A Not So Trivial Pursuit
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ShipwreckedChapter 13: In Pursuit free porn video
For the rest of the day the ship's crew, along with all the natives, stayed glued to the ship's railing watching the distance between the two ships with great interest. By late afternoon it was obvious to Zack, his ship was slowly gaining ground on the pirate ship; however, it was not going to be possible for them to catch up to the pirates before nightfall. Destand and Beecher at one time considered trying to a fire cannon shot at fleeing the pirate ship, but both men realized the distance was too far to have any luck and make an effective hit. Zack remarked to the Frenchman, "I'm concerned that after dark they will change course and head in another direction. We've lost them if they do that."
The old Captain stared after the fleeing pirate ship and shrugged his shoulders, "I know, but what can we do? Once the sun is down all they have to do is make sure there are no visible lights of any sort on board, and then they can move off any direction they please."
Zack smiled at the Frenchman, "Which gives me an idea. Let's make sure that we don't have any visible lights ourselves. There is no point in letting them know where we are. Agreed?"
"Yes. I'll speak to all the natives and you give the orders to the crew about no lights aboard tonight." The two sailors proceeded to move among the crew explaining what they were trying to do. Finally, the sun was gone and twilight faded into darkness. Just when both men feared they had lost the pirate ship to the cloak of night, an almost full moon slipped from behind some clouds and bathed the entire sea in bright light.
The stark contrast between the black hull of the ship and the bright white of the sails made for an eerie sight, the sails seem to be moving through the night without any support. Even though it wasn't a full moon, the white sails of the moving pirate ship were illuminated just as well as if it had been high noon and unless the moon slipped behind a cloud for a long period, the pirate ship would remain visible, and easily followed. This would allow the crewmembers on Zack's ship to continue to watch the pirate ship throughout the night.
Now that they could see the ship, the two sailors noticed that they had been correct about the pirate ship trying to change course and trying to slip away. The pirate's ship had dropped off to starboard, hoping they could slip away in the dark. Zack ordered the helmsman to correct course and the bow came around so they once more were heading for the pirate ship.
Throughout the night the two ships sailed on, each one trying to maximize the efficiency of their sails. As dawn started to light the eastern sky, Zack and Destand noticed that during the night they had gained even more on the fleeing pirate ship. With any luck, by mid-afternoon, they would be in firing range. For the next couple of hours the vessels raced on. Zack's ship was a nest of activity as the natives worked with some of the ship's crew trying to improve the speed in moving the cannons into firing position. They also worked on ways to shorten the time needed to reload until finally, the crew felt they had the native men as ready as possible, and now all they could do was to wait for the two ships to pull close enough to fire.
Towards noon, without any warning, the pirate ship suddenly fell off the wind, and their sails went slack. For some reason the pirate ship had turned away from the wind so now the ship just sat with limp sails, rocking in the waves. Destand quickly instructed the crew to take down some of their sails; however, in spite of that order, the distance between the two ships continued to rapidly decrease.
Zack turned to the old Captain and inquired, "What do you think they are doing?"
"Perhaps they feel their best chance is to just stop and fight it out with us. We have discussed this before; I am sure they have no idea how many men we have now. My guess is since they knew how many of the crew was left from The Elizabeth they now feel they have us outmanned." Destand shrugged his shoulders, "Or at least they feel the odds are as good as they are ever going to be."
Nodding his head, Destand added, "I doubt if they know we have the natives aboard." Destand then clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "Yes! They must feel they have the advantage and want to fight us now." Zack watched as the older man's enthusiasm started to wane, "But the thing that troubles me ... if I were the Captain, I would never make such an assumption."
Zack shook his head, "From what I've seen of the pirate mind, their tendency is to not think things all the way through and the more I think about it, I firmly believe the pirates feel they have us short manned and they want to fight us now."
Destand stared at the pirate ship now rocking back and forth with the waves. "I certainly hope you are correct in your thinking. In addition, not only do they have no idea about our extra native crew, they are not aware of the fact that some of our native men know how to shoot a cannon." No sooner had Destand finished speaking when they saw a puff of smoke come from one of the cannons mounted on the stern of the pirate ship. About the same time they saw the splash from the cannon ball, they also heard the sound of the cannon going off. As the two officers stood observed the pirate ship, they noticed that now a large piece of the poop deck and much of the railing on the ship's stern were missing.
Zack pointed to the pirate ship, and asked, "Sir, look! What do you think happened there?"
With a chuckle, Destand answered, "It looks like they got greedy, and they put too much power in their cannon shot. See, over on the main deck there," Destand pointed, and Zack saw the cannon lying on the deck. "Look! They have split the end of the cannon open. The recoil tore the cannon loose from the ship's deck, and also tore out part of the stern."
