diff options
| author | luxagraf <sng@luxagraf> | 2021-02-15 22:44:12 -0500 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | luxagraf <sng@luxagraf> | 2021-02-15 22:44:12 -0500 |
| commit | 4a87e9990c7915b77a0e4067a161f5200bd7f305 (patch) | |
| tree | 3780628e4055a4a611f18832420eee7d030d2f44 | |
| parent | e7687ba9ac912e6cd4c9e81c3a3cfac13df9c70e (diff) | |
pulled all the notes and unused scenes out, wrote a new scene up the
river with Tamba to discuss and show some slavery and trading. 77k words
| -rw-r--r-- | lb-notes.txt | 231 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | lbh.txt | 413 |
2 files changed, 340 insertions, 304 deletions
diff --git a/lb-notes.txt b/lb-notes.txt index fbe7d17..c4af0f5 100644 --- a/lb-notes.txt +++ b/lb-notes.txt @@ -1,3 +1,234 @@ + +Jack Ratham was dressed in his trademark calico shirt, . Birdie didn't really know it was stylish, she just knew that it looked unaccountably good on Jack Ratham, which is the merger of fashion, what a thing is, how it is shaped and so on, with who a person is, which is to say what sort of figure they cut in the world. The one Jack Ratham cut was distinctly his own. She reminded Birdie of her father. They could not have been more different, and yet in some fundamental way, the way they looked at the world perhaps, they were alike. + + +Birdie heard her father chuckle. "Are you jealous John?" + +"Jealous? Of course I'm jealous. Everyone of sound mind is jealous of her." + +Birdie wasn't jealous. At least she didn't think she was jealous. She just loved Anne and whenever she was around her she felt better about everything, she felt better about herself, she wanted to be better. She wasn't sure if she wanted to better for Anne or just being around Anne made her want to be better. She wasn't even sure exactly how she wanted to better, she just knew that there was something about Anne that made everyone and everything seem like it was better and it was an elevation you had to live up to. + +Her rather stood next to Anne. "Where's Mary?" + +"In her quarters." + +"She staying there?" + +Anne shrugged. "I imagine she is." + +"How does..." + +Anne turned her head up to look at her father, Birdie could see nothing but an ostrich plum. "Doesn't matter to you does it?" + +Her father laughed. No, I suppose not. You're an odd duck Anne." + +"You're an odd duck too you know. I've missed you." + +With the ship on her side, Mary did come ashore, despite what Bonny had said. She did not speak to anyone but her own ship's crew and seemed ill at ease. Birdie smiled at her, but she acted as if she could not even see Birdie. Birdie took an instant dislike to her. +Lulu thought she was pretty and defended her when Birdie called her rude. "Maybe she's just having a bad day Bee, I mean her ships on its side, +# Notes + +- Need more details of landscape, sea, and marsh esp. +- household is father, Tamba and his wife, plus Kobayashi. + +Plots +- The british captain from Charlestown is also the landowner of th etrees, McPhail. He comes after the family about the tree stumps, which he sees as his, being used for their profit, and also that they make the pirate ships that raid mcphail's ships more seaworth, insult to injury. Add moral complexity for the kids, is papa a bad person? Is the McPhail a bad person? Or is it all just wrong and now can own the trees? + +They eta waring from Ratham that McPhail is coming for them. +How does the storm fit in? +No good guys, no bad guys. her father helps both ratham and mcphail. Warns mcphail of the storm, helps bring his ship int to he esuary to shelther, they take the wagon to chareston. + + + +"Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx... there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed." ― Eliphas Lévi + +Birdie the artist, Lulu the what? What does Lulu do? We need to get deeper into the kids playing at some point. Maybe this chapter something about them making figures and playing. Or perhaps playing in the Arkhangelsk. Could I insert adventures of the Arkhangelsk as little mini stories within the story? Or should I do that with Papa's stories? I kind of like it as a tale within a tail. Maybe that's Lulu's talent, telling stories. Birdie pants pictures, Lulu tells stories, Henri has adventures or writes maybe? + + +| Mary Harvey (or Harley), alias Mary Farlee | | 1725-1726 | | In 1725, Mary Harvey and her husband Thomas were transported to the Province of Carolina as felons. In 1726, Mary and three men were convicted of piracy. The men were hanged but Mary was released. Thomas, the leader of the pirates, was never caught. https://www.geni.com/projects/Pirates-in-Petticoats/389 + + +# Overplot: + +- Opening at sea. The approach to Edisto through Birdie's eyes. + - Scenes: + - Birdie in the hammock, her as skilled sailor, desc of ship + - introduce Tamba, Kobayashi and rice + - Story of the storm, rumors about Nassau and the british + - Backstory of the mother, landing on Edisto + +- Pine forest intro: in the stumps + - Scenes: + - Camp establishing shot: + - Lulu and Tamba in the boat, more on rice, father as anarchist + - Lulu and the alligator part 1 + - Lulu on the stumps, break from the others, relationship with Birdie + - Backstory of the edistow + - return trip through the marsh + - Aunt and the pot for the Arkhangelsk + +- Fishing the Bank + - Scenes: + - Birdie on her cousins, father's rum speech + - Cousins as poor sailors, land people + - Birdie taking charge, Lulu as the sailor + - Fishing the bank + - Hint of the Storm + +- Tar harvest + - Scenes + - making tar for the ships. + - autumn cool, swimming and playing at the beach in the wrecked ship. + - further develop the cousins + +- Storm + - Scenes + - Birdie and her father sense the storm and try to stop the Uncle's boat + - birdie and lulu on the northern edge of the island screaming into the wind + - they go to get kadi + - storm under the boat, aligator scene wiht lulu + - cache barrels of tar in the high ground of the hammocks near their camp + - one breaks + - dark tar on the sand, foreshadowing of oil + + + +- Ratham arrives to careen the ship + - warns of mcphail +- McPhail part one + arrives to arrest the father, talks his way out of it because the shortm + - guides Mcphails ship into the estuary they take shelpter +- McPhail part two + - Still arrests the father, takes him to charlestown. + - Birdie goes with + - Lulu and henri hide with the others, they escape by sea. + - get to Ratham, they meet up with a third + - Ships proceed to blockade charlestown. + - Ratham helps the father escape, family escapes to sea, heads south toward the Caribean. +''' + +# Unused scenes + +Jamaican sloops[1] had beams that were narrower than ocean-going Bermuda sloops, and could attain a speed of around 12 knots.[2] They carried gaff rig, whereas in modern usage, a Bermuda sloop excludes any gaff rig. Jamaican sloops were built usually out of cedar trees, for much the same reasons that Bermudian shipwrights favoured Bermuda cedar: these were very resistant to rot, grew very fast and tall, and had a taste displeasing to marine borers.[3] Cedar was favoured over oak as the latter would rot in about 10 years, while cedar would last for nigh on 30 years and was considerably lighter than oak.[3] When the ships needed to be de-fouled from seaweed and barnacles, pirates needed a safe haven on which to careen the ship. Sloops were well suited for this because they were able to sail in shallow areas where larger ships would either run aground or be unable to sail through at all. These shallow waters also provided protection from ships of the British Royal Navy, which tended to be larger and required deep water to sail safely.[3] +## Storm desc + +That even a thunderstorm rolls in, cools off the land, the sunsets throught he clouds, the sound of the thunder was like drmming, a marshall, marching ound that advanced across the waves toward them. It was early, far to early for a big storm, those came later, at the end of summer, the first on was the sign it was time to move south, time to head to St Augustine for the winter. This was a thunderstorm from the south. A tk, Tamba called them. It brought a strange drop in temeprature as iff the storm were sucking something out of summer, giving it a viseral punch in the gut. No, as if summer were grathering herself up, taking a deeep breath, a momentary pause from her usual swelter to give them some reprieve. + +## Tamba backstory + + +The storm had been an early one, Tamba and tk were on captain tk's boat, bound for boston with a prize they'd taken off the coast of Florida when the storm came out of the south. Their captain tried to put in at Owen town, but they did not make it, the wind broke the mast and sent the boat over. Tamba and tk knew how to swim, the rest of the crew did not. Even so, they were lucky. They clung to piece of broken mast and managed to steer themselves in the heavy chop such that they madeit to shore. Tamba told of seeing a shark in the shallows on the way in, even it was so bewildered by the storm it showed no interest in them, merely passing by close enough to touch, though Tamba did not, before settling into their wake where it stayed until the water became too shallow for it. + +## Cooking + +The kettle hung ove rhte fire from the trupod her pap had made from iron taken out of the arkhnglsk. Her father was not a smith, but he' watched the man in Chrlestown enough to get ht ebasics. He come back the camp these year and built himself a small forge, and bellows out of sail cloth. So far he;s made two legs of iron for a fire tripod, the their was still a puece of willow, which was stong enough, though eventyually warped from the heard of the cials and had be replaced. + +In the kittle was a bubbling stew full of fish and rice and seasoned with salt and herbs Lulyu hadhelped father from the creak edge the day before. + +The sand was dug out, the six inch deep bit was lined with stone, but left caps on bothe swindward and landward sides so thta the windws would feed the firs enough oxygen even with the in burning almost entirely below the surace oft he sane. Sometime when her father or Tabe brough down a boar their father would dig another put and build a giant fire in it and let it durn down to a huge mountain of cials . Then he'd lay the board meant, wrapped in its down skin on the coals, burry the whole thing over night and then the next wmorning they'd dig it up and featst on meat so sweet and tender you never wanted to eat anythign else ever again. It would last them the better part of weeks, more if the weather was cool enough. They build a tootcellar in the dark shade of the hut, two feath cown in the sand, lined with planks of swap cypress ther papa had split, it kept food cool and fesh for quite some time. At night they banks the fire, but used the coals to keep the previous nights stew hot and in the morning the mother buit up the fire again and boil the stew and that wsas breakfast. + +Sometimes he roasted fish, but mostly lulu loved stews, fish stew, venison stew, boar stew, even rabbit stew wasn't have bad, espcially when the could trade with the Cherokee for ramps, which were lulu's favoir food in the world, at once swwet and sharp;y bitter, they made everything delicsious, When he could her father stuffed the boars with ramps before buring them to cook overnight. The resulting meat was tend an swet and smealed of the earth and tasted, a little bit like heaven Tamba said. + +## Delos original sketch + +The boat was wooden, 12 feet from bow to stern, wood planked and sealed with the arckhanglsk tar, smooth shiny weathered wood with hardly a splinter in the boat. She ws rigged like a doah, triangular sail, mast near the bow, single ling coming back offf the boom and a tiller in the rear. She had a outrigger spar that would be lashed to the port or starboard gunwale via two blocks her father had attached with nails he'dpryed lookse from the arckhaglske. She would be a palfrom so stable their mother often used it to threw nets beyond the surfline, obut shoe could also be rigged for speed that would outrun every boat the had ever tried to match her. Lulyu had raced her in charles town harbor the winer efore winning by two lengths ten lengh over a very nice, but piirly rigged effort the tk governors siun had put together. He was a nice enough boy shed told Birdie, he ust doesnt know how to sail very well. Or build boats. Birdie had smiled. The took their prize opurse of two bit and bought peppermint sticks and licorish imported from lindon. Hand their got their mother a brush for her hair. Their faother stood outside the store, sittinng on a barrel, carding something in the shade, watching the world pass but has his knofe flicked seeming absently at the thing piece of oak in his hand. He smiled when they came running out to show him the comb. She'll love that. + +Their mother was a stong independent woman who keep their camp with a nearly military sense of neatness. She didn't care a wit what the girls wore, but if they left a diry bowl lying a about she threaten them with a switch. This only very rarely happend to Birdie, the Lou had a defiant strek that foten set her up and kicked her about in whay she did not really understand. propelling her down paths she did not mean the woalk, great screaming matches with her sister, stomping and growling in theatrical ways that drove her mother to step in and threaten switching. + + + +He father pulled the sail in tight, the boat heaved away from them, but her father leaned back against he gunwale slightly until to reached a balance point that balanced speed and awkwardness, the boat lept across the waves and out beyond the surf line of the sand bar to smoother water. The wind was blowing offshore, a storm from the west would be here tomorrow her father said. + +Her father spun the little boat into the wind, dropped the sail and walked toward the bow to get the net. Birdie sprang up and followed. They heaved the net over the side, letting the drift of the current carry them away from it, spreading it out. Once it was out her father used and oar to bring the boat about to where he wanted it and then he yanked the tk line , shooting the halyard and the sail back up. It caught the wind the minute it was up and tighted the lines of the net, pulling them and the net back toward shore. Birdie leaned over the gunwale and watch as fish swam by and were pulled into the net. + +By the time the neared the surfline again the net was choked with fish. She helped her father pull it in, though it became so heavy that eventually her effort was of little use. Her father wrapped the line around the mast and pulled the net, chock full of writhing fish up against the hull, fell off the wind as the boat came into the break of the sand bar and then, timing it with a wave, surfed the craft expertly over the sand bar and into the more sheltered inner waters where he began to paddle it in the shore. + +Hoisting the net, cleanign the fish and