James Silver, the quartermaster aboard the Sea Dancer, hung on for dear life, cursing loudly at the loss of young Miles Smith. He had liked the lad: good with a cutlass, able and keen to learn. He'd had the making of a truly good buccaneer.
The storm was intensifying further, the wind getting stronger and the rain now driving down so hard it was almost impossible to see.
The wind was coming at them from all directions, making it impossible to set a course even if they had been able to. The little amount of sail that they had left could not help them in these conditions. They were helpless.
Cap'n Rob was still clinging to the tiller, but the quartermaster knew that this was a futile attempt at control. There was nothing anyone could do until the storm passed, ...if they managed to survive that long.
Suddenly a shower of large hailstones started to rain down on them from above, pounding James Silver and the Captain and adding to their misery.
"Mr Silver," the Captain said, "Tell the lads to go below decks, and get ye with them. I'll stay topside for now, at least for as long as I can...Make sure they don't go for the grog! As soon as the storm subsides, we are going to need every man on deck, able and as sober as a bloody judge!"
The quartermaster considered arguing with the Captain for a moment, but he knew there was no point. Either in arguing, or with disagreeing with the reasoning behind it.
Captain Rob was a good Captain. He was tall, handsome, powerful, charismatic and well liked by the men, but James Silver did not like the Captain of the Sea Dancer, and it was no secret. Nevertheless, Silver respected him for his judgement, audacity and bravery, but he was jealous of him.
James Silver wanted his job, and one day he would have it. As was the tradition amongst pirate crews in the Caribbean, Silver had been elected quartermaster by the crew. His duty was to represent the interests of those who had elected them, to manage the distribution of food and provisions, and to keep the motley rabble in order and protect them from themselves. For that, if he did a good job, he would be granted an extra share of any booty they found, which with their hold now filled to the brim, would be sizeable! But even though he respected Captain Rob, they were cut from different cloths. Silver had struggled all his life, fighting for everything he had, ever since he had been orphaned as a child when the pox killed his parents in London. His uncle had taken him in, fed him, and beaten him almost every night for ten years until Silver had run away, and stowed away aboard a trading ship that was leaving the Thames, and London, far behind.
Silver had learned a new life at sea, and had slowly risen up through the ranks. Years later, when the ship he was on had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and been captured by pirates en route to James Town in the Americas, James had been given the option to live and join his pirate captors, or to be left in a rowing boat with the others, far out at sea.
James had chosen to live, and ever since then he had depended upon no one else but himself for a living. He'd been a pirate for over twelve years now, which, by anyone's standards, was a long, long time. By all accounts he should have been dead by now, but he wasn't, and he had no plans to die anytime soon.
He did have a plan though: the same plan that had been shared by everyone on the Eagle, the Albatross, the Royal Thistle or the Sea Dancer - to make one more raid, to capture and secure the biggest pirate treasure in the world, and then to retire and live a long and prosperous life with his share of the prize.
Until the storm had blown up, the plan had gone better than any of them could ever have hoped for.
Actually, the plan was not his. It was Captain Rob's, which was another reason why Silver was jealous of the man. Silver had not and would never have conceived of such an audacious plan by himself. But Captain Rob had, and he was a genius!
Everyone on the high seas knew that Captain Kidd, a notorious British privateer who had been abandoned and branded a pirate by his English masters, had captured a treasure ship in the Far East called the Queddah Merchant, a 500 ton Armenian merchant ship laden with gold, jewels, silver, silks, sugar and guns,...and that Captain Kidd and some of his crew had brought the ship and their share of the loot back to the Caribbean. After that Kidd's reputation had grown, and other pirates had flocked to his side. Soon, from out of his secret port in the Virgin Islands, he commanded a fleet of his own, terrorizing the seas and building his treasure from strength to strength. For a while he continued to mainly attack ships under the French flag, thus keeping his English masters happy, who continued to turn a blind eye.
