Chapter 19: The Battle
“SAILS! Sails to starboard bow! Sails ho!” the lookout man screamed outside and the three children ran out into the windy downpour, in which all the sails of the Magnifique were fully outlined. She was running before the angry wind and had unexpectedly come across the other ship, which was still unaware of the unfolding situation, the lightning flashes and crashing thunder in the dull blur above probably of more concern to her own captain and crew.
“Man your stations!” Mr. Hands cried. “Man your stations!” Some of the gunning crew climbed down below deck while the ship’s miserly lot of musketeers took up comfortable positions around her masts and barrels of rum. The Magnifique’s first mate spotted Matthew and the others making their way towards the forecastle and became livid. “Back to your place with you,” he shouted angrily. “This is no child’s play, is it?”
Stephanie had already started turning back when she crashed into the one person she’d prayed never to crash into. The one Dr. Brooks had called Blackbeard. The one popular pirate on the ship Nora never heard of in History class. Even Mr. Hands became a bit more subdued. Inconspicuous.
“Take this one back to their berth, Bill,” Blackbeard ordered the first mate. “Give the others weapons! We’ll need every hand we can muster, Mr. Hands.”
“Aye, sire,” the first mate cried. He grabbed Stephanie by the arm and they started walking away in the rain. The little girl turned to her adopted brother with fright.
“You’ll know what to do when the time comes,” Matthew shouted and she nodded, her hair clasped to her head.
“Man your stations, you pigs,” the captain railed at his seamen, walking into their lethargic midst with enough venom. Boxes of ammunition were pried open and the round shots shared out to the men.
Matthew and Nora were given swords and guns and they both found a pile of canvass to hide behind. It also helped them fight the rain.
“By Jones! She flies the Union Jack,” a sharp eye discerned. “Could be a merchantman by any chance.”
“It is the Tempest,” Matthew whispered to Nora with certainty when he spotted the ship, which was still far from starboard beam. “As soon as it starts, we must board her and find Owen.”
“And how are you sure he’s in there?”
“I am not so sure,” he confessed, “but he must surely want to use the book on everyone he knows aboard that ship, especially his father! He used it on his own sister; pray tell me why he cannot use it on the only person between him and his entail as well.”
“But he will never give it back like a gentleman,” Nora reasoned. “He could even use it against us.”
“If we let him.”
Thunder clapped noisily above them and they both sensed their fear in their shallow breathing and thumping heart. The rain streamed down their heads and faces and gummed their clothes to their bodies while the wind pushed it around the canvass. And yet, the ship stayed its course, cutting through the ocean’s angry waves like a knife would through butter, despite the unhealthy weather.
“It’s a ship of the line, me lads,” Blackbeard announced, bringing down his gold-rimmed telescope. “On my word, we will sink her, if it’s the last thing I’ll do in this petty storm.”
The Magnifique was holding up well against the petty storm despite its three masts easily bearing nature’s unleashed forces along the length of their full sails. The ship must be built to withhold such events well enough across its heavy bulk, Matthew thought, because the Tempest still far away had reefed up all its sails, fearing the destruction of its masts if the storm continued. This was why the pirates had caught up with her in the first place since the raging waves of the ocean were not strong enough to make them wander from their present route.
“Wore her to larboard and bore up,” Captain Blackbeard bellowed.
“Wore to larboard and bore her up,” his first mate repeated and the helmsman steered to the left. Matthew could feel the ship’s mighty wooden skeleton turning at once. He hoped the Tempest would notice them since she could quickly sink if the Magnifique’s powerful starboard battery was unleashed on her, and this was what the pirates were trying to do. This tragic incident would certainly rule out any chance of their retrieving the book from Owen, who could quickly transport himself to another place and time with it even before the first salvo had died down.
“Gun crew, prepare to fire starboard cannons.”
“Prepare to fire starboard cannons,” Dr. Brooks relayed, his one eye contorted with concentration near the trapdoor leading down from the upper deck. A violent-looking machete hung from his side as he meticulously loaded a small cannon.
Explosions suddenly flashed in the distance.
“Old St. George! They’re shootin’ at us!”
“Down, you blithers! Down!”
The cannon balls fell short and the sprinklers they raised fell on the pirates with the pouring rain.
“It’s a stern-chaser!” someone shouted at the top of his voice.
“Captain, they spread their sails,” another observer pointed out. “And they wore now to the west.”
“They prepare to run,” the captain growled. “Bring her to starboard! We must not lose her!”
The Magnifique now tailed her smaller opponent, which to everyone’s surprise, still had her rudder pointing to starboard and was still violently turning to starboard!
“She is boring up,” Mr. Hands realized. “She is spoiling for a fight!”
“Curse her brazen crew! Curse her captain!” Blackbeard spat out. “Fire starboard cannons!”
“Fire starboard cannons!” Bill Hands repeated, bringing his hands to his ears like some of the others.
It was as if the booming sound that ensued was alive and trying to tear Matthew’s eardrums, because he quickly blocked his own ears. Gaping holes appeared on the other ship’s foredeck and her foremast broke off with every soul on it.
Again the Tempest’s cannons replied the pirates as they scampered for safety on deck. Chips of flying wood and shattered barrels impaled some close by and the rum in these barrels washed into the gun deck below to silence most of the cannons there. The Tempest was now almost facing them and closing up the gap in-between. Both parties started exchanging small arms fire with very poor results.
“Fire!” a gun leader vociferated below and the starboard cannons voiced their orchestrated protest again, completely severing the other ship’s mainmast.
“Her fo’c’sle’s giving in!” the impetuous Blackbeard exclaimed. “Prepare to board her! Prepare to board her!”
Matthew drew his sword and Nora stopped him. “You will do no such thing!” she snapped. “We are here to get the book and that’s that!”
“I am only defending myself!” he remonstrated. “You should do the same!”
Fired shots whizzed past their hidden position behind the pile of sailcloth and a man’s rifle fell beside Nora. Blood splattered on the canvass and she stared at her brother, revulsion written all over her.
Both ships where now abreast and facing opposite directions. The cannons of the Tempest remained silent and the other ship repeated the resounding boom of her heavy starboard battery.
It was as if large holes were being painted along the gun deck of the British man-of-war in quick successive strokes and a loud uproar arose from the many decks of the Magnifique. The Royal Marines aboard the smaller ship seemed for a moment to be confused and Blackbeard seized this opportunity.
“Board her! Charge for the Philanderer’s sake!” the pirate captain ordered his men. He drew his sword and blasted a soldier off the other ship’s deck. A band of brigands surged forward with him. Boarding hooks ate into the deck of the Tempest and many jumped on the ropes.
The rain continued pelting down heavily as the rumbles above persisted.