drying wonderedthem. more description of their time at sea, her father smoking, talking of the sea, the old country perhaps, some kind of tradition. + +## Sighted ship at sea + +They had arrived early in the morning, the air still heald the wet chill of night, beads of dew shined on teh gunwales of the boat when Birdie came up to look at the coastline. Her father was on the bowsprit perched precariously, but riding the chop as if on a surfboard, glass to his eye, staring off at a horizon Birdie couldn't see. She came forward to have a look and saw the sail her father wa s studying. He did not look away, but did say, "merchant, heading north. Boston. Maybe Providence. Riding low. Make a prize if anyone gets to her." + +"Will they? " + +Her father brought down the glass, and looked down at her. "I don't know. I only know who is where. Last I head Whydah Gally was up that way. Bellamy'd certainly take her, sitting low in the water like that. Not gold, but something out of Owen town." He stared off at the ship, "but you never know. The sea decides." + +He jumped down the to the deck and rubbed her head. "It's always cat and mouse. That's why I stay out of it. Who are you rooting for?" + +Birdie considered this for a moment, she wasn't sure really. She didn't like the merchant captains she'd met. She was pretty sure she didn't care what happened to them, the way they treated their men they deserved whatever they got. Her father had once told her that there were good captains, he'd never met them but he'd heard stories. He also reminded her that even those ugly mean snorting fat men had wives and children somewhere who end up paupers in debtors prison or some other ill might befall them. Still, she thought of the men and women who sailed with her family, who flew the black flag and, while there were a few she did not like, for the most part they were kind, fair people. They had a code, way of living that was about more than the fortune the merchant men were always chasing. + +Her father dropped bucket over the side and filled it up. He knelt and splashed some water on his face, rubbed his eyes and she walked over the handed him the linen that served as his towel. He washed his face every morning, rain or shine, shivering cold or blistering hear,, it did not mater. He father was a man of unbreakable, unbendable even, habits. Not many. But he always washed his face and he always sat and thought, every monring, nearly without exception. She'd seen him seated near the bow in six foot chop, wind howling down on them and he with his eyes closed, thinking. + +He took the towel from her with a thanks and wiped the salt water out of his beard. + +"I think I'd like the Whydah to take her," she said. + +He smiled. "I think I would too." + +It was well past midday before the glided into the marshes and up the river to Tamba, tk and Cuthie's village. Tamba had waved them down in the marsh, coming out by canoe to guidethem in. Huge storms reshaped the mouth of the river and the marshes every year. Her family knew the river well last year, but that knowledge was dangerously out of date by now. If the wanted to make it to where the tk would be stored, they need someone who had been on the river all winter, knew it well. Tamba was that man. He took the tiller, the only man her father had every let take the tiller in Birdie's time sailing with him, and guided them slowly up the seeming still water. They rode the incoming tide through the marsh, but then the river began to take over, the boat slowed, finally it stilled them completely. The wind was not in their favor so her father locked two sets of oars to each side of the boat and took a middle seat for himself, while Lulu and Birdie and Henri took the other oars. Birdie worked the starboard oar while Henri and Lulu worked the port side. Slowly the boat crept up the river. The deeper water looked black and still but their oars told a different story, battling the steady current of the river that wanted so badly to merge with the sea. + +Why do you want it so badly river? Lulu wondered. What do you get out of it? You become salty. You become just another bit of water in the endlessness of the ocean, a drop, every drop once it's own, not joined with others into something more, the sea. The sea. You want to be part of the sea. You are part of the sea, it's a coming home after the long journey down the mountains to here. + +The sea had personality, the sort of thing a single drop of water might lack. The sea was something more, a home, a joining together, but greater than the sum of it parts, it was greater than just about everything. Like the rest of her family, and any one who spent any length of time around it, Lulu prayed to sea every morning, greeted it palms out. Some welcome the sun as a god, others welcome the sun so they can once again see the sea. + +arriving by ship + meeting with Cuthie + playing on the tree + discovering the arkhanglsk + + +## Kids playing in Arkhangelsk + +What do you want to play? Birdie was hoping Lulu would say I don't know and they could play a game Birdie had in mind, but she didn't. + +"We're crocodile pirates?" + +"Crocodiles that are also pirates?" Henri's face immediately brightened at this idea. "Can we eat people?" + +"We are people though." + +"Wait, I thought you said we were crocodiles?" + +"We're half crocodile, half human." + +"Do we have human heads or crocodile heads?" + +"It depends, we can have whichever we need. Mostly we have human heads, but when we go into battle we have crocodile heads and teeth." + +"Yes!" said Henri. "But we have human arms, because we still need swords and guns." + +"Of course." + + +## Description of the coast From Colin Woodward + +there were hundreds of miles of creeks, inlets, and islands on the North Carolina coast to hide among, places with entrances too shallow or convoluted for a large warship to follow them. For a novice pirate with a powerful vessel, the Carolinas provided a perfect sandbox in which to learn the trade. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + From Bartram: The general surface of the island being low, and generally level, produces a very great variety of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants; particularly the great long-leaved Pitch-Pine, or Broom-Pine @@ -4,185 +4,6 @@ ''' -# Notes - -- Need more details of landscape, sea, and marsh esp. -- household is father, Tamba and his wife, plus Kobayashi. - -Plots -- The british captain from Charlestown is also the landowner of th etrees, McPhail. He comes after the family about the tree stumps, which he sees as his, being used for their profit, and also that they make the pirate ships that raid mcphail's ships more seaworth, insult to injury. Add moral complexity for the kids, is papa a bad person? Is the McPhail a bad person? Or is it all just wrong and now can own the trees? - -They eta waring from Ratham that McPhail is coming for them. -How does the storm fit in? -No good guys, no bad guys. her father helps both ratham and mcphail. Warns mcphail of the storm, helps bring his ship int to he esuary to shelther, they take the wagon to chareston. - - - -"Behind the veil of all the hieratic and mystical allegories of ancient doctrines, behind the darkness and strange ordeals of all initiations, under the seal of all sacred writings, in the ruins of Nineveh or Thebes, on the crumbling stones of old temples and on the blackened visage of the Assyrian or Egyptian sphinx... there are found indications of a doctrine which is everywhere the same and everywhere carefully concealed." ― Eliphas Lévi - -Birdie the artist, Lulu the what? What does Lulu do? We need to get deeper into the kids playing at some point. Maybe this chapter something about them making figures and playing. Or perhaps playing in the Arkhangelsk. Could I insert adventures of the Arkhangelsk as little mini stories within the story? Or should I do that with Papa's stories? I kind of like it as a tale within a tail. Maybe that's Lulu's talent, telling stories. Birdie pants pictures, Lulu tells stories, Henri has adventures or writes maybe? - - -| Mary Harvey (or Harley), alias Mary Farlee | | 1725-1726 | | In 1725, Mary Harvey and her husband Thomas were transported to the Province of Carolina as felons. In 1726, Mary and three men were convicted of piracy. The men were hanged but Mary was released. Thomas, the leader of the pirates, was never caught. https://www.geni.com/projects/Pirates-in-Petticoats/389 - - -# Overplot: - -- Opening at sea. The approach to Edisto through Birdie's eyes. - - Scenes: - - Birdie in the hammock, her as skilled sailor, desc of ship - - introduce Tamba, Kobayashi and rice - - Story of the storm, rumors about Nassau and the british - - Backstory of the mother, landing on Edisto - -- Pine forest intro: in the stumps - - Scenes: - - Camp establishing shot: - - Lulu and Tamba in the boat, more on rice, father as anarchist - - Lulu and the alligator part 1 - - Lulu on the stumps, break from the others, relationship with Birdie - - Backstory of the edistow - - return trip through the marsh - - Aunt and the pot for the Arkhangelsk - -- Fishing the Bank - - Scenes: - - Birdie on her cousins, father's rum speech - - Cousins as poor sailors, land people - - Birdie taking charge, Lulu as the sailor - - Fishing the bank - - Hint of the Storm - -- Tar harvest - - Scenes - - making tar for the ships. - - autumn cool, swimming and playing at the beach in the wrecked ship. - - further develop the cousins and Kadi - -- Storm - - Scenes - - Birdie and her father sense the storm and try to stop the Uncle's boat - - birdie and lulu on the northern edge of the island screaming into the wind - - they go to get kadi - - storm under the boat, aligator scene wiht lulu - - cache barrels of tar in the high ground of the hammocks near their camp - - one breaks - - dark tar on the sand, foreshadowing of oil - - - -- Ratham arrives to careen the ship - - warns of mcphail -- McPhail part one - arrives to arrest the father, talks his way out of it because the shortm - - guides Mcphails ship into the estuary they take shelpter -- McPhail part two - - Still arrests the father, takes him to charlestown. - - Birdie goes with - - Lulu and henri hide with the others, they escape by sea. - - get to Ratham, they meet up with a third - - Ships proceed to blockade charlestown. - - Ratham helps the father escape, family escapes to sea, heads south toward the Caribean. -''' - -# Unused scenes - -Jamaican sloops[1] had beams that were narrower than ocean-going Bermuda sloops, and could attain a speed of around 12 knots.[2] They carried gaff rig, whereas in modern usage, a Bermuda sloop excludes any gaff rig. Jamaican sloops were built usually out of cedar trees, for much the same reasons that Bermudian shipwrights favoured Bermuda cedar: these were very resistant to rot, grew very fast and tall, and had a taste displeasing to marine borers.[3] Cedar was favoured over oak as the latter would rot in about 10 years, while cedar would last for nigh on 30 years and was considerably lighter than oak.[3] When the ships needed to be de-fouled from seaweed and barnacles, pirates needed a safe haven on which to careen the ship. Sloops were well suited for this because they were able to sail in shallow areas where larger ships would either run aground or be unable to sail through at all. These shallow waters also provided protection from ships of the British Royal Navy, which tended to be larger and required deep water to sail safely.[3] -## Storm desc - -That even a thunderstorm rolls in, cools off the land, the sunsets throught he clouds, the sound of the thunder was like drmming, a marshall, marching ound that advanced across the waves toward them. It was early, far to early for a big storm, those came later, at the end of summer, the first on was the sign it was time to move south, time to head to St Augustine for the winter. This was a thunderstorm from the south. A tk, Tamba called them. It brought a strange drop in temeprature as iff the storm were sucking something out of summer, giving it a viseral punch in the gut. No, as if summer were grathering herself up, taking a deeep breath, a momentary pause from her usual swelter to give them some reprieve. - -## Tamba backstory - - -The storm had been an early one, Tamba and tk were on captain tk's boat, bound for boston with a prize they'd taken off the coast of Florida when the storm came out of the south. Their captain tried to put in at Owen town, but they did not make it, the wind broke the mast and sent the boat over. Tamba and tk knew how to swim, the rest of the crew did not. Even so, they were lucky. They clung to piece of broken mast and managed to steer themselves in the heavy chop such that they madeit to shore. Tamba told of seeing a shark in the shallows on the way in, even it was so bewildered by the storm it showed no interest in them, merely passing by close enough to touch, though Tamba did not, before settling into their wake where it stayed until the water became too shallow for it. - -## Cooking - -The kettle hung ove rhte fire from the trupod her pap had made from iron taken out of the arkhnglsk. Her father was not a smith, but he' watched the man in Chrlestown enough to get ht ebasics. He come back the camp these year and built himself a small forge, and bellows out of sail cloth. So far he;s made two legs of iron for a fire tripod, the their was still a puece of willow, which was stong enough, though eventyually warped from the heard of the cials and had be replaced. - -In the kittle was a bubbling stew full of fish and rice and seasoned with salt and herbs Lulyu hadhelped father from the creak edge the day before. - -The sand was dug out, the six inch deep bit was lined with stone, but left caps on bothe swindward and landward sides so thta the windws would feed the firs enough oxygen even with the in burning almost entirely below the surace oft he sane. Sometime when her father or Tabe brough down a boar their father would dig another put and build a giant fire in it and let it durn down to a huge mountain of cials . Then he'd lay the board meant, wrapped in its down skin on the coals, burry the whole thing over night and then the next wmorning they'd dig it up and featst on meat so sweet and tender you never wanted to eat anythign else ever again. It would last them the better part of weeks, more if the weather was cool enough. They build a tootcellar in the dark shade of the hut, two feath cown in the sand, lined with planks of swap cypress ther papa had split, it kept food cool and fesh for quite some time. At night they banks the fire, but used the coals to keep the previous nights stew hot and in the morning the mother buit up the fire again and boil the stew and that wsas breakfast. - -Sometimes he roasted fish, but mostly lulu loved stews, fish stew, venison stew, boar stew, even rabbit stew wasn't have bad, espcially when the could trade with the Cherokee for ramps, which were