But many pirates, like James Silver, had grown jealous of Kidd's success. The stories that fellow pirates told each other and discussed whilst eating or drinking around beach fires or in the taverns ashore were always about one thing...the booty that Kidd had amassed. Legend had it that that there was now so much that it overflowed from the storehouses in the port where it was hidden, and that they had begun to bury it on and around the island, such was the scale of the fortune.
Yet, Kidd had also grown a fearful reputation for the way in which he treated his crew and all those who opposed him, and one day whilst drinking in a tavern in Port Royal in Jamaica, Captain Rob had met Richard Tyler, a bursar whose job it had been to count and catalogue the booty that Kidd and his band of pirates were amassing.
Responding to encouragement from Captain Rob, Tyler had explained drunkenly that after falling into an argument with Kidd one night about the best way to value and account for uncut sapphires, Kidd had ordered Tyler beaten and thrown into the clink. That had been enough. A few days after he had been released, Tyler had stowed away on one of several trusted merchant ships that made good trade in Kidd's port, and since then he had vowed vengeance and retaliation on Kidd for the eye that he had lost during his beating.
As Captain Rob had plied him brandy and beer, Tyler had opened up and told the Captain everything he knew about where Kidd kept his treasure, and about the social habits of the pirates.
Rob had learned two very important pieces of news: firstly, that Kidd had split the treasure they had amassed and now kept it hidden in several different places. In particular Captain Rob had discovered that Kidd had buried the best pieces and the majority of the treasure in a cave on the far side of the island. For most of the day, the cave was flooded by the sea, and could not be accessed by man nor boat, but when the tide was low, a boat could be brought in, the treasure recovered and then taken quickly away, possibly if the main port on the other side of the island was ever under attack.
The remainder of the treasure was split between the cellars in two houses in the port, and the stronghold of the fort that Kidd had captured from the Spanish above the entrance to the hidden port of Puerto Bello de la Cruz. Kidd's thinking was that if they were ever attacked, the invaders may capture the secure stronghold and believe that they had found the main cache, not suspecting that there was more hidden elsewhere in less secure surroundings, right under their noses in the town!
Only a few of Kidd's trusted Captains and quartermasters knew of the existence of the other treasure caches, two of whom had since died mysteriously...or been murdered by Kidd.
Tyler knew that his knowledge was dangerous and that he would now be a hunted man, and he was keen to seek sanctuary in the Americas. He was heading for Boston with the next ship that had business there.
Upon discovering that Richard Tyler knew of the exact location of the cave, Captain Rob had persuaded Tyler to join his crew, and help the Captain to mount a bold raid on the main port to steal the treasure cached in the houses and the fort, and then to recover the treasure from the cave.
Following guidance from Tyler, Captain Rob planned to attack the Port early on the Sunday morning, when the tide in the cave would be low and the pirates drunk, sleeping and snoring raucously after the revels of another Saturday night's debauchery in their hidden costal port.
In truth, over the past few years, Captain Rob had assembled quite a formidable fleet, and although the plan at first sounded audacious and possibly foolhardy, on c
loser inspection it was actually quite feasible.
Captain Kidd had grown too confident. Power and wealth had gone to his head, and he believed that in the Caribbean, he was the lord and master. No other pirate dared challenge him at sea, and none would ever even consider attempting to steal from him, especially right from under his own nose while he relaxed in his own port.
Although the English had declared him a pirate, Captain Kidd still had powerful friends amongst his original financial backers in the Whig party in England, who would secretly be expecting a return on their investment at some point in the future when he returned to England. After all, it was they that had help set him up and seen him issued with his original charter as an English privateer against the French. The French had recently lost so many ships to his band of buccaneers that Kidd did not believe that they would be ever be so powerful as to mount an expedition against him.
And the Spanish? They had too many problems at home and in the south to worry about another pirate in the north, even though he always took advantage of any passing Spanish Galleon and plundered it as well.
