout, "Got you!"

There was no one there. But how was that possible? Where could the 
other man be?

And then he heard it ... a creak. The creak of a foot on a dry piece of 
wood ... and it was coming from above him ... on the mast.

The soldier smiled. He looked up, "Gotcha!"

"Peek-a-boo!" The man started for the rope ladder to scale the mast. 
"I see you."

Mary scrambled further up the ladder. Unfortunately, it was less than 
six feet to where it dead-ended at the bottom of a sail. There was 
almost nowhere to go.

"You've been a bad lad." He taunted the young warrior above him.

Mary's eyes narrowed to two black slits. "The battle has just begun."

The man grabbed hold of the highest rung he could reach and started to 
pull himself upward.

Then he cried out in pain.

"Aaaah!"

Anne rammed a sail peg into the soldier's crotch. Not subtle, but it 
was all she could come up with on the spur of the moment. The discolored 
lump on her forehead throbbed. She had been groggy, nearly unconscious, 
but hearing Mary's shouts brought her back around. She was functioning, 
though mostly on impulse power, and she doubted her newfound strength 
would endure.

The man peered down. "What the --"

She hit him again. He cried out.

"You goddamn fucking little ass hole!"

All at once, he came tumbling down the rungs, and fell on top of Anne, 
pinning her. She swung upward and hit his arm just above the wrist, 
and hit it hard. His knife spun across the deck. She tried to crawl 
away. He grabbed her hair and jerked her back.

"I don't need that to take you," he growled.

Anne kicked him on the shin, then reached out with her fingers toward 
his eyeballs. The man jerked his head back, but her nails scratched 
his cheek. Enraged, he swung his hand around at her head but missed.

In an unusually high and loud voice she was drawing attention, seeking 
someone to back her up.

He clapped his hand over her mouth. Anne bit him. He howled; she sank 
her teeth in all the deeper. He wrapped his free hand around her 
throat. Together, they collided back against the mast. 

He jerked his hand free. Pinpricks of blood showed where his opponents 
teeth had been. "What kind of men were these that fought like women?"

He looked at the wound and his face turned ashen. Reaching out with 
the speed of a striking snake, he grabbed Anne by the back of the neck 
and slammed her head against the pole.

Anne's resistance faded with the impact. Her legs wobbled. The man 
twisted her hair around his hand to hold her up and slapped her face, 
hard. She tried to twist away, but he was still clenching her hair.

"Shut up." He brought the flat of his hand back and hit her again. 
"You should've stayed out of my way and stayed ashore to sell your ass 
in Tortuga."

"You're all alike. You pretend to have values, but you don't. You let 
your mates do whatever they want. You pretend you don't hear when 
their victims scream. You let them be punished. Well, now it's time 
for you to be punished." 

He reared back his hand, this time balled up in a fist. It hit Anne's 
face with a sickening impact. She fell to the deck with a thud.

"Goddamn Pirate!"  the man shouted. He saw his knife lying where it 
had fallen on the deck and picked it up. "Now you're going to wish you 
hadn't been born." He straddled her body, clutched her neck with his 
free hand, raised his knife into the air.

Mary had been driven out of sight, hidden by the sail. She peered 
about her, gaining a sense of where she was and what was happening.

She moved downward toward a long iron bar used to pry halyards from 
jammed pulleys.

Moments later she brought the bar down on the back of the soldier's 
head. He fell backward, toppling off Anne and onto the floor.

The two shipmates found their cutlasses and resumed their fight.

It was not a shining moment for the once-dashing Calico Jack, who, as 
everyone knew, had been the first to propose the skull-and-crossbones 
symbol. A combination of drunkenness and heavy bombardment sent many 
of the men, including Rackham, below deck. 

Anne and Mary stayed on deck,  swinging away. 

At one point they became so disgusted with the cowardice of their crew 
mates that  they rushed to the hatch and shouted to the men to come up 
and defend the ship. "If there's a  man among ye, ye'll come out and 
fight like the men ye are to be," Anne shouted.  

When they were ignored, Anne drew her pistol and fired into the hold, 
killing one. 

Anne and Marys' cutlasses bit deep into many a British sailor. Blood 
flowed and splashed. However, they were out-numbered and soon found 
themselves back-to-back surrounded by no less than ten armed men.

Then Mary did as she had done months before on that tiny island just 
before slaying Ruben. She ripped open her blouse to display her 
breasts. Her recent opponent had begun to suspect what the pirates 
true sex might be, so her hopes of an advantage did not come her way.

The ship was taken, and when the sloop's captain boarded, he found two 
"lads" berating Rackham for his less-than-manly comportment. 

Before midnight, the Pirates found themselves in chains in their own 
hold.

Anne and Mary who had fought hard in the past hour were vocal about 
the lack of bravery on the part of their shipmates. Anne took Captain 
Jack Calico to task. Her face reflected her anger. Had she not been 
swordless and in chains, she would have killed her sometimes-lover.

The Revenge, the sloop, and the Swan Louie changed course. Destination: 
St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica.

Captain Frank's luck had changed for the better. The on-coming storm 
had caused him to delay his departure from Cayona and the onset of 
the heavy weather had prevented it altogether.

It took three days for the news of the Revenge's capture to reach 
Tortuga.

Word of the European Edict had already been rumored around the island. 

The Revenge had been drawn into a trap set in place right under Frank's 
nose there in Tortuga.  Had it not been for the storm, the Cutlass 
would also have been captured. And to add vinegar to the open wound, 
rumor had it that it had been an ex-mate of theirs, Capt. Barnet, who 
had commanded the King's sloop.

Frank did not dally. Within an hour of the news of the capture of the 
Revenge, the Bloody Cutlass departed Tortuga. Destination: unknown.

By the next morning there was not a pirate left on the island. The 
ribald atmosphere of the water front pubs became no more than an
echo in the past.

Tortuga, as the pirate capital of the Caribbean, passed out of the 
present and into history.

Still, the Seagull had one last task ahead of her. She had the
passengers 
from the Swan Louie, and the Swan Louie was in Jamaica.

The day before she was to get underway for St. Jago de la Vega, Doctor 
Michael Redliffe sought passage.

Reluctantly they agreed, with the understanding that he must sleep on 
deck. The Captain and First Mate had given their quarters to the two 
girls. At sea, one or the other would always be on deck so, even though 
it was a bit crowded, the ship's officers shared the focsle crew's 
quarters.

The Seagull now had three more people than she normally carried; five 
if you counted the two ghosts. There was little privacy except in the 
small cabin shared by Lucy and Julie.

Jack and Jose must climb the main mast to the Crow's nest if they were 
to serve the needs of Scott and Jerry.

-----End of TPA08B of A/B/C---

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