lulu's favoir food in the world, at once swwet and sharp;y bitter, they made everything delicsious, When he could her father stuffed the boars with ramps before buring them to cook overnight. The resulting meat was tend an swet and smealed of the earth and tasted, a little bit like heaven Tamba said. - -## Delos original sketch - -The boat was wooden, 12 feet from bow to stern, wood planked and sealed with the arckhanglsk tar, smooth shiny weathered wood with hardly a splinter in the boat. She ws rigged like a doah, triangular sail, mast near the bow, single ling coming back offf the boom and a tiller in the rear. She had a outrigger spar that would be lashed to the port or starboard gunwale via two blocks her father had attached with nails he'dpryed lookse from the arckhaglske. She would be a palfrom so stable their mother often used it to threw nets beyond the surfline, obut shoe could also be rigged for speed that would outrun every boat the had ever tried to match her. Lulyu had raced her in charles town harbor the winer efore winning by two lengths ten lengh over a very nice, but piirly rigged effort the tk governors siun had put together. He was a nice enough boy shed told Birdie, he ust doesnt know how to sail very well. Or build boats. Birdie had smiled. The took their prize opurse of two bit and bought peppermint sticks and licorish imported from lindon. Hand their got their mother a brush for her hair. Their faother stood outside the store, sittinng on a barrel, carding something in the shade, watching the world pass but has his knofe flicked seeming absently at the thing piece of oak in his hand. He smiled when they came running out to show him the comb. She'll love that. - -Their mother was a stong independent woman who keep their camp with a nearly military sense of neatness. She didn't care a wit what the girls wore, but if they left a diry bowl lying a about she threaten them with a switch. This only very rarely happend to Birdie, the Lou had a defiant strek that foten set her up and kicked her about in whay she did not really understand. propelling her down paths she did not mean the woalk, great screaming matches with her sister, stomping and growling in theatrical ways that drove her mother to step in and threaten switching. - - - -He father pulled the sail in tight, the boat heaved away from them, but her father leaned back against he gunwale slightly until to reached a balance point that balanced speed and awkwardness, the boat lept across the waves and out beyond the surf line of the sand bar to smoother water. The wind was blowing offshore, a storm from the west would be here tomorrow her father said. - -Her father spun the little boat into the wind, dropped the sail and walked toward the bow to get the net. Birdie sprang up and followed. They heaved the net over the side, letting the drift of the current carry them away from it, spreading it out. Once it was out her father used and oar to bring the boat about to where he wanted it and then he yanked the tk line , shooting the halyard and the sail back up. It caught the wind the minute it was up and tighted the lines of the net, pulling them and the net back toward shore. Birdie leaned over the gunwale and watch as fish swam by and were pulled into the net. - -By the time the neared the surfline again the net was choked with fish. She helped her father pull it in, though it became so heavy that eventually her effort was of little use. Her father wrapped the line around the mast and pulled the net, chock full of writhing fish up against the hull, fell off the wind as the boat came into the break of the sand bar and then, timing it with a wave, surfed the craft expertly over the sand bar and into the more sheltered inner waters where he began to paddle it in the shore. - -Hoisting the net, cleanign the fish and drying wonderedthem. more description of their time at sea, her father smoking, talking of the sea, the old country perhaps, some kind of tradition. - -## Sighted ship at sea - -They had arrived early in the morning, the air still heald the wet chill of night, beads of dew shined on teh gunwales of the boat when Birdie came up to look at the coastline. Her father was on the bowsprit perched precariously, but riding the chop as if on a surfboard, glass to his eye, staring off at a horizon Birdie couldn't see. She came forward to have a look and saw the sail her father wa s studying. He did not look away, but did say, "merchant, heading north. Boston. Maybe Providence. Riding low. Make a prize if anyone gets to her." - -"Will they? " - -Her father brought down the glass, and looked down at her. "I don't know. I only know who is where. Last I head Whydah Gally was up that way. Bellamy'd certainly take her, sitting low in the water like that. Not gold, but something out of Owen town." He stared off at the ship, "but you never know. The sea decides." - -He jumped down the to the deck and rubbed her head. "It's always cat and mouse. That's why I stay out of it. Who are you rooting for?" - -Birdie considered this for a moment, she wasn't sure really. She didn't like the merchant captains she'd met. She was pretty sure she didn't care what happened to them, the way they treated their men they deserved whatever they got. Her father had once told her that there were good captains, he'd never met them but he'd heard stories. He also reminded her that even those ugly mean snorting fat men had wives and children somewhere who end up paupers in debtors prison or some other ill might befall them. Still, she thought of the men and women who sailed with her family, who flew the black flag and, while there were a few she did not like, for the most part they were kind, fair people. They had a code, way of living that was about more than the fortune the merchant men were always chasing. - -Her father dropped bucket over the side and filled it up. He knelt and splashed some water on his face, rubbed his eyes and she walked over the handed him the linen that served as his towel. He washed his face every morning, rain or shine, shivering cold or blistering hear,, it did not mater. He father was a man of unbreakable, unbendable even, habits. Not many. But he always washed his face and he always sat and thought, every monring, nearly without exception. She'd seen him seated near the bow in six foot chop, wind howling down on them and he with his eyes closed, thinking. - -He took the towel from her with a thanks and wiped the salt water out of his beard. - -"I think I'd like the Whydah to take her," she said. - -He smiled. "I think I would too." - -It was well past midday before the glided into the marshes and up the river to Tamba, tk and Cuthie's village. Tamba had waved them down in the marsh, coming out by canoe to guidethem in. Huge storms reshaped the mouth of the river and the marshes every year. Her family knew the river well last year, but that knowledge was dangerously out of date by now. If the wanted to make it to where the tk would be stored, they need someone who had been on the river all winter, knew it well. Tamba was that man. He took the tiller, the only man her father had every let take the tiller in Birdie's time sailing with him, and guided them slowly up the seeming still water. They rode the incoming tide through the marsh, but then the river began to take over, the boat slowed, finally it stilled them completely. The wind was not in their favor so her father locked two sets of oars to each side of the boat and took a middle seat for himself, while Lulu and Birdie and Henri took the other oars. Birdie worked the starboard oar while Henri and Lulu worked the port side. Slowly the boat crept up the river. The deeper water looked black and still but their oars told a different story, battling the steady current of the river that wanted so badly to merge with the sea. - -Why do you want it so badly river? Lulu wondered. What do you get out of it? You become salty. You become just another bit of water in the endlessness of the ocean, a drop, every drop once it's own, not joined with others into something more, the sea. The sea. You want to be part of the sea. You are part of the sea, it's a coming home after the long journey down the mountains to here. - -The sea had personality, the sort of thing a single drop of water might lack. The sea was something more, a home, a joining together, but greater than the sum of it parts, it was greater than just about everything. Like the rest of her family, and any one who spent any length of time around it, Lulu prayed to sea every morning, greeted it palms out. Some welcome the sun as a god, others welcome the sun so they can once again see the sea. - -arriving by ship - meeting with Cuthie - playing on the tree - discovering the arkhanglsk - - -## Kids playing in Arkhangelsk - -What do you want to play? Birdie was hoping Lulu would say I don't know and they could play a game Birdie had in mind, but she didn't. - -"We're crocodile pirates?" - -"Crocodiles that are also pirates?" Henri's face immediately brightened at this idea. "Can we eat people?" - -"We are people though." - -"Wait, I thought you said we were crocodiles?" - -"We're half crocodile, half human." - -"Do we have human heads or crocodile heads?" - -"It depends, we can have whichever we need. Mostly we have human heads, but when we go into battle we have crocodile heads and teeth." - -"Yes!" said Henri. "But we have human arms, because we still need swords and guns." - -"Of course." - - -## Description of the coast From Colin Woodward - -there were hundreds of miles of creeks, inlets, and islands on the North Carolina coast to hide among, places with entrances too shallow or convoluted for a large warship to follow them. For a novice pirate with a powerful vessel, the Carolinas provided a perfect sandbox in which to learn the trade. - - # Prologue They were two. Blood covered the bed. Even the midwife was whimpering and pitiful by the end. "A night and day," she said. And they were born, one the night, one the day. @@ -369,7 +190,7 @@ Her father and Tamba were alongside Delos, looking over the pirogue, which had b She was about to ask her father were Aunt Māra and her cousins were when she felt herself grabbed from behind and swept off the ground into her Aunt Māra's arms. She was squeezed tight against a warm soft chest. "Lulu. I've missed you so much." Aunt Māra kissed her cheeks before she put her down and spun her around. Lulu wrapped her arms around her. "Māra, I missed you." Lulu felt the warm of Aunt Māra's belly against her face, she felt the warmth spreading through her body and all the tighter. -"Hi Lu." said a shy voice behind her. She slipped slow out of Kadi's embrace and turned to face her cousin Francis. He looked older. She wondered if she did too. His front teeth had finished growing in and he looked somehow like an adult. Lulu wasn't sure she liked this look, but she hugged him anyway. +"Hi Lu." said a shy voice behind her. She slipped slow out of Auntie Māra's embrace and turned to face her cousin Francis. He looked older. She wondered if she did too. His front teeth had finished growing in and he looked somehow like an adult. Lulu wasn't sure she liked this look, but she hugged him anyway. "The Arkhangelsk is still in good shape." @@ -381,21 +202,11 @@ She was about to ask her father were Aunt Māra and her cousins were when she fe She looked at him like he had two heads. "Of course." She could see the way he whithered under her looks and it made her feel guilty. She didn't mean to make him feel bad, but he asked such silly things sometimes, and she had no time for questions which seemed to her to have obvious answers. It made her dislike him a little for making her feel like she was a mean person. She was pretty sure she wasn't a mean person. Why did Francis seem like he thought she might be? Henri and Owen saved her from further awkwardness by zooming by at top speed chasing each other with wooden swords. "Hi Lu!" screamed Owen as he dodged around her and dove into the oak shrubs after Henri, who hadn't even acknowledged her existence. -Francis took the opportunity to go back to where he and Birdie were helping unload stores from the ship. Lulu watched him go, feeling that sinking feeling she got every autumn when her brother and sister abandoned her. They didn't mean to. They didn't really, especially Birdie, who always went out of her way to make sure everyone was included in everything. Still, Birdie and Francis were like a little team. And Owen in Henri were another little team. Lulu did not have a team. There was just Lulu. In some ways she liked this, it left her free to do the things she wanted without anyone interfering. She could spent her time with Aunt Māra or go upriver to see Kadiatu and her daughter Cuffee and her mother at their cottage on the mainland. She loved to sit on the rough pine boards of their porch and listen to them talk about anything and everything. She love to use the vines hanging from the big oak that stretched out over the river to swing out and drop midstream into the delicious cool pool of black water. - -Sometimes she would spend the afternoon hunting plants in the thickets with Kadi and her mother. Other days, when Cuffee was in the mood, she would bring her down river to their camp to play in the Arkhangelsk. Cuffee would be thirteen this year though, and from what her grandmother had said last year, she might not be playing on the Arkhangelsk anymore. Lulu wondered why, but did not want to ask because it seemed assumed that she knew why, and she did not want to admit that she didn't know. Birdie did not know either when Lulu asked her. - -Today though, Cuffee came up out of the hold of the Arkhangelsk with a load of pots and pans that would serve the camp kitchen and, when she saw Lulu, she dropped the lot of them on the deck with a clatter, vaulted the side railing into the mud and ran over to hug Lulu. - -"I missed you so much." - -"I missed you too." - -The hugged and laughed and hugged some more. Until that moment Lulu would not have said that she missed Cuffee that much, but then suddenly she realized she had, without knowing she had. And somehow it made her want to cry that she did not know that she had missed her this much and so she squeezed her tighter and buried her face in her shoulder and thick braids of hair and cried for a moment. Cuffee pulled her back and wiped her tears. "It is okay, we are here now. Together. Come on, help me get these pots down to your camp." +Francis took the opportunity to go back to where he and Birdie were helping unload stores from the ship. Lulu watched him go, feeling that sinking feeling she got every autumn when her brother and sister abandoned her. They didn't mean to. They didn't really, especially Birdie, who always went out of her way to make sure everyone was included in everything. Still, Birdie and Francis were like a little team. And Owen in Henri were another little team. Lulu did not have a team. There was just