Captain Rob was relatively new in the Caribbean. Few knew of him or his capability. The talk was that he had made his fortune in the Indies, and headed west only when he had drawn too much attention to his activities in the Far East.
Secretly, James Silver had doubts about Captain Rob's authenticity, and his roots. Whereas he claimed to have taken to the pirate life after being captured prisoner from an English ship, Silver suspected that there was more to it. What, he could not lay his finger on, but he knew that Captain Rob was hiding some secret under his bright red coat, blue-tunic and flamboyant tri-cornered hat. Captain Rob was not everything he claimed to be, that was for sure.
But, he was without doubt, an excellent captain: a brilliant navigator, clever, decisive, good in battle, ruthless when needed but also merciful to those who deserved it. He exercised more than a modicum of fair play, told the worst but funniest jokes on the high-seas, and his men loved him. As did the ladies: handsome, tall, broad, and physically powerful, the Captain attracted the attention of most women who encountered him, from serving wenches in the taverns on shore, to those unlucky enough to be taken prisoner aboard any ship they captured.
James Silver kept his suspicions and his thoughts about the Captain to himself. He knew the time would come when one day the truth would arise, but until then he would bide his time.
When Captain Rob had first arrived in Jamaica, he had only one ship, the Sea Wind. It was a 210 ton two-masted brigantine, beautifully square-rigged on the foremast, with fore and aft sails on the mainmast. Within three months of his arrival, Captain Rob had captured and taken over three other French ships, including a brig and another brigantine, the former which he renamed the Sea Dancer, and the latter which he called the Royal Thistle. The Sea Wind had been sunk a year later, during a skirmish with the French, but Captain Rob had managed to escape in a long boat before the Sea Wind went down, and had been picked up by the Sea Dancer. The French had escaped, and since that day Captain Rob had stayed the master of the Sea Dancer.
In the past year they had extended their fleet with another brigantine, a sloop, and a schooner, which they had unfortunately lost in a storm near Tortuga.
As such, when Captain Rob assembled his fleet to attack the pirates' lair in Puerto Bello de la Cruz, he commanded two brigantines - the Royal Thistle and the Eagle - , a sloop called The Albatross, and a Brig: the Sea Dancer.
Of all the ships under his command, everyone knew that Captain Rob had a fondness for the Sea Dancer, since it was this ship that had saved his life when the French had sunk the Sea Wind. The Sea Dancer was a magnificent vessel. Unlike the brigantines, it was square rigged on both of its masts, although other sailing configurations were also possible. The shallow-draft of the Sea Dancer combined with its varied sail options, afforded Captain Rob great maneuverability and speed, hence the name Captain Rob had chosen for it.
The Sea Dancer had a crew of 120 officers and men, displaced 297 tons, and had a hull length of 123 feet. It carried the full complement of traditional armament, namely eighteen 32 Pound Carronades and two 12 Pound Long Guns, making it a force to content with and the much feared battleship of Captain Rob's fleet.
While both the other brigantines could carry up to 16 guns each, they no longer did so, for the simple reason that ideally their armaments would never be needed. Whereas gold and silver was what occupied the dreams of most pirate crews, the best prize most could ever expect was a merchant ship loaded to the gunwales with goods that could be traded or sold. The last thing a privateer wanted to do was to sink a ship it wanted to capture, thus losing all its cargo. Thankfully, most merchant ships surrendered when attacked and larger weapons were not necessary. The weapon that pirates and privateers depended upon most of all was 'fear': most merchantmen would rather surrender to the pirates and throw themselves at their mercy, rather than risk being slaughtered or tortured for resisting. Such was the state of fear that could be induced in a merchant crew by the mere glimpse of a pirate flag on a ship bearing down on them at speed, that most surrendered without a fight!
