Read Online Bring It Close by Helen Hollick - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Helen Hollick
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last ten minutes, had forgotten Rue’s question. “We teamed up with Benjamin Hornigold to prey on the French. Technically, we were all privateers then of course, all legal with Letters of Marque and the Queen’s praises for her loyal subjects ringing in our ears. Changed her mind about us once we were of no more use. Teach was Hornigold’s quartermaster. They’d lost several men in a skirmish so Malachias sent me over to help out. Said I’d learn a lot being under the command of a different captain and with a different crew. Teach was Navy once, did you know that? First Lieutenant.”
Rue snorted disdain. “So, what did you learn?”
Jesamiah answered softly, confirming Rue’s suspicion that his captain was also none too keen on what they were about to attempt. “For one thing, I learnt that Teach is insane.”
“Even then?”
“Even then.” Jesamiah took a deep breath, chased away the feeling of dread that was hanging like an undigested lump of stale bread in his belly. “To tell the truth I don’t recall him having that great bush of a beard then. The notion of twining burning fuses into it came about after he captured that French slaver and renamed her Queen Anne’s Revenge . He was a bloody fool to wreck her.”
Rue and Isiah laughed outright. “If I recall,” Rue said through the burbling chuckles reverberating round the quarterdeck, “that misfortune was directly down to you!”
Jesamiah fashioned a look of innocence. “Me?”
“ Oui. Vous .”
Indignant, Jesamiah snorted and elbowed Rue away from the helm, taking the spokes himself in his strong hands. He could make Sea Witch sing like a siren and turn within her own length; could make her run faster than the wind, swoop like a bird of prey. Eager, like a lover willing to please she instantly obeyed his every whim.
“I didn’t force him to chase us across those sandbars. Weren’t my fault he didn’t know the depth of the Queen Anne’s keel were it?”
“You snatched an entire cargo of tobacco from under ‘is nose then caused ‘im to wreck ‘is ship. ‘E will never forgive you. You made a public fool of ‘im.”
The freshening wind caught the forecourse and sent Sea Witch momentarily skittering. Jesamiah’s hands gentled her back to compliance and he rubbed surreptitiously at his sore ribs. Of the truth of Rue’s statement he was only too aware. Gibbens and Red Rufus had very effectively jolted his memory.
He grinned. “So let’s get on with this and convince him we are about to make amends for our misdemeanour, shall we?”
The waiting was over.
“Clew up! Clew up to fighting sail if you please gentlemen! Clew up!”
Eleven
Blackbeard’s tactics would be to fire a couple of warning shots first, hoping the Chase would surrender without a fight. Usually they did. If not, he and his consort would disable the ship by firing chain shot, grape and langrage at the sails, masts and rigging, then, with the victim in disarray, swoop alongside and board. No anti-boarding nettings, half-hearted firing of pistols or muskets would keep out a shipload of pirates crazed with lust for the anticipation of specie, rum and women.
There would perhaps be a short, bloody, fight as Blackbeard’s barbarians went aboard, but the capture would be over quickly and the captain and officers would pay dearly for their resistance. Passengers would be beaten, the women repeatedly raped. And some of the men. The pirates would lay alongside for as long as it took to transfer the acquired plunder, then be gone. Sometimes that took several days. If the passengers and any living crew were lucky – or unlucky depending on the devastation caused – they would be able to limp to the nearest port. Usually, Edward Teach preferred to set a trail of gunpowder and destroy everything. But then, most of his victims had no desire to stay alive anyway, not after providing the sort of entertainment Blackbeard and his crew enjoyed.
Jesamiah brought Sea Witch onto
Rue snorted disdain. “So, what did you learn?”
Jesamiah answered softly, confirming Rue’s suspicion that his captain was also none too keen on what they were about to attempt. “For one thing, I learnt that Teach is insane.”
“Even then?”
“Even then.” Jesamiah took a deep breath, chased away the feeling of dread that was hanging like an undigested lump of stale bread in his belly. “To tell the truth I don’t recall him having that great bush of a beard then. The notion of twining burning fuses into it came about after he captured that French slaver and renamed her Queen Anne’s Revenge . He was a bloody fool to wreck her.”
Rue and Isiah laughed outright. “If I recall,” Rue said through the burbling chuckles reverberating round the quarterdeck, “that misfortune was directly down to you!”
Jesamiah fashioned a look of innocence. “Me?”
“ Oui. Vous .”
Indignant, Jesamiah snorted and elbowed Rue away from the helm, taking the spokes himself in his strong hands. He could make Sea Witch sing like a siren and turn within her own length; could make her run faster than the wind, swoop like a bird of prey. Eager, like a lover willing to please she instantly obeyed his every whim.
“I didn’t force him to chase us across those sandbars. Weren’t my fault he didn’t know the depth of the Queen Anne’s keel were it?”
“You snatched an entire cargo of tobacco from under ‘is nose then caused ‘im to wreck ‘is ship. ‘E will never forgive you. You made a public fool of ‘im.”
The freshening wind caught the forecourse and sent Sea Witch momentarily skittering. Jesamiah’s hands gentled her back to compliance and he rubbed surreptitiously at his sore ribs. Of the truth of Rue’s statement he was only too aware. Gibbens and Red Rufus had very effectively jolted his memory.
He grinned. “So let’s get on with this and convince him we are about to make amends for our misdemeanour, shall we?”
The waiting was over.
“Clew up! Clew up to fighting sail if you please gentlemen! Clew up!”
Eleven
Blackbeard’s tactics would be to fire a couple of warning shots first, hoping the Chase would surrender without a fight. Usually they did. If not, he and his consort would disable the ship by firing chain shot, grape and langrage at the sails, masts and rigging, then, with the victim in disarray, swoop alongside and board. No anti-boarding nettings, half-hearted firing of pistols or muskets would keep out a shipload of pirates crazed with lust for the anticipation of specie, rum and women.
There would perhaps be a short, bloody, fight as Blackbeard’s barbarians went aboard, but the capture would be over quickly and the captain and officers would pay dearly for their resistance. Passengers would be beaten, the women repeatedly raped. And some of the men. The pirates would lay alongside for as long as it took to transfer the acquired plunder, then be gone. Sometimes that took several days. If the passengers and any living crew were lucky – or unlucky depending on the devastation caused – they would be able to limp to the nearest port. Usually, Edward Teach preferred to set a trail of gunpowder and destroy everything. But then, most of his victims had no desire to stay alive anyway, not after providing the sort of entertainment Blackbeard and his crew enjoyed.
Jesamiah brought Sea Witch onto
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