Lulu. In some ways she liked this, it left her free to do the things she wanted without anyone interfering. She could spent her time with Aunt Māra or go exploring the rivers and marshes in Maggie. She loved sailing the muddy, reedy shallows. She love to use the vines hanging from the big oaks that stretched out over the river to swing out and drop midstream into the delicious cool pool of black water. Sometimes she would spend the afternoon hunting plants in the thickets. Other days she raided birds nests of their eggs. -Lulu followed her back up onto the ship and helped gather up the pots, taking extra care with Kobayashi's precious rice steaming basket. Kobayashi was Japanese and while he would eat the rice that was grown in the Carolinas because he wasn't about to starve to death, whenever he could he bought rice from ships returning from Asia. He never boiled it, he shook his head at the way the Africans and Lulu's family boiled their rice. Instead he boiled water and put the rice in a woven basket over the boiling water and let the steam cook it. It took longer, but even Tamba admitted it was the best rice he'd ever had. Lulu would never tell Kobayashi, but she liked the Carolina rice better. It was mushier, nuttier. It became part of the fish stews in ways that Kobayashi's rice never did. Although she liked his better when they were eating dried fish or Pemmican at sea. Maybe, she thought as she walked down the path to camp, she liked both kinds of rice. Maybe there wasn't a best rice, maybe there was the best rice for each thing. That was what Papa always said, there is no best, best for this, best for that, best for now, but no best always. +Lulu went back up onto the ship and helped gather up the pots, taking extra care with Kobayashi's precious rice steaming baskets. Kobayashi was Japanese and while he would eat the rice that was grown in the Carolinas because he wasn't about to starve to death, whenever he could he bought rice from ships returning from Asia. He never boiled it, he shook his head at the way the Africans and Lulu's family boiled their rice. Instead he boiled water and put the rice in a woven basket over the boiling water and let the steam cook it. It took longer, but even Tamba admitted it was the best rice he'd ever had. Lulu would never tell Kobayashi, but she liked the Carolina rice better. It was mushier, nuttier. It became part of the fish stews in ways that Kobayashi's rice never did. Although she liked his better when they were eating dried fish or Pemmican at sea. Maybe, she thought as she walked down the path to camp, she liked both kinds of rice. Maybe there wasn't a best rice, maybe there was the best rice for each thing. That was what Papa always said, there is no best, best for this, best for that, best for now, but no best always. -All morning Lulu helped haul food and gear out of the Arkhangelsk down the trail to the cluster of dunes at the south eastern tip of the island. Here, alongside the mouth of the tk river they used a sheltered area of dunes to make camp. It had been their winter home for three years now, ever since the northern end of the island shifted and the water turned too salty to even cook with. Her cousins continued to make their camp at the north end of the island. +All morning Lulu helped haul food and gear out of the Arkhangelsk down the trail to the cluster of dunes at the south eastern tip of the island. Here, alongside the mouth of the southern Edisto river they used a sheltered area of dunes to make camp. It had been their winter home for three years now, ever since the northern end of the island shifted and the water turned too salty to even cook with. Her cousins continued to make their camp at the north end of the island. Kobayashi, Tamba and her father set about constructing their camp, which consisted of little more than a thatched hut, built to a design the native people, most of whom were now gone, had showed them. It was, as all great shelters are, ingeniously simple. First they set up a pole structure made half of oak timbers, which gave it strength, and half of pine timbers, which were bent to give it shape. The structure was then covered with thatching made of reeds. Her father and Tamba had the basic structure done by mid afternoon. For the time being they draped an old, but freshly tarred, sail over the top to stop the rain. In the next few weeks everyone would chip in to make the thatching, which would slowly take the place of the sail cloth. Eventually it would cover the entire hut, down to the sand, except for one spot toward the rear, which her father called the back door. No one ever used it, but you could, if you lay down and wormed or rolled your way under the last layer of thatch, slip outside. @@ -413,7 +224,7 @@ When her father and Kobayashi returned Lulu went to help unload the stones, but Her father arranged the tripod and tested it's balance with a kettle full of water. They carried a number of large kettles, far larger than they needed to cook for the six of them, for occassions when a ship came to carreen. Then whole crews of men, sometimes as many as a hundred would eat with them. Usually Tamba would kill a pig on those occassions. Last summer sailors from the tk ship name, had managed to kill a bear. Lulu sat now and watched as Papa lit a fire, said a prayer thanking Hestia, and threw some Frankincense resin on the flames. The sweet, light scent of Frankincense filled the air in the dunes and it immediately smelled like home to Lulu. -The long afternoon shadows began to race their way across the clearing they'd be calling home for the next six to eight months. Lulu turned and looked west. A little back from camp there was a line of oak trees that then gave way to the marsh where Delos would be anchored for the season. In the shade of those oaks they would soon construct great kilns that would be used to make the tar that brought them to the island in the first place. Across the flat reedy world of marsh was another line of oaks and then a no man's land of cypress swamp and brackish water that slowly, as you moved south, resolved itself into the southern fork of the Edistow River. Another half mile beyond that was Kadiatu's family's farm. Beyond that were the great pine forests of the low country where they would dig stumps and then haul them by barge and horse out here to the beach where they would burn them, slowly extracting the sap and then boiling it down into a sticky resin that sealed wood against the sea. +The long afternoon shadows began to race their way across the clearing they'd be calling home for the next six to eight months. Lulu turned and looked west. A little back from camp there was a line of oak trees that then gave way to the marsh where Delos would be anchored for the season. In the shade of those oaks they would soon construct great kilns that would be used to make the tar that brought them to the island in the first place. Across the flat reedy world of marsh was another line of oaks and then a no man's land of cypress swamp and brackish water that slowly, as you moved south, resolved itself into the southern fork of the Edistow River. Beyond that were the great pine forests of the low country where they would dig stumps and then haul them by barge and horse out here to the beach where they would burn them, slowly extracting the sap and then boiling it down into a sticky resin that sealed wood against the sea. They ate dinner as the sun set through the trees behind their half-finished hut. Lulu went down to the shore and rinsed her abalone bowl. The air had a hint of chill at the edge of it. The sea was cold on her feet. When she came back her father and Kobayashi were laying oak logs on the coals that had cooked dinner. It wasn't long before the fire was roaring and light filled the circle of dune. Lulu sat on a log of gray driftwood and watched her Uncle Cole play the fiddle while Birdie and her father danced in circles. Henri and Owen sat on a log next to her Aunt Māra and directly across the fire. Lulu smiled. She like winter camp, she liked her family. She knew enough of the world to know they were different. Perhaps even odd to most people. But she didn't care. She was glad they had a place to live their lives the way they wanted to, a place they could fish, a place they could weather storms. @@ -983,7 +794,7 @@ Lulu sat down next to her sister. Henri slumped down into the sand and busied hi This time, after they all fell silent, Henri looked up from a drawing he had made. "You can call back an arrow you know. You just have to tie a string around it before you shoot it." -## Chapter 7: Ann Fulford +## Chapter 7: Sarah The kiln fires burned for nearly a full cycle of the moon. The children tended the fires, Tamba, Kobayashi, and Papa tended the tar. There was still time to play, time to fish, time to climb trees, wade through the marsh in search of bird eggs, and time to sit around the fire at night listening to stories. Birdie and Lulu fished the bank whenever they could. There was a barrel half full of dried fish carefully stowed in Delos' hold to trade when they went to Charlestown. @@ -1145,7 +956,7 @@ Lulu stood in the shade of the oaks, watching the thick hemp cords that held the She kept an eye, and an ear, on the ropes, but she also couldn't help keep an eye on Sarah, who had donned sailor's canvas pants, a cotton shirt and a bandanna to hold her red hair back and who was helping Tambo tend the fire and stir the great iron kettle as they heated some of the tar. The tar did not have to be re-heated to apply, but it went on easier, and more importantly penetrated deeper into the wood when it was, not hot, but warm. So Sarah stood, look like a man but for her hair, working the stove. Lulu had never seen a woman like her who was both beautiful when she wanted to be, but who could also, Lulu had realized the previous night around the fire, turn into as rough toughed a sailor as any who had ever graced their shore. She was in fact two things it seemed to Lulu: a sailor and a woman, which, as she and Birdie had discussed quietly that morning, sitting on the dune eating dried fish as the sun rose, exactly what she wanted to be: a sailor and a woman. -She thought about what her father would have said if she'd told him this. He probably would have smiled and said, of course, you can do whatever you want to do, but it was one thing to say that when you were tk father's name, it was another to do it when you were Lulu, who spent most of her time feeling small, curious, and unsure of the right thing to do. She told stories, she invented elaborate stories primarily to keep anyone from thinking too much about her, to get them involved is some world she could control rather than looking to her, or at her, in this one, which she knew well enough she could not control at all. +She thought about what her father would have said if she'd told him this. He probably would have smiled and said, you can do whatever you want to do, but it was one thing to say that when you were tk father's name, it was another to do it when you were Lulu, who spent most of her time feeling small, curious, and unsure of the right thing to do. She told stories, she invented elaborate stories primarily to keep anyone from thinking too much about her, to get them involved is some world she could control rather than looking to her, or at her, in this one, which she knew well enough she could not control at all. Then there was Sarah. She seemed very much in control of this world right here, right now. Lulu watched and she dipped a wooden bucket in the great kettle of tar, the muscles in her arms tout and ropy as knotted lines, she lugged it around the bow, out of view. Lulu desperately wanted to ask her if she really was in control, if she really did know what she was going and would she show Lulu how to do this, how to know where you belonged in the world. Instead she remained in the shadows, watching as Sarah worked alongside the men. @@ -1269,7 +1080,7 @@ Lulu and Birdie's eye met for a flash, but neither of them said anything. Lulu considered this. It wasn't much of a secret. She'd figured out years ago that hardly anyone who passed through their camp used the name their parents had given them. What Sarah, or Ann, was really revealing was how little time she'd spent at sea, and for this Lulu was grateful. This information was far more valuable than a name, and Lulu loved her for it far more than she did for the trust she was showing in telling them her name. On impulse, before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around Ann's neck and hugged her. -## Chapter 9: Campfire Talk +## Chapter 9: Trading Upriver Two days later Birdie sat at the edge of the river, watching Eliza May thread her way through the shallows, out to sea. Her father was on board to help. Maggie was tied to a stern line so he could sail back once he'd guided them out of the river mouth and into the open ocean. Lulu could see her father, but she was watching Ann. Ann lying down on the bowsprite with a lead line in the water, taking soundings. All Birdie could see of her was her red hair near the tip in the bowsprite, but that was exactly how she wanted to remember her, clutching the bowsprite, leading the way out to sea. @@ -1279,7 +1090,7 @@ Birdie watched until she could not longer see any people, and noticed that Maggi Few people lived as close to the sea as Birdie's family. There was too much salt in the river to drink, too much salt in the air to grow crops. People came out in the warmer months when Bridie's family went north, but when it cooled, and big schools of fish moved further offshore, most people headed back up the rivers, further from the sea, where the land was better for growing, the water better for drinking. -Birdie and her sister dug the marshes for sedge grass roots, and gathered a root the Waccamaw people called potato. The island also had plenty of Muscadines, blackberries, and raspberries, which they all gathered when they ripened. But they relied on trade with people upcountry to provide a variety of vegetables, corn and squash, tomatoes, okra, and of course rice. They brought dried fish, fishing line and French guns to trade, most of that was traded from passing ships that paid for tar in whatever was in their holds. +Birdie and her sister dug the marshes for sedge grass roots, and gathered a root the Waccamaw people called potato. The island also had plenty of Muscadines, blackberries, and raspberries, which they all gathered when they ripened. But they relied on trade with people upcountry to provide a variety of vegetables, corn and squash, tomatoes, okra, and rice. They brought dried fish, fishing line and French guns to trade, most of that was traded from passing ships that paid for tar in whatever was in their holds. And everyone always traded news. The river carried stories from far up in the mountains down to the coast and the river boatmen carried stories from the coast back up into the