Consequently, when the two brigantines in their private fleet were first captured, Captain Rob had ordered most of the cannons to be buried ashore and replaced with small swivel guns, blunderbusses and the increasingly popular shortened cannons with larger bores called howitzers. These were all used mainly as anti-personnel weapons, and were not powerful enough to sink most sizeable merchant ships, but were perfect for creating fear amongst the crew of their prey, and controlling any resistance they may encounter close up. Also, by reducing the armaments they carried on board, they cut down on the amount of valuable cargo space wasted on storing powder and ammunition.
The Albatross was the swiftest vessel in their fleet, with a bowsprit almost as long as her hull, and a topsail that could be hoisted on its single mast to help her reach a top speed of over eleven knots. Although it was relatively small in comparison with the others, it still carried a crew of sixty, and eight cannon, but it provided their fleet with the ability to go after craft in the shallower channels and sounds of the islands of the Caribbean.
Between them Captain Rob's fleet offered all the flexibility they needed: speed, maneuverability, fire-power to be feared and cargo space for captured goods and treasure.
It was four o'clock earlier that day on the Sunday morning when the Sea Dancer, the Royal Thistle, and the Eagle had entered the harbor at Puerto Bello de la Cruz.
The location that Kidd had chosen for his hideaway was perfect. From the sea, the inlet to the small bay was almost invisible, and it was only by sailing closer to the shore where the entrance was to be found, that it was possible to see that a small outcrop of land hid the entrance to a larger bay that nestled behind it and lay between several hills which formed a natural amphitheatre centered on the entrance from the sea.
As Captain Rob's fleet swept around the headland into the harbour, Richard Tyler pointed out the small, old Spanish fort sitting high on the headland, but which was previously hidden from view by the sea. Raising his eyeglass, Captain Rob saw several cannons in the fort trained on the harbor mouth, and pointing straight at his ships.
Prewarned by Tyler of this danger, Captain Rob gave the command and one of the Able Bodied Seamen on deck raised the two colored flags that they had made a few days before: a red flag with white diagonal stripes, and a green flag with a large, round, black spot in the middle. This was the secret code that Tyler had told them was the signal given by trusted supply vessels or merchant ships who came to the port to barter or trade for the goods that Kidd's crews had stolen from other merchant ships on the high seas.
The bay itself was not large, and apart from the old Spanish Fort, Captain Rob could quickly make out that there were no other large stone buildings in view. The rest of the several hundred cottages or small buildings that nestled around the water's edge were made of wood or small boulders with th
atch on top, reminding him greatly of the sight of the crofters' cottages which Rob had seen in the Great Glen in Scotland.
The harbor at Puerto Bello de la Cruz sat nestled between several hills that curved around the small bay. It was a dark night, with strange cloud formations blowing quickly across the sky, heralding rain or a storm to come, but the combined effect of the glowing lights which still burned in some of the cottages produced an almost magical and heart-warming effect, like hundreds of fireflies or candles twinkling and reflecting in the waters of the bay.
As planned, the ships all dropped anchor and set off their boats, conveying the pirates that would take part in the raiding party ashore. Silence and surprise were key.
As the boats came ashore, the pirates broke off into their separate groups, each already well versed on their objectives.
Leaving skeleton crews on board to man and guard his fleet, and provide some gunners for the cannons, Captain Rob had brought ashore a small army of four hundred men.
Richard Tyler had estimated that there were normally over a thousand pirates living in the bay of de la Cruz, but this number would be reduced to around three hundred since over half of Kidd's ships were out hunting and not due to return for another couple of weeks.
Of those three hundred, at this time of day most would be drunk or unconscious.
Coming into the bay, Captain Rob had counted only two pirate ships, and two supply ships, which backed Richard Tyler's claims. Neither of the pirate ships belonged to Captain Kidd, which meant that the pirate leader was not at home! This discovery was far better than they could have hoped for!
The first group of fifty men made their way as quietly as possible up through the streets towards the Fort. Tyler had warned them that the guards at the Fort were ever vigilant for strangers, and that they should expect some resistance.
