Chapter 11

The sun had climbed high into the sky, and not a cloud was to be seen, as if the storm that night had never happened. The pirates had gotten up bright and early and had reset the sails and observed the damage the harsh winds had done to the sails and the rigging. It hadn’t taken long for the man perched in the crow’s nest to spot land and he had hollered down in the early morning. They had made their way North to Crooked Island to careen and repair the ship before making way once again.

The men were sweaty and hot as they unloaded each heavy cannon from the ship. Loading them onto the capstan near the centre of the ship then turning the crank to bring them up onto the main deck and then again using a series of pulleys to lower the cannons one by one onto row boats and take them to shore. They set every cannon along the shore, facing out towards sea encase a coast guard came by, they’d not be caught off guard.

Once all the cargo had been taken off the ship, the men pulled the heavy vessel up and onto shore as far as they could, finally earning a break after hours of hard work. Most of the pirates simply lounged out on the beach as the ships bosun went about repairing the rigging and the carpenter went to work stripping the barnacles and soft shelled molluscs from the hull. He would scrape the hull bare and then continue to fill each and every small whole he could find to make sure the vessel would stay afloat. He wouldn’t find them all, as there has never been a single ship that didn’t leek but he’d at the very least insure it another two months before repairs would need to be done again.

Shane laid back in the sand and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She had to admit to herself that she hated careening a ship even more than stowing the foresails during a storm. At least the latter would do you in quick and painlessly. It had taken hours to unload the ship and haul it up onto the beach and all she wanted to do was sleep for the next fortnight.