mountains. Birdie had never been more than a few miles inland, but Tamba had once trekked far up into Iroquois territory with copper pots and French rifles to trade for seeds and high quality corn from the foothills, fatter and plumper than the red corn that grew in the coastal plain. @@ -1287,30 +1098,55 @@ To her surprise, Tamba thought going upriver to trade was an excellent idea and Lule and Birdie leaped in the boat with Tamba and unfurled the sail and pushed off before their father changed his mind. There was a decent cross wind that had them tacking slightly up through the marsh, until the waterway narrowed down to something more like a river. There was a big island at the entrance this year, which Tamba called a good omen, when the river splits further inland it means the waters have been low, floods are unlikely. -The marsh was what separated Birdie's family from the world. Only the muskrats and herons lived in the marsh. But as you worked your way up the rivers, the shore became more crowded. The first were the small huts of some of the few remaining natives who fished the rivers, hunted the bottoms and marshlands, and mostly kept to the themselves. Parties of slave traders from Charlestown had begun raiding these small villages the previous year, capturing men to work the plantations further up the river. Usually the men came by sea, and Birdie's father had twice sailed upriver ahead of the slave traders, warning the villagers. Most of them had moved south by now, though between the British in Charlestown, the Iroquois inland to the west, the sea to the east, and the Spanish to the south, they were running out of places to hide. Birdie didn't understand why the men in Charlestown couldn't work their own farms, she'd asked her father but he just laughed and said the British believed work was something other people did for them. She'd also asked him what would happen to them, and he'd stopped smiling and looked suddenly very tired, "they will be like us Birdie, they will run as long as they can, and then..." He gestured at the air, "who knows." Birdie had never thought of herself as running. So far as she could tell she had never run from anything, but it made her sad to think that other people had to run. As she tacked back across the river the first of the abandoned huts came into a view. It was a stout structure, make of pine logs and thatched with palmetto fronds, just like her own home, but this one was bigger, made of larger logs and raised off the ground to keep it dry even when the river flooded. +The marsh was what separated Birdie's family from the world. It was the province of muskrats and minnows, snails climbing reeds with the tide, herons stalking fish. Humans rarely lingered. But as you worked your way up the rivers, the shores became more crowded. At first were the small huts of some of the few remaining natives who fished the rivers, hunted the bottoms and marshlands, and mostly kept to the themselves. Or tried. Parties of slave traders from Charlestown had begun raiding these small villages the previous year, capturing men to work the plantations further up the river. Usually the men came by sea, and Birdie's father had twice sailed upriver ahead of the slave traders, warning the villagers. Most of them had moved south by now, though between the British in Charlestown, the Iroquois inland to the west, the sea to the east, and the Spanish to the south, they were running out of places to hide. Birdie didn't understand why the people in Charlestown couldn't work their own farms. She'd asked her father but he'd only laughed and said the British believed work was something other people did for them. + +She'd also asked him what would happen to the Waccamaw and the Winyah and Sewee and the others. He'd stopped smiling then and looked very tired, "they will be like us Birdie, they will run as long as they can, and then..." He gestured at the air, "who knows." Birdie remembered this exchange chiefly because it startled her. She had never thought of herself as running. So far as she could tell she had never run from anything, but it made her sad to think that other people had to run. + +As Tamba tacked back across the river, the first cluster of now-abandoned huts came into a view. They were a stout structures, made of pine logs and thatched with palmetto fronds, like her own home, but these were bigger, made of larger logs, and raised off the ground to keep it dry even when the river flooded. These were built to last, hers was temporary. + +There should have been cooking fires burning, the smell of drying fish, smoke, and hides, naked children playing in the river, swimming out to their boat, laughing and splashing. Now there was only a stillness and silence that left Birdie shivering even in the hot sun in the middle of the river. She glanced at Lulu, who was watching the shore, not saying anything. She wondered what Ann would say. She knew Ann was running. Who was Ann running from? Birdie hadn't asked, wouldn't have asked even now. When the British were around, everyone seemed to running from someone. + +The sail lufted and they all went back to paddling. Lulu continued staring back at the remains of the village even as it faded from view. "Do you think those families are working on the plantations?" + +Birdie shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe the escaped." + +"Papa told me they've been raiding again, they're shipping them off to the islands now." + +Birdie nodded, she'd heard this story as well. Tamba seemed shaken by it. She knew it was the same thing they'd done to his people in Africa. Then to see it here too. Like to was following him. For the thousandth time she wondered why someone didn't stop the British. But no one ever did. Birdie had long ago decided she was going to stop them. She didn't know how, she didn't know if she could, but she was going to try. Someone had to, why not her? + +The river narrowed and finally they saw signs of life, small farms of indentured servants who'd paid off their debts, escaped slaves, a few former pirates who'd had the sense to take what they had and get out. Their farms were meager, but they usually had vegetables to trade for salted fish and other things Birdie and her family had easy access to that they did not. + +Tamba hollered to an African man fishing from the bank. He pointed Maggie over to him. The two exchanged words in a language Birdie did not recognize and Tamba did not translate. He merely nodded goodbye and pointed the bow back toward the middle the river. The wind caught the sail and Birdie was able to stop paddling for long enough to ask Tamba what the man had said. + +"He said the slavers from Charlestown came again. He hid in the swamp, but they took half the Sewee in the village up the south fork." Tamba glanced up the river. Birdie said nothing. Her chest felt hot, like she couldn't breath. She thought of the children she knew had been in that village, some her age. She'd traded dried salt for gum from a woman in that village. She tried to imagine her now, bent on some field, overseer's whip stinging her back. It made her chest burn with anger. She said as much to Tamba + +"There are always slaves, Birdie" Tamba said. "The people farther inland, they take slaves too sometimes. My people, before we were taken slaves, we took people as slaves. Your ancestors took slaves." He shifted his weight and the boat rocked. "The tragedy is not to a be a slave, the tragedy is to be a slave to the British, a people without mercy or compassion. It is one thing to be taken by a people who see you as a defeated equal. It is another to end up with someone who sees you as a dog. The British. The French. They are the only people I have ever encountered who see anyone that way." He rummaged in his bag and pulled out a stick of dried fish. "Kobayashi says the Chinese are that way toward his people, but I cannot say." -There should have been fires burning, the smell of drying fish, smoke, and hides, naked children playing in the river, swimming out to their boat, laughing and splashing. Now there was just a still silence that left Birdie shivering even in the hot stillness of the middle of the river. She glanced at Lulu, who was watching the shore, not saying anything. She wondered what Ann would say. She knew Ann was running. Who was Ann running from? Birdie hadn't asked, wouldn't have asked even now. When the British were around, everyone seemed to running from someone. +They on sailed in silence. -The sail lufted and Birdie went back to paddling. Lulu continued staring back at the remains of the village even as it faded from view. "Do you think those families are working on the plantations?" +Eventually they came to the Waccamaw village where Tamba was hoping to trade for tk. Smoke rose from cooking fires just back from the river. A woman washing clothes in the river eyed them and seemed prepared to run, but she did not move. Tamba spoke to her in French and she nodded back at the village and said something in return. Birdie thought she heard the word British, she was sure she heard Charlestown. "They were here too? She asked and she and Lulu held to boat and Tamba looped a line of the gnarled oak root protruding from the bank. -Birdie shrugged. "Maybe, but maybe the escaped." +Tamba nodded, but did not say anything. He grabbed his gun out of the boat and they headed up into the village. -"Tamba told me they've been raiding again, they're shipping them off to the islands now." +segue to tamba: -Birdie nodded, she'd heard this story as well. Tamba seemed shaken by it. She knew it was the same thing they'd done to his people in Africa. Then to see it here too. Like to was following him. For the thousandth time she wondered why someone didn't just stop the British. But no one ever did. Birdie had long ago decided she was going to stop them. She didn't know how, she didn't know if she could, but she was going to try. +"Half the people are still in the bush, hiding from the slavers." -The river narrowed and finally they saw signs of life, first there was Kadiatu's family, but further up there were more small farms, indentured servants who'd paid off their debts, escaped slaves, a few former pirates who'd had the sense to take what they had and get out. Their farms were meager, but they usually had vegetables to trade for salted fish and other things Birdie and her family had easy access to that they did not. +"Are they still out here?" Birdie had not considered that the men from Charlestown might still be out looking for slaves. She felt a chill pass through her. What if they came for Tamba? For her? For Lulu? It might feel like it was a lifetime away, but Charlestown wasn't that far. Once the marsh country was behind you the river actually became broader, there was less floodplain for it run out over so more of it stayed together and it became wider and deeper. People called it the Stono river and it cut a arcing path around St John's island and eventually the narrow mouth of Wappoo Creek opened up, and took you through the last stretch of land, into the Ashley River right on the back porch of Charlestown. Paddling it would take at least three days, though with the sail on Maggie her father had managed to do it in just over a day and half. With a boat full of oars the slavers could do it in a day easily. +Tamba shrugged. "You girls have your knives yes?" +Birdie nodded. She saw Lulu instinctively touch the knife at her waist. +"You know how to fire a gun, if you need to, take one off me and use it." He turned around and they walked into the village. + + +TODO: Add scene of trading, she talks to a woman about paint and colored dye. Connect to the coming of fall, the breaf break in the weather that hits as they return down the river to camp. It's too early to get cool, that's not a good sign foreshadowing storm. -Once the marsh country was behind you the river actually became broader, there was less floodplain for it run out over so more of it stayed together and it became wider and deeper. People called it the Stono river and it cut a arcing path around St John's island and eventually the narrow mouth of Wappoo Creek opened up, and took you through the last stretch of land, into the Ashley River right on the back porch of Charlestown. Paddling it would take at least three days, though with the sail on Maggie her father had managed to do it in just over a day and half. -Long before the plantations, long before the farms even, between the tk natives and the nothingness that stretched out to the sea, lived Kadiatu's family. Like Tamba, her father was from Africa, her mother, and her grandmother who lived with her, were both tk native tribe. - journey upriver to see kadiatu and family. Kadiatu and her family give a windows into slavery and river boat culture. Her father is a freeman, river boat worker. @@ -1319,7 +1155,7 @@ Kadiatu and her family give a windows into slavery and river boat culture. Her f the scene below. Then the storm - +## Chapter 10: Campfire Talk There was a day, just before the moon that would mark the equinox, when the heat broke. Everyone knew it would return again at least once more, but for a few short days, it was deliciously cool and the breeze came inland in the afternoons. The sago palm fronds clattered in the wind, a clicking ticking sound like the women's shoes on the plank sidewalks of Charlestown. @@ -1446,7 +1282,7 @@ Sails - hunting and careening, winter solstice bonfire with the pirates ''' -## Storm +## Chapter 1: Storm It was late in the afternoon when she felt it. Lulu sat straight up in the hull of the Arkhangelsk and hit her head on a cross spar. Ow, she exclaimed and quickly followed it with, Birdie, do you smell that? @@ -1746,65 +1582,53 @@ Her father smiled at her. "A wonderful idea my darling freewoman, but... but, we Birdie pushed the canoe up onto the shore and used her pole to vault out of the stern of the boat, over the water, to land on the shore. She dragged the boat up and tied it off to a branch hanging down from the sprawling oak that marked the landing that led to Kadiatu's family's land. She and Lulu followed the well worn path through the trees. Their house was on stilts made of cypress, thatched like every house in the area, but better and more substantially made. Kadiatu and her family were not travelers. They did not move camps like Birdie's family. Their camp had a more permanent feel to it. There was a privy made of leftover oak boards her father and Tamba had split last year to repair the shelving in the hold of the tk. Beyond the clearing the house sat in was a larger clearing where Kadiatu's grandmother grew corn and beans, plants she had received as gifts from the few remaining Edistow that lived on the island. ---- +## The Whydah -Jack Ratham was dressed in his trademark calico shirt, black pants, red sash and worn, but somehow still very stylishly cut jacket. Birdie didn't really know it was stylish, she just knew that it looked unaccountably good on