Pirate

Whitecaps topped the small, wind-blown waves in the harbor and ,although I couldn’t see the open water, I knew from the wind that the seas would be higher than my head. I turned back to shore and was surprised to see lanterns lit in the cabins. I moved back to the companionway and yelled down for Swift and Syd to wake up.

A few minutes later they joined me on deck, and we watched the activity on land as several figures were preparing the schooner for sea. The boat was similar to ours in rigging, but was beamier to accommodate more in its holds. The men were talking, but the wind was in my face and I couldn’t make out what they were saying. I suspected we were not in danger. If they had wanted, they could have snuck onto the boat in the night and slit our throats. A large man staggered out of the shack where I had left Rhames, and I struggled to see if it was him. He waved both arms in our direction and yelled, but I couldn’t make out his words over the clatter in the rigging.

He cupped his hands together. “Make ready to sail, Nick. There’s a wreck on the reef,” he yelled.

Mason had told me about the men here and called them wreckers, a trade I could only understand as a legal form of pirating. The reef did the work, and although he had said that lives were saved more often than not, the spoils were ill-gotten gains.

“Right then,” I called to Swift and Syd. “Get the boat ready. I’ll get Rhames.”

I could see their excitement at the prospect of adventure as I climbed over the ladder and swung myself into the canoe. The small craft rocked with the waves, and I was careful not to lean over when I released the line. Rhames was waiting when I reached the beach and, before I had grounded, he waded into the water and spun the boat around before hopping in.

“Wait a minute. Let me check on Mason. He’s a good hand and knows how this is done.”

He looked at me with that queer look he used when he’s not sure what I meant, and I realized he didn’t know of our discovery of the men in the hold of the ship. I didn’t have time to tell him now and stepped into the water, leaving him alone in the canoe. Mason was standing on the end of the pier, talking to the man he had introduced as Joshua Appleby. They turned to me as I approached.

“Joshua wants to partner with you. Word is there’s a boat wrecked on Sombrero Key.” Mason spoke for them. “Says the wreck is too big to salvage with just his boat.”

I was not sure about this whole business, or what a partnership involved, but the only way to learn was to take a risk and find out. “As long as you pilot our ship, you have a deal.” I extended my hand to the men.

They looked at each other and nodded. “We leave in ten minutes,” Joshua said. “Listen to Mason, son. He knows the trade.”

I ignored the insult and ran to the shack where Lucy and Blue were tending the man. I wanted them both onboard, but would settle for Blue if Lucy was still needed here. In calm seas, the boat could be sailed with a handful of men, as we had done before, but in heavy seas we would need every able body I could muster. I entered the room and saw Blue in the corner sitting on his haunches.

“We ready, Mr. Nick. Lucy will stay with the man, but I will go,” he said, and grabbed his tube. Without a word to Lucy, he walked past me through the door and into the night.

The four of us would have capsized in the choppy waters, so we split and took two shuttles. Once aboard, I looked over at the other boat. “Raise the main with two reefs,” I ordered, copying what Appleby had done. Rhames and Swift were already in the rigging and unlashed the ties. The sail rose out of the lazy jacks and we started to move.

“Tie off the anchor line to the canoe,” Mason called to me, and winked.

He didn’t want the ballast examined, and I doubted it would hold in open water anyway. I went forward, took a turn of the line on the winch, and pulled enough slack to reach the stern, where the tender line was tied to the rail. Braced against the rail to keep slack in the anchor line, I removed the canoe’s line and tied a sheet bend, and let them go. We were underway now, and I watched Mason turn from the wind to allow the other boat the lead.

The reefed main caught as he steered us back to the wind, and we moved forward. Leaving the harbor was easy with the wind at our backs but, as we rounded the point and the sun started to rise, I saw the churning water ahead. On days like this, pirates drank rum. But this weather is when wreckers worked, and we clung to anything we could as the waves crashed over the bowsprit, covering the deck with spray.