It was part of Tyler's plan that he would go ahead of the main group, and bluff his way into the Fort, persuading the pirates within to open the large wooden gates and let him in. As soon as he entered, he would do his best to cause a distraction and the other pirates from Captain Rob's band must then take advantage of the situation and storm through the gates after him.
In private, James Silver had voiced some concern to the Captain that the whole plan depended completely on their ability to trust Richard Tyler: he could be leading them into a trap. What if the plan was a ploy that had been dreamt up by Captain Kidd to capture Captain Rob's fleet?
Captain Rob had thought about this long and hard. He was a shrewd judge of men, and after speaking further about the plan with Richard Tyler, he had convinced himself that the man was telling the truth and was earnest in his desire to seek revenge on Captain Kidd. In addition, Tyler's story seemed to tally: the wound on his eye was still fresh, and the anger and venom that showed in his face when he talked of Kidd was real. No one could fake that. No, Captain Rob was sure that meeting Richard Tyler by accident was a stroke of good fortune that could not be ignored.
Tyler was a small, round man, obviously well fed and partial to ale, but Captain Rob saw in him a strength of character and a sense of pride, that Kidd had obviously dented. Now Tyler wanted revenge.
At the same time that Tyler led a band of the pirates to recover the treasure hidden in the fort, Captain Rob would lead another party to one of two houses in the town where Tyler had promised them other parts of Kidd's hoard had been hidden. He had drawn two very clear maps for James Silver and the Captain, clearly marking which house contained the hidden hoards, and handed them over with the guidance that in both houses they should make their ways to the cellars, remove the beer and water casks, and dig down for two feet in the dirt. They should then recover three large sacks, and five large chests from each house. He cautioned it would take four men to lift each chest, and they should have carts ready outside the house to convey the chests to the boats: "You will find carts and horses tethered outside the houses. Only take one chest per boat, lest it presses through the bottom and spills all over the harbor beneath."
Captain Rob and James Silver had laughed upon receiving the instructions. They were so specific, and so clear, it was obvious the man was an accountant who lived for figures, facts and details!
To accompany Tyler up to the Fort, Captain Rob sent the Captain of the Eagle, a tall and fierce Welshman, Captain Llewellyn Jones, one of the strongest men Rob had ever met. In a skirmish aboard a galleon off the coast of South America, Captain Rob had once seen a group of six Spaniards surround and descend upon Captain Jones, hiding him from sight as they took him on. Minutes later the Welshman was the only one to emerge alive, his cutlass swinging and striking the heads of three of the Spaniards as he did so, brushing off his attackers as if they were an annoyance rather than a threat.
As the pirates landed their longboats on the sands of the harbour, Tyler's parting words were, "Remember, no man shall act before our party has taken the Fort, lest ye warn them and cause them to shut their gates and fire their cannon on your ships. I shall signal our success by the waving of a fire-stick on top of the walls. Look ye for my signal! Only then should ye go to work. I would caution ye not to leave any man standing who may later identify ye, lest ye want Captain Kidd to hunt ye to the ends of the world and throughout all time!"
"Richard Tyler," Captain Rob had replied. "I promise ye man to man, that if ye succeed in yer task today, and we are victorious, ye shall be richer tonight than the Queen of Sheba!"
"But not as good looking..." James Silver had added, jokingly. Richard Tyler had laughed, turned around and disappeared into the night, Captain Jones and his party following close behind.
Ten minutes later Richard Tyler stood before the gates of the old Spanish Fort and shouted loudly at the watch, who were obviously asleep. The rest of the pirates under Captain Jones's command lurked behind in the shadows of the tall Blue Mahoe trees, which grew on the slopes beyond the path towards the top of the hill. From where they watched and waited they could see down onto the ramparts of the small fort, and were surprised to see that no one was obviously manning the three cannon that were visible atop the walls and pointing towards the harbor.