Jack Ratham, which is the merger of fashion, what a thing is, how it is shaped and so on, with who a person is, which is to say what sort of figure they cut in the world. The one Jack Ratham cut was distinctly his own. She reminded Birdie of her father. They could not have been more different, and yet in some fundamental way, the way they looked at the world perhaps, they were alike. +Sam Bellamy was the nicest captain to ever call on their camp. He was tall, strong, and road the launch in with one foot on the gunwale looking every bit the conquering captain. He was dressed in his trademark black pants, red sash and worn, but somehow still very stylishly cut black jacket. In the sash were four duelling pistols that never left his person. At his side hung a French style rapier that we was reportedly very deft at wielding. He leaped just as the launch hit the sand and cleared the last bit of surf and foam to land on the sand. Captain Black Sam had arrived. -Ratham smiled at her. "Birdie, how you've grown my dear." He turned to her sister. "And Lulu, still climbing trees?" +He marched up the shore without a backward glance. When he got to her he stopped and smile. "Birdie, how you've grown my dear." He turned to her sister. "And Lulu, still climbing trees?" -"Oh yes sir." Lulu wanted to tell her about her latest adventure, but she stopped herself. She looked up at Ratham. "Captain Ratham..." +"Oh yes sir." Lulu wanted to tell him all about her latest adventure, but she stopped herself. She was trying her father's tactic of letting others do the talking. But she couldn't stop herself from one question. "Is Calico Jack with you?" -"Lulu, I know your question. I saw it in your sister's eyes as well. And the answer is yes. She is. She will be sailing in the tk. We plan to careen." He straightened up and turned to her father. "That is, captain, if you have any tar to spare us." +Bellamy knelt down and glanced out at his ship, the Whydah. "The quartermaster is indeed somewhere on the ship. He is attending to some needs of the crew, but I do believe he will be ashore later. We plan to careen." He straightened up and turned to her father. "That is, Captain, if you have any tar to spare us." -Her father laughed. "I do believe that's why were out here." He hugged Ratham. "Good to see you Jack." +Her father laughed. "I do believe that's why were out here." He hugged Bellamy. "Good to see you Sam." "Likewise." -There was much hugging and patting of backs and the crew shook hands with them, some they remembered from the previous summer, when Ratham had come north to the cape. +There was much hugging and patting of backs and the crew shook hands with them, some they remembered from the previous summer, when Bellamy had come north to the cape. -Ratham glanced up at the dunes. "I see the Arkhangelsk has survived two years worth a storms." +Bellamy glanced up at the dunes. "I see the Arkhangelsk has survived two years worth a storms." "She lost her mast last week." Birdie dropped her head. "And her mate." -Ratham knelt down beside her. "It's a tough thing to take as a captain, Birdie. You, you are still captain yes?" +Bellamy knelt down beside her. "It's a tough thing to take as a captain, Birdie. You, you are still captain, yes?" Birdie nodded and fought to keep the tears out of her eyes. -"I lost a first mate to a storm. Whole ship full of men in fact, whom I'd been drinking with not three days before." Ratham stared down at the sand, seemed lost in thought for a moment. "I wish I could tell you something that would make it easier. But the truth is, it's never gotten any easier for me." He stood up and rested his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Birdie." He turned and clapped a hand on her father's shoulder. I know you don't drink captain, but I may have to tonight." - -Her father and Ratham headed down the path toward the camp. Ratham's men gathered up their things and followed them leaving Birdie, Lulu, and Henri standing on the beach, staring at the Arkhangelsk. - -"I wish it had been washed away." Birdie said it before she'd really thought about it, and then she realized she meant it. It would never been the same. She would never be able to play on the ship without thinking of Francis. She realized them that she didn't want to play on it anymore. She wondered if she really wanted to play. She wanted to... she wanted something and she didn't know what it was. She wanted Francis back. She wanted Owen back. She would even take her uncle TK back. She just wanted things to be how they had been. She wanted her aunt to be like she was, she wanted to play on the boat, she wanted... but as she stood there in silence, wanting, she suddenly realized it would never be. Nothing would ever be the same. A thing came, a storm happened, it reshaped the land, it reshaped her, it had made her into something else and nothing would every be the same. Her father had always told them, nothing remains the same, everything is always different, everything is always changing. He said it so often it was a kind of mantra they made fun of behind his back, not because they didn't believe him, but because they didn't realize, they didn't know. It was one thing to hear and understand a thing, it was another to live it and no, only now Birdie realized did she understand what her father was saying. Only now did she for the first time, have some incling of what it must have felt like for him to lose her mother. For her there was nothing. There was an absence she could feel, but it was not loss it was absense. Now she understood what lose felt like. She understood that she did not understand the loss her father must have felt when her mother died. - ---- - -Anne Bonnie riding in, foot on the gunwale as the men row. Jack and her father talking about her as Birdie details everyting she loves about her. - -Birdie glanced up and saw a second boat coming in, slowly rowing in against the tide. A figure in a wide brimmed hat was standing up in the front, one foot on the gunwale, holding a line tied to the bow, as if were reins on an unseen porpoise. It was too far to make out the figure's face, but Bridie knew who it was just by the way she stood. No one stood the way Anne stood. She had a perfectly balanced poise that suggested no matter where you might put her, she would be utterly at ease and soon in charge. - -Ratham stood next to her father, watching the boat come him. He shook his head. "That woman knows how to make an entrance." +"I lost a first mate to a storm. Whole ship full of men in fact, whom I'd been drinking with not three days before." Bellamy stared down at the sand, seemed lost in thought for a moment. "I wish I could tell you something that would make it easier. But the truth is, it's never gotten any easier for me." He stood up and rested his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Birdie." He turned and clapped a hand on her father's shoulder. I know you don't drink captain, but I may have to tonight." -Birdie heard her father chuckle. "Are you jealous John?" +Her father and Bellamy headed down the path toward the camp. The crew of the Whydah gathered up their things and followed them leaving Birdie, Lulu, and Henri standing on the beach, staring at the Arkhangelsk. -"Jealous? Of course I'm jealous. Everyone of sound mind is jealous of her." +"I wish it had been washed away." Birdie said it before she'd really thought about it, and then she realized she meant it. It would never been the same. She would never be able to play on the ship without thinking of Francis. She realized then that she didn't want to play on it anymore. She wondered if she really wanted to play. She wanted to... she wanted something and she didn't know what it was. She wanted Francis back. She wanted Owen back. She would even take her uncle Cole back. She just wanted things to be how they had been. She wanted her aunt to be like she was, she wanted to play on the boat, she wanted.... -Birdie wasn't jealous. At least she didn't think she was jealous. She just loved Anne and whenever she was around her she felt better about everything, she felt better about herself, she wanted to be better. She wasn't sure if she wanted to better for Anne or just being around Anne made her want to be better. She wasn't even sure exactly how she wanted to better, she just knew that there was something about Anne that made everyone and everything seem like it was better and it was an elevation you had to live up to. +But as she stood there in silence, wanting, she suddenly realized it would never be. Nothing would ever be the same. A thing came, a storm happened, it reshaped the land, it reshaped her. It had made her into something else and nothing would ever be the same. Her father had always told them, nothing remains the same, everything is always different, everything is always changing. He said it so often it was a kind of mantra they made fun of behind his back, not because they didn't believe him, but because they didn't realize, they didn't know. It was one thing to hear and understand a thing, it was another to live it and now, only now, did Birdie understand what her father was saying. Only now did she, for the first time, have some inkling of what it must have felt like for him to lose her mother. For her mother she felt nothing. There was an absence she knew, but it was not loss, she had never known her. Only now did she understood what loss felt like. And she understood that she did not understand the loss her father must have felt when her mother died. -She never moved from her pose with one foot up, not even when the boat caught a reasonably large wave and pitched forward, sliding down the face of the wave which then broke and soaked the men in the stern. Anne's red hair blew in the wind and Birdie could see her smiling now, scanning the beach. The boat nosed up on the sand the Anne vaulted off the bow, her boots sinking into the soft sand, where she stood for a moment surveying the crowd before her. She walked straight toward Lulu and Birdie. +Birdie glanced up and saw a second boat coming in, slowly rowing in against the tide. A figure in a wide brimmed hat was standing up in the front, one foot on the gunwale, holding a line tied to the bow, as if were reins on an unseen porpoise. It was too far to make out the figure's face, but Bridie knew who it was just by the way he stood. No one stood the way Calico Jack stood. He had a perfectly balanced poise that suggested no matter where you might put him, he would be utterly at ease and soon in charge. -She knelt down before them, her huge black hat with its single ostrich feather was all they could see. She lifted her head and looked at each of their faces. "Birdie, Lulu. Have you been taking good care of your father and your brother?" +Her father had come walking back down and stood beside Birdie now, watching the boat come him. He shook his head. "That man knows how to make an entrance. He'll be a hell of captain one day." -Birdie nodded, but could not being herself to speak. Anne spun her head around to Henri. "Is this true Henri?" +Birdie didn't say anything, but she smiled thinking about it. Captain Jack. Jack was too silly to be captain. The boat caught a reasonably large wave and pitched forward, sliding down the face of it which then broke and soaked the men in the stern. Birdie could see him smiling now, scanning the beach. He walked straight toward Lulu and Birdie. -"Yes, ma'am." +He knelt down before them, his ridiculously large tri-pointed hat with its single ostrich feather was all they could see. He lifted his head and looked at each of their faces. "Birdie, Lulu. Have you been taking good care of your father and your brother?" -"Good. Good." A wide smile came over Anne's face. She put her arms around Birdie and then Lulu, and then waved a hand to draw Henri in too. "tk father's name, you know I am here to steal your children." +Birdie nodded, but could not being herself to speak. Jack spun his head around to Henri. "Is this true Henri?" -Birdie's father smiled. "And I thought I was using them to lure you here." +"Yes, sir." -"Careful there tk father's name," said Ratham. +"Good. Good." A wide smile came over Jack's face. He put her arms around Birdie and then Lulu, and then waved a hand to draw Henri in too. "tk father's name, you know I am here to steal your children." -Anne straighted up and adjusted her hat. Birdie watched as she leaned in and quickly kissed her father on each cheek. "Strictly business tk father's name. We need to careen. *Revenge* has worms, our canvas is frayed, and lines are shredded. She's a sad sight when you get out there." +Jack straighted up and adjusted his hat. "We need to careen. *Whydah* has worms, our canvas is frayed, and lines are shredded. She's a sad sight when you get out there." Her father nodded. "We'll bring her in at high tide then. Send some of your men out hunting with Tamba, let's see if they can't get a couple boar, we'll cook them overnight, have a feast tomorrow." @@ -1812,47 +1636,31 @@ Her father nodded. "We'll bring her in at high tide then. Send some of your men "Good for you John. I don't care if you drink all the rum on the island, so long as you're not aboard my ship." -"You still call that thing a ship do you?" Ratham smiled. Anne let out a low whistle. Birdie saw her father's face flash red and then return to normal. It happened so fast she was sure Ratham had not even seen it, but she knew Anne had. +"You still call that thing a ship do you?" Ratham smiled. Birdie saw her father's face flash red and then return to normal. It happened so fast she was sure Ratham had not even seen it. "I call it home actually." "Oh relax, tk father's name, I'm just playing. She's a fine vessel. She's got what, two guns is it? He slapped his hand on her father's shoulder and stopped laughing quite suddenly. "Everyone knows you're one of the finest captains in the East Indies and yet you have a this tiny boat, and you spend all your time on shore making tar... which, don't get me wrong, you make the best tar... anywhere, but I don't understand why, you could have a huge ship, a proper crew and I'd be willing to bet you could take a Galleon without hardly trying and retire in wealth and splendor. Do you like this jacket by the way, it's new." Ratham held out his arm and her father pinched the calico cloth between his fingers and rubbed it. -"I don't know anything about clothes John, but it seems nice to me. As for the ship, I rather like the one I've got." he paused and glanced at Anne. "You see John, when you know you can have something whenever you want it, you don't always feel the need to have it all the time." +"I don't know anything about clothes John, but it seems nice to me. As for the ship, I rather like the one I've got." he paused and glanced at Birdie. "You see John, when you know you can have something whenever you want it, you don't always feel the need to have it all the time." Ratham laughed. "Well there you go then. Good