Is he aboard? Josiah said gruffly, hands behind his back. The man was three parts a fool and nearsighted besides. He had only been taken aboard to compliment his father in Portsmouth, a shipbuilding friend of the family to whom a few favors were owed. Stanhope was his brother’s third officer. He rarely worried about getting his feet wet while executing such mundane tasks.Ī startled young man, thin and horse-faced, jumped up from a hammock chair set under an awning abaft the mainmast, and hastened to the entry port to meet him.Ĭaptain Markham, sir! he exclaimed. The seaman in the bows of the gig hooked the boat onto Pope’s main chains, and Josiah scrambled up the side of the ship to the entry port. Originally a smuggler, she was built for speed, and with her new armament of sixteen twelve-pound cannon and two long nine-pounder chasers on her fo’c’sle, she became dangerous as well as swift. Pope was ship-rigged and New England-built, with masts taller and waist more slender than was currently the European fashion. Upwind of the barque, Josiah recovered his breath as Barlow steered the gig for the loading port of Alexander Pope, his brother’s ship. Such a sleek ship would make a fine privateer. The slaver was Nubian Pride, and although her home port was alleged to be Willemstad- Curaçao was the headquarters of many a slaver- she was almost certainly American-built. The master of the slaver, a rounded wine-cask of a man, was taking the air on the weather poop and tipped his hat as Josiah slid by. They passed across the stern of the slave barque, Josiah raising his handkerchief to his nose again- that stench was revolting it was a sin to confine men like that. Out oars! Give way all! Barlow bellowed, and after a few false starts occasioned by a crewman who, Josiah suspected, was tipsy, the gig began to slide smoothly and swiftly over the blue, transparent water of the bay. Josiah turned at the sound of Barlow’s footsteps.īarlow, careful of protocol, descended first into the gig Josiah jumped cleanly into the sternsheets, sat down, and adjusted his straw hat. I won’t have my crews taken sick with some West African fever. Nyborg and see if you can persuade him to move that blackbirder. In the meantime, send my compliments to Mr. Pound, his red-haired first officer, walked up to him and cleared his throat loudly. Josiah ignored him, standing on the flush deck, hands clasped firmly behind his back. Barlow was still getting the oarsmen into his gig. Josiah descended to his cabin, made an entry in his journal, put on his ill-fitting blue coat and straw hat, and returned on deck. He called to his coxswain, Barlow, to have his gig’s crew ready as soon as he returned on deck. He soon decided he had enough of the foul air. Phew! said Josiah, waving his handkerchief to stir the slack breeze. The stench was not improved by the heat of the day. The barque was moored upwind there were probably several hundred unwashed souls aboard, mixed with a few corpses. Josiah gagged and reached for his handkerchief. The blackbirder, its crew aloft and furling canvas, cruised slowly by in the slack wind, then, with a splash and a hollow roar, dropped its anchor. The slaver was a nimble vessel, with sleek lines and finely raked masts and although she was flying Dutch colors, Josiah marked the craft as almost certainly American-built- Dutch shipwrights preferred round North Sea butter-tubs to anything with such sleek lines. Stripped to his shirt in the sullen heat of the Caribbean day, Captain Josiah Markham, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, watched the long, dark hull of the slave barque slide easily in the harbor of Charlotte Amalie. Thanks to Victor Milan and Carrie Bryan for singing the original choruses of Bugger the King. Who allowed me the use of their library cards, The Green Leopard Plague and Other StoriesĮlizabeth Ann Cashdan and William J. Investments (Set in the world of Dread Empire’s Fall) The First Books of the Praxis (Dread Empire’s Fall) Privateers & Gentlemen (Historical Fiction) System, without the written permission of theĪuthor, except where permitted by law. Recording or by any information storage and retrieval Reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,Įlectronic or mechanical, including photocopying, Copyright (C) 1981, 2013 by Walter Jon WilliamsĪll rights reserved. Originally published as " The Privateer" by Jon Williams.