Perhaps, with Captain Kidd away at sea, the garrison left behind had relaxed just a little too much, and hopefully drunk their fair share of grog.
"Ahoy, there!" Tyler bellowed aloud. "It's Rich Tyler here, sent back by Captain Kidd to make sure that no one has fallen asleep on duty! Open up these gates and let me in. Sharpish, unless ye want me to tell the Captain what I've found here!"
The small round man stood with his feet apart, and pressed two balled fists onto his hips, acting the part of being shocked and angry with the state of the watch on the fort.
"Richard Tyler? Is that you out there?" a groggy voice came back, uncertainly.
"That it be! And if that is you, Samuel Smith, then I would be worried if I were you lad! Why is the gate undefended? Who is manning the cannon? Where is the rest of the watch? Let me in! Now! Before I lose my patience and get straight back in a boat and back out to the Captain and fetch him hither too!"
Two figures appeared in darkness on the rampart running across the top of the fort gate.
"Tyler? What are you doing back here? Last I heard ye had caught the supply ship to Boston, on account of the fact that the Captain had given you a hiding!" There was the sound of a few laughs on the other side of the wall.
"Well, well, Mr Black. I'd recognise that voice anywhere. Yes, it is me. I left, but only because I had to find a doctor to see to my eye. But I saw one, and now I've come back to make sure that my share of the booty is still intact, on orders of the Captain who I met ashore in Tortuga, and on the promise of an extra share to compensate for the loss my eyeball. And what do I find? Nothing less than all of you drunk and asleep in your hammocks. I tell ye what men, I'm losing my patience out here. I'll count to ten then head back down to the bay, preparing my report for the Captain as I go. If that's what you want, my boys?"
There was the sound of co
mmotion, and raised voices, and then slowly the two large wooden doors began to swing inwards into the fort.
Richard Tyler stood his ground, waiting for the doors to open fully.
"Ye took yer fair time, lads. What madness has crossed yer mind to fall asleep on duty?"
"Keep yer hair on Richard Tyler! We saw the ships come in, and we got the right response to the challenge. All is well, Richard Tyler. All is well. Perhaps we had a little too much grog and fell asleep just afterwards, but only on account of the fact that it is Master Fletcher's birthday today. There's no need to write any report for the Captain. Especially since the booty in the storeroom is just as ye left it. Shipshape and secure. And also because I mind to recall that there is a half-full bottle of brandy here in my hand that could be yours if you would just promise to forget what ye've seen."
"Aha...perhaps, now ye are just taking advantage of my thirst. I'll tell ye what lads. If the three of ye agree to head down to the boat just now, and collect my chest for me, I will take a drink and ponder on it for a while...But get ye gone, now, afore I change me mind!"
From inside the gate, a few voices were heard exchanged, and then slowly three figures emerged from the darkness of the Fort and into the night, stumbling with their breeches and pulling on shirts.
Richard Tyler pointed down the hill, and the three men stumbled past him, leaving the gates of the fort wide open.
A few minutes later, Captain Jones and his band emerged from the trees and crept into the Fort, leaving behind six pirates who crept down the hill and quickly killed and silenced the unlucky three pirates before they realised they had been tricked and could raise the alarm.
Inside the fort, the main party found only three other pirates asleep in their hammocks, each of whom was killed swiftly by Captain Jones with his cutlass across their throats.
Whilst half of the men followed Richard Tyler into the store room to start collecting the treasure, the other half climbed up to the cannons and pushed them over the edge of the ramparts, watching as they crashed down the hill and bounced off the cliff and fell into the water of the bay beneath.
Twenty minutes later, the store room was empty and the treasure was being carried slowly but steadily back down to the boats in the bay.
Thanks to Richard Tyler, the first part of the plan had been a complete success.
Chapter 5
The Royal Thistle
Puerto Bello Del la Cruz
Sunday Morning
1699
4.45 a.m.