man." He walked over to the first boat and began dividing its crew into hunting party and careening party. -Her rather stood next to Anne. "Where's Mary?" - -"In her quarters." - -"She staying there?" - -Anne shrugged. "I imagine she is." - -"How does..." - -Anne turned her head up to look at her father, Birdie could see nothing but an ostrich plum. "Doesn't matter to you does it?" - -Her father laughed. No, I suppose not. You're an odd duck Anne." - -"You're an odd duck too you know. I've missed you." - --- -Anne and her father did most of the work to get Revenge in and on her side. Captain Jack as Ratham told the kids to call him, made a chair out of some wood planks and a pile of sand and sat there, jug of rum at hand, watching the progress. It took the entire crew and half the trees they'd cut that summer to bring Revenge in and get her on her side, sufficiently out of the water to work on her full. At Ratham's insistence they started on the starboard side. "Always start on starboard," he said. Anne had just shrugged and passed the word on to the men doing the work. With the ship on her side, Mary did come ashore, despite what Bonny had said. She did not speak to anyone but her own ship's crew and seemed ill at ease. Birdie smiled at her, but she acted as if she could not even see Birdie. Birdie took an instant dislike to her. +Ratham and her father did most of the work to get Revenge in and on her side. Black Sam as Bellamy told the kids to call him, made a chair out of some wood planks and a pile of sand and sat down, jug of rum at hand, watching the progress. It took the entire crew and half the trees they'd cut that summer to bring Whydah in and get her on her side, sufficiently out of the water to work on her hull. At Ratham's insistence they started on the starboard side. "Always start on starboard," he said. tk father's name had just shrugged and passed the word on to the men doing the work. -Lulu thought she was pretty and defended her when Birdie called her rude. "Maybe she's just having a bad day Bee, I mean her ships on its side, looks to be pretty badly worm eaten. Probably doesn't have but a couple years left in her at most," said Lulu. +Lulu, Birdie and Henri sat on the bow of the Arkhangelsk, watching the men work on the hull of the Whydah. "She looks to be pretty badly worm eaten. Probably doesn't have but a couple years left in her at most," said Lulu. -The three of them were sitting on the bow of the Arkhangelsk, watching the men work on the hull of Revenge. Birdie wished she could help, but her father wouldn't let her even roll barrels of tar down the beach. Too dangerous he'd said. Birdie understood the danger of careening, but she failed to see what was dangerous about painting a hull with tar. "If a line gives way, if a timber rolls and that ship moves, it crushes anything in it's path like a bug" her father said. "I'd just jump out of the way," she said, but he'd only grunted and ignored her further pleading. And so she sat, watching from another ship. +Birdie swung her legs idly. She wished she could help, but her father wouldn't let her even roll barrels of tar down the beach. Too dangerous he'd said. Birdie understood the danger of careening, but she failed to see what was dangerous about painting a hull with tar. "If a line gives way, if a timber rolls and that ship moves, it crushes anything in it's path like a bug" her father said. "I'd just jump out of the way," she said, but he'd only grunted and ignored her further pleading. And so she sat, watching from another ship. -Just over Lulu's shoulder, back toward camp she could see a plume of smoke rising up from the great pits her father had buried two huge boar in last night. By evening they'd be ready to dig up, and it would be Birdie's favorite meal, the delicious sweetness of the pork, with the special rice Kobayashi made to go with it, her mouth watered even now at the thought. +Over Lulu's shoulder, back toward camp she could see a plume of smoke rising up from the great pits her father had buried two huge boar in last night. By evening they'd be ready to dig up, and it would be Birdie's favorite meal, the delicious sweetness of the pork, with the special rice Kobayashi made to go with it, her mouth watered even now at the thought. -It wasn't until she glanced out at the sea beyond Revenge that she realized she had not thought of Francis or Owen for several hours. Is this what happens she thought with a start. Is this how we move on? We slowly forget them? It seemed somehow the most horrible thing she could have done and yet she realized she didn't do it, it simple happened. At most she let it happen. Suddenly she understand why Aunt Māra wore black and kept to herself. If you didn't make an effort to hold the dead in your mind you risked them slipping away from you. +It wasn't until she glanced out at the sea beyond Whydah that she realized she had not thought of Francis or Owen for several hours. Is this what happens she thought with a start. Is this how we move on? We slowly forget them? It seemed somehow the most horrible thing she could have done and yet she realized she didn't do it, it simply happened. At most she let it happen. Suddenly she understand why Aunt Māra wore black and kept to herself. If you didn't make an effort to hold the dead in your mind you risked them slipping away from you. -She found herself wondering what Francis would have thought of Anne. He would have loved Calico Jack, he was hard not to love. He was loud, often drunk, a bit of a fool, but completely lovable. Henri followed him around like he was the greatest thing on the island, which she knew irritated her father, though he never said anything or made any effort to stop him. Jack was harmlessly hilarious, though from stories Anne told he was fierce and quite capable when he needed to be. He did after all command a ship of about sixty men. And two women. He had captured a Spanish Galleon the previous year off the coast of Port Royal Jamaica, which Birdie knew had taken skill, perhaps some luck, but skill and daring certainly. It was hard to imagine the man now sitting in the sand in his fancy coat, swigging rum from a jug and throwing shells as seagulls leading a ship full of men into battle with a ship twice, maybe three times the size of Revenge, with three decks of 24 pound canons sticking out the side of it. Birdie had never seen a galleon. None of them had, not even her father, though he'd at least seen the British equivalent. If the rumors were to be believed British warships would be here soon enough. Birdie shivered. She wondered what Ratham would do when the British came for him. Probably get drunk she decided. +She found herself wondering what Francis would have thought of Black Sam. He would have loved Calico Jack, he was hard not to love. He was loud, often drunk, a bit of a fool, but completely lovable. Henri followed him around like he was the greatest thing on the island, which she knew irritated her father, though he never said anything or made any effort to stop him. Jack was harmlessly hilarious, though from stories the crew told he was fierce and quite capable when he needed to be. He was after all quartermaster of a ship of about sixty men who'd picked him to lead them. More than the captain, the quartermaster ran a ship. The captain decided where to go, what course to set, but the quartermaster represented the men, and was first over the rail in a fight. They'd captured a Spanish Galleon the previous year off the coast of Port Royal Jamaica, which Birdie knew had taken skill, perhaps some luck, but skill and daring certainly. It was hard to imagine the man now sitting in the sand in his fancy coat, swigging rum from a jug and throwing shells as seagulls leading a ship full of men into battle with a ship twice, maybe three times the size of Whydah, with three decks of 24 pound canons sticking out the side of it. Birdie had never seen a galleon. None of them had, not even her father, though he'd at least seen the British equivalent. If the rumors were to be believed British warships would be here soon enough. Birdie shivered. She wondered what Ratham would do when the British came for him. Probably get drunk she decided. -She watched as Anne walked away from the Revenge, over to where Ratham sat and flopped down beside him, taking a swig from the jug of rum. +She watched as Ratham walked away from the Revenge, over to where Bellamy sat and flopped down beside him, taking a swig from the jug of rum. "You know what would be fun." @@ -1863,19 +1671,21 @@ Henri's voice broke the silence and interrupted Birdie's train of thought. Birdie smiled. "Okay," she said. +TODO: Connect here to a scene of the feast so that we can lead into the next section, the tale of the ghost ship +powdered wig in favor of tying back his long black hair with a simple band, Bellamy became known for his mercy and generosity toward those he captured on his raids. This reputation earned him another nickname, the "Prince of Pirates". He likened himself to Robin Hood, with his crew calling themselves "Robin Hood's Men".[4][5] -They recognize it as ratham or vain because they come on the sprng or neap tide, which is when you wnat to careen. The girls are excited to see anne bonnie. There's a chapter where Anne Bonnie tells the kids a pirate tale, either of her fighting off the british while ratham gets drunk or of the ghost ship off the azores. +## The Tale Black Sam Told -## The Tale Anne Bonnie Told +The firelight lit the circle of dunes a rich orange glow like a dying sun still trying to light a world. The crew put away the fiddles and drums and sea shanties and settled into storytelling. Birdie began to fall asleep until she heard someone whisper for Black Sam to tell the ghost ship story. Ghost ship? She was awake. -The firelight lit the circle of dunes a rich orange glow like a dying sun still trying to light a world. Anne's teeth shone white in the orange light. +Sam stood up and straightened his hat, rested his hand on his sword theatrically and began. "We'd been in the doldrums for days, maybe weeks, it was hard to know, one brutally hot day after another, no wind, no current, dead stillness. I remember Jack took off his jacket and tried flapping it up and down at the sail to create a bit of wind, but of course that didn't work. He just ended up tired." Sam smiled and the crew looked to Ratham who shrugged. "Worth a try." -We'd been in the duldrums for days, maybe weeks, it was hard to know, one brutaly hot day after another, no wind, no current, dead stillness. I remember Jack took off his jacket and tried flapping up and down at the sail to create a bit of wind, but of course it didn't work.And he just ended up tired. We were all hungry and thirsty all the time. Food was running low. We'd put a water ration in place the minute the wind died. Two dips a day. It was like sailing a merchant ship. (knowing laughter). We finally found enough of a current to pull us out and what do we see on the horizen but a sail. but it's impossible to know how far ahead she is, we might catch her in a matter of hours, it might be a week. There's still no wind, we're really just drifting, but with a bit of direction. Those sails though, they must be difting too. Revenge doesn't have a very tall mast so we often sight ships before they sight us. +"We were all hungry and thirsty all the time. Food was running low. We'd put a water ration in place the minute the wind died. Two dips a day. It was like sailing a merchant ship." There was a round of grunts, a kind of dark, knowing laughter. "We finally found enough of a current to pull us out and what do we see on the horizon but a sail. Luck is changing. It's impossible to know how far ahead she is though, we might catch her in a matter of hours, it might be a week. There's still no wind, we're really just drifting, but with a bit of direction. Those sails though, they must be drifting too. Revenge doesn't have a very tall mast so we often sight ships before they sight us." -It's one of Revenge's best points put in Jack. +"One of her best points," put in Jack. -Yes it is, Bonny smiled. So we figure there's not much to be done. Either we drift faster and catch it or it get the wind ahead of us and disappears. I hate drifting. Every sailor hates drifting. We float along for days with those sails on the horizen, never can see the ship. just the sails, the white against a world of blue, forever out of reach. +"Yes it is," Bellamy smiled. He was nothing if not proud of his ship. "So we figure there's not much to be done. Either we drift faster and catch it or it gets the wind ahead of us and disappears. I hate drifting. Every sailor hates drifting. We float along for days with those sails on the horizon, never can see the ship. just the sails, the white against a world of blue, forever out of reach. Finally after three days the sails disappear and we know. Wind. Life comes back to the crew, men get out of hammocks again. Everyone feels lighter, the water ration doesn't even seem so bad anymore. Two hours later we heard that first snap, that delicious curling sound of canvas catching wind. And we move forward, we leap forward. It feels like Revenge has been shot out of a gun. We're laughing and crying, everyone is hugging. @@ -1883,70 +1693,65 @@ The crew was smiling now at the memory. And then we see the sails again. -Birdie noticed the smiles fade from the crew's faces. One man crossed himself the way the Spanish due. Anne continued. - -This is our luck, we're out of the doldrums and there's a prize in front of us. It doesn't get much better than that. We slowly run her down. She's not well sailed. Jack takes a point of intercept that's about half a day out. We figure we'll have her before nightfall. Now of course we can see her. And it seems strange but there's no one on the deck. We figure they just seen our sails and are hiding. Wouldn't be the first time. Though usually there's still someone at the helm. We can't be sure, but Jack says come her Anne. So I go up to the poop where's he's got the glass and have a look. It's a strange thing, the deck is well laden, there's stuff lashed everywhere, she looks smartly rigged, not very well trimmed for someone trying to outrun a pirate, but not everyone can sail. +Birdie noticed the smiles fade from the crew's faces. One man crossed himself the way the Spanish do. Sam continued. -Laughter from the crew +"This is our luck, we're out of the doldrums and there's a prize in front of us. It doesn't get much better than that. We slowly run her down. She's not well sailed. Jack takes a point of intercept that's about half a day out. We figure we'll have her before nightfall. Now of course we can see her. And it seems strange but there's no one on the deck. We figure they seen our sails and are hiding. Wouldn't be the first time. Though usually there's still someone at the helm. We can't be sure, but Jack says come here Sam. So I go up to the poop where's he's got