Zack called out to two of the native men and they ran up to the bow and quickly started to load their bow-cannon. Just as they were about to touch fire to the wick, they saw another puff of smoke come from another cannon on the pirate ship on the other side of the ship's stern. This time the splash of the cannon ball landed much closer to their ship.
The sound of the cannon aboard Zack's ship filled the air with an ear-piercing noise. Everyone aboard held their breaths waiting to see where their ball would land. When the ball struck, a hole appeared in the pirate ship just at the water line on the starboard side, slightly in front of the stern of the ship. The members of Zack's crew went wild. As quick as they could, they reloaded their cannon. But before they could fire again, the pirate ship fired another volley. The pirate's cannon ball still fell short just beside Zack's vessel; but too much of the spray from the ball landed on the deck to suit either of the pair.
Destand called out, "That was too close. Can you see if you can hit a little higher, and perhaps put that cannon out of commission?"
"Let's try." By now, the two ships were much closer and Zack instructed the native gunners to aim their bow cannon higher. The gunners seemed to quickly understand the concept of an arc and aimed their cannon to a location they thought would hit the upper levels of the pirate ship. Flames shot from the end of the cannon and again the noise made everyone's ears ring. A few seconds later, they could see more parts of the railing across the stern of the pirate's ship disappear in splinters and shards of wood. Zack's crew watched as the pirates started running for cover.
Destand called down to all the men who were manning the cannons on the below decks to make ready and then gave instructions to the helmsman how he wanted the two ships to pass by each other. The Admiral called for the crew to open the starboard cannon ports. As they complied with his orders; shortly two rows of cannons stood grinning in their open portholes, ready to wreak havoc on the pirate ship.
Zack noticed that although the pirate ship also had pulled up some of their cannon portholes, less than half were open. The young Captain did not have the time to figure out why there were so few ports open on the pirate ship since he was too busy getting the bow cannon re-loaded. Zack heard Destand give the order for the main cannons to fire. One cannon after another fired from the top-tier, and then the bottom tier released its destructive load. Parts of the pirate ship seemed to vanish before their eyes. As quickly as Destand could manage, his ship turned, and prepared to fire the cannons from their port side.
As the two ships passed again, Destand's ship opened fire, but this time the pirate ship offered no returning fire. By the time Destand had turned his ship around again, the crew noticed the pirate ship had several holes in the bow and it was now obviously listing.
Destand called out to the pirate ship. Someone answered back, but there was no one onboard who could understand the language. Ben called up to the young Captain, "I think it's Portuguese."
Zack called out to the crew, "Do any of you speak Portuguese?"
Someone yelled back, "I believe Merick speaks Portuguese."
Zack felt surprised to learn this new bit of information. Destand had two crew members go to bring Merick up on deck. Once Merick was standing at the rail, Destand told him, "I am told you speak Portuguese, I want you to tell them to surrender."
Merick sneered at Destand. "You can go to hell. Since I'm just a prisoner I will do nothing to help you."
Destand looked over at Ben Stakewell and told him to take a pistol from the waistband of one of the armed crew members. Ben walked over, pulled it from the man's waist, and looked at Destand. "Mr. Stakewell, go and point the pistol at Mr. Merick's head." He told Ben.
Ben walked over to the disgraced officer, cocked the pistol, and placed it against his forehead. Destand's words were cold and tinged with anger and disgust. "Mr. Merick, either tell them to surrender or I will have Mr. Stakewell pull the trigger and blow your brains out. What you need to remember is Mr. Stakewell has wanted to kill you ever since he found out you were still alive. What are you going to do?"
Merick stood at the rail with his hands shackled behind him. "I refuse to stand here shackled, and try to negotiate for you." He snarled, "Besides, I need to be able to cup my hands so I can call over." Zack nodded his head at Ben and the young man removed the restraints from Merick.
Merick took a deep breath, and called over to the pirate vessel. When someone answered, Merick responded. When the pirate called something back, Merick turned to Destand and said, "I told them to surrender. They said everyone is wounded, and their ship is sinking. They need us to pull alongside so they can move their wounded people aboard our ship."
Destand looked at the young Captain and raised an eyebrow. "I don't trust them. I think they have something planned."
Beecher nodded his head, "I agree. But what?"
Once more a voice from the pirate ship called out and Merick responded. This time Merick held a rather lengthy conversation with the other ship. Finally he turned to the two waiting sailors and informed them, "They say they are taking on water and there is no one aboard who can deal with all of the problems. They also said that they surrender and they want us to put alongside and take them off the ship before it sinks."
Destand looked over at the stricken ship for a moment and then gave instructions to Merick. "Tell them I want as many of them to go and stand on the fo'c'sle where I can see them. Tell them I won't pull alongside until I know that we can account for as many of them as possible." Once more Merick called over to the pirate ship. When someone called something back, Merick replied.
Alessandra
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