the glass and have a look. It's a strange thing, the deck is well laden, there's stuff lashed everywhere, she looks smartly rigged, not very well trimmed for someone trying to outrun a pirate, but not everyone can sail." -Still, you ever get a feeling? A chill down your back? Like something just isn't right and you don't know what it is? I had that feeling. I took the glass and went up in the rigging of the main mast. We used to have a barrel up there, so I went and stood in it for a while studying a ship. I can't put my finger on it but something is off. +There was laughter from the crew. -I told Jack when I came back down that I had a bad feeling. She glanced at Jack. He was breaking bits of a twig and throwing them in the fire. +"Still, you ever get a feeling? A chill down your back? Like something just isn't right and you don't know what it is? I had that feeling. I took the glass and went up in the rigging of the main mast. We used to have a barrel up there, so I went and stood in it for a while studying a ship. I can't put my finger on it but something is off. I told Jack when I came back down that I had a bad feeling." He glanced at Jack. He was breaking bits of a twig and throwing them in the fire. -I told him it didn't feel right to me. He asked me if I wanted to fall off. But that would be crazy, a heavily laden ship you're having no trouble overtaking? Who falls of that. I said no, take her. But I put the men to the guns, just to be safe. It's just before sundown when we finally get within shooting distance. Jack gets the horn and shouts out, tells them to turn into the wind, we're going to board, all the usual stuff. No one answers. No one is on deck. We they're terrified, hiding below deck. So we pull along side, grappling hooks go over, we turn her into the wind and board. The men are up the masts, lowering sails to slow us all down. Jack and I and tk walk around. There's no one. It's so eery quite it's unnerving. +"I told him it didn't feel right to me. He asked me if I wanted to fall off. But that would be crazy, a heavily laden ship you're having no trouble overtaking? Who falls off that? I said no, take her. I put the men to the guns, just to be safe. It's right before sundown when we finally get within shooting distance. Jack gets the horn and shouts out, tells them to turn into the wind, we're going to board, all the usual stuff. No one answers. No one is on deck. We figure they're terrified, hiding below deck. So we pull along side, grappling hooks go over, we turn her into the wind and board. The men are up the masts, lowering sails to slow us all down. Jack and I and Alex have a look around. There's no one. It's so quiet it's unnerving. The crew is starting to feel it too." -I should say that by this time I am with Anne on the, something's not right here, feeling. But I was still hopeful of rum somewhere on that cursed ship. +The men were nodding. One yelled out, "I felt it from the beginning, but hell, I was hopeful of rum somewhere on that cursed ship." -We get to the tk door to below and all kind of look at each other. Everyone's least favorite moment of boarding, stepping down in to that darkness where you don't know if it's going to be swords or guns coming at you. Jack goes first, heel slides the ladder sword in one hand pistol in the other. It was quite impressive. She smiled at Ratham, he tipped his tri-cornered hat at her. +Captain Bellamy smiled. "so we get to the main hatch and all kind of look at each other. Everyone's least favorite moment of boarding, stepping down in to that darkness where you don't know if it's going to be swords or guns coming at you. Jack goes first, heel slides the ladder, sword in one hand pistol in the other. It was quite impressive. He smiled at Ratham, who tipped his tri-cornered hat to the crowded. -Alex and me don't hear a thing. I yell down, Jack, what's going on. Nothing comes the answer. Alex and I go down, slow, guns drawn. There's Jack wandering around in the darkness, poking around the crew's hammocks. There's no one. And still that strange silence. You know how the presence of people makes a noise, a very quite, subtle noise you don't really notice... until it's gone? That noise was gone. +"Alex and me don't hear a thing. I yell down, Jack, what's going on. Nothing comes the answer. Alex and I go down, slow, guns drawn. There's Jack wandering around in the darkness, poking around the crew's hammocks. There's no one. And still that strange silence. You know how the presence of people makes a noise, a very quiet, subtle noise you don't really notice... until it's gone? That noise was gone." -We struck a torch and searched the deck, There's no one. What's more there's no sign of anyone that looks fresh. There's no half eaten food. No mess dishes, nothing. It's like there hasn't been a person on that ship in weeks. I'm starting to get a little spooked. I looked over and Alexander's white as a fog. He says he's going to go up and check on the rigging. +"We struck a torch and searched the hold, There's no one. What's more there's no sign of anyone that looks fresh. There's no half eaten food. No mess dishes, nothing. It's like there hasn't been a person on that ship in weeks. I'm starting to get a little spooked. I looked over and Alexander's white as a fog. He says he's going to go up and check on the rigging." Everyone laughed. Alexander shook his head sheepishly. "You know me, I never back down from a fight, but how do you fight a ghost?" -Jack and I stand there for a bit in the darkness, looking at each other trying to figure out what's going on. The firelight from the torch is making strange shadows on the hull. Jack just stares at me. Where is everyone Anne? +Bellamy nodded. "No criticism from me Alex. So Jack and I stand there for a bit in the darkness, looking at each other trying to figure out what's going on. The firelight from the torch is making strange shadows on the hull. Jack just stares at me. Where is everyone Sam?" -You don't think they'd hide in the bilge do you? Jack made that face the captain makes when he doesn't like your idea. Anne grinned. Jack waved his hand in mock theatrical bow. Birdie saw the crew laughing in the firelight. +"You don't think they'd hide in the bilge do you? I asked him. Jack made that face our quartermaster makes when he doesn't like your idea. Sam grinned. Jack waved his hand in mock theatrical bow. Birdie saw the crew laughing in the firelight. -We hunted around, but there wasn't much to hunt through. Some silk, mostly some barrels of alcohol. Not the kind you drink. A couple were empty. There was some salt pork that was still good. Jack found the bilge hatch and we open it and thrust the torch down in it, but there was nothing but stinky water. We went back up topside. It was pretty obvious, there was no one on the ship. It was just sailing. +"We hunted around, but there wasn't much to hunt through. Some silk, mostly some barrels of alcohol. Not the kind you drink. A couple were empty. There was some salt pork that was still good. Jack found the bilge hatch and we open it and thrust the torch down in it, but there was nothing but stinky water. We went back up topside. It was pretty obvious, there was no one on the ship. It was just sailing." -We sat down on the deck rails and talked it over. +"We sat down on the deck rails and talked it over." Jack threw the last of the stick in the fire. "I think they abandoned ship." -Several of the crew grunted. "Who would abandon ship?" asked Anne. +Several of the crew grunted. "Who would abandon ship?" asked Bellamy. -"In a storm? It's crossed my mind." Jack laughed, but seemed serious as well, and very drunk. -"I mean, you really want to abandon ship right, but you don't of course because that would be stupid. Well suppose you gave into that? Suppose you really did it?" +"In a storm? It's crossed my mind." Jack laughed, but seemed serious as well, and very drunk. "I mean, you really want to abandon ship right, but you don't of course because that would be stupid. Well suppose you gave into that impulse though? Suppose you really did it? You got in the canoe and let the main ship go..." His voice trailed off. -"There were seven hammocks in that hold, no way you're convincing at least seven sailors to abandon ship. No way." Birdie was nodding along with Anne. She knew she would never do it. Better to die at the helm her father always said. +"There were seven hammocks in that hold, no way you're convincing at least seven sailors to abandon ship. No way." Birdie was nodding along with Captain Sam. She knew she would never do it. The ship wants to be upright her father always said, just keep steady at the helm. -"What were they carrying again?" Her father looked lost in thought. The way he looked when we a was a hundred leagues away in his mind. +"What were they carrying again?" Her father spoke up without looking at Captain Bellamy. He was staring into the darkness, lost in thought, the way he looked when he a was a hundred leagues away in his mind. "It was grain alcohol mostly. Couple of empty kegs. Don't know how anyone drinks that stuff." "Hmm. Did you seize it?" -Anne looked aghast. "No. We got out there quick as we could. I'm not taking a ghost prize." +Bellamy looked down. Ratham fairly gasped. "No. We got out there quick as we could. I'm not taking a ghost prize." -"You left a perfectly good ship sailing itself across the Atlantic?" Her father looked incredulous. He seemed uninstested in the spoky part of the story, which had already made Birdie wish her Aunt Māra were there so she could crawl in her lap. +"You left a perfectly good ship sailing itself across the Atlantic?" Her father looked incredulous. He seemed uninterested in the spooky aspect of the story, which had already made Birdie wish her Aunt Māra were there so she could crawl in her lap. -Anne and Jack glanced at each other. Birdie saw the crew stare away. She noticed her father pick up on it too. +Black Sam and Jack glanced at each other. Birdie saw the crew stare away. She noticed her father pick up on it too. He shrugged. "Shame," said her father, "it'd help kill the snails in your hull." -He shrugged. "Shame," said her father, "it'd help kill the worms in your hull." - ---- +## Careen -Anne and Jack and the crew spent two weeks on the beach. The crew helped her father frame out a new Delos. It still needed a mast, but they'd floated it and rowed it up the river. It was a slightly modified design her father believed would sail faster. Jack stood on shore watching Anne and her father trying to surf it in from its maiden voyage. "You know birdie, three years ago I started sailing in something not much bigger than that thing. I sailed into a Nassau two winters ago in a canoe. A canoe Birdie. It was a fine canoe. But look at that Birdie. He pointed down the beach at Revenge which was nearly upright, waiting for the tide to lift her enought to slide back out into deeper water, her hull sealed, her rigging the next thing to be worked on. +Anne and Jack and the crew spent two weeks on the beach. The crew helped her father frame out a new Maggie. It still needed a mast, but they'd floated it and rowed it up the river. It was a slightly modified design her father believed would sail faster. Jack stood on shore watching Anne and her father trying to surf it in from its maiden voyage. "You know birdie, three years ago I started sailing in something not much bigger than that thing. I sailed into a Nassau two winters ago in a canoe. A canoe Birdie. It was a fine canoe. But look at that Birdie. He pointed down the beach at Revenge which was nearly upright, waiting for the tide to lift her enought to slide back out into deeper water, her hull sealed, her rigging the next thing to be worked on. -"That my girl, is a warship. I captured that vessel without firing a single shot. We simply paddled up. There was no wind that day, so we were padding our canoe. We rowed up and they were so afraid of us they just gave up. I never thought I would see a day like this, when people like me, Anne, your father. When people like us would have our own ships." He took a large swig of rum from the small barrel in the sand. +"That my girl, is a warship. I captured that vessel without firing a single shot. We simply paddled up. There was no wind that day, so we were padding our canoe. We rowed up and they were so afraid of us they just gave up. I never thought I would see a day like this, when people like me, Jack, your father. When people like us would have our own ships." He took a large swig of rum from the small barrel in the sand. "Sure, I dreamed of things like that, and maybe I even secretly thought maybe... maybe one day I'd have my own ship, nothing this big, but maybe one day the sea would grant me a ship, maybe I did think that was possible." He wiped his lips. "But good lord, look at that thing! It's a warship. People like us rule the sea right now. We have warships. This was not supposed to happen Bridie." -Her stared out at the sea in silence for a moment. "Somewhere, someone is very, very unhappy right now." He smiled. She smiled back at him. "Someone somewhere is plotting their revenge. And they will probably get it, but for now.... for now the seas is ours, Birdie." +He stared out at the sea in silence for a moment. "Somewhere, someone is very, very unhappy right now." He smiled. She smiled back at him. "Someone somewhere is plotting their revenge. And they will probably get it, but for now.... for now the seas is ours, Birdie." --- -Birdie went with Tamba and Kobayashi to work the rigging on Revenge. The ship was huge, so much larger than tk ship name as to make her home feel like a little toy. Revenge was a warship Jack kept saying, and Birdie thought he was just bragging until she got out there next to it in the rowboat and realized what he meant. It was big, a truly massive, hulking heavy looking piece of wood and sail. It had a presence you could not ignore. +Birdie went with Tamba and Kobayashi to work the rigging on Revenge. The ship was huge, so much larger than Delos as to make her home feel like a little toy. Revenge was a warship Bellamy kept saying, and Birdie thought he was just bragging until she got out there next to it in the rowboat and realized what he meant. It was big, a truly massive, hulking, heavy-looking piece of wood and sail. It had a presence you could not ignore. She climbed up the rigging with Tamba behind her. They got to work tarring the standing rigging, some of which the men were still retying and splicing. The smell of pine and tar and salt water mixed in the offshore breeze with it's scent of salt marsh and river mouths and maybe, if she really focused, the hint of campfire smoke. But she didn't focus, she focused on holding onto the rigging because she was higher than she had ever been before and, unlike her sister, she did not much like heights. She kept one arm looped tightly around the hemp line as she painted the tar onto the row of line above it. |