The Captain's Treasure

Making Their Own Way, Up River and A Trade

Edinburgh Trader

On a Scottish merchant ship a crewman swabbing the deck happens to notice a familiar gold and cream dress tucked in a corner and pulls it out. The crewmen are seen arguing loudly about the newfound dress but no one seems not notice the two new young cabin boys varnishing the port side railing as the first mate had instructed them to do. The captain rushes forward to discover what the fuss is about.

"What's all this? If you both fancy the dress, you'll just have to share, and wear it one after the other."

One of the squabbling crew members speaks up. "It's not like that, Sir. This ship, is haunted."

"Is it now?" He scoffs at the crewman "'N' you?" The captain asks the quartermaster. 

"There is a... female presence... amongst us, yes... all the men... they can feel it." The man admits.

The girls exchange amused glances, leaving the dress had been a gamble but they needed a way to convince the crew to head toward a particular port, and Mr. Gibbs had taught them that sailors were a superstitious lot.  The crew all begin to squabble and argue.

"The ghost of a lady, widowed before her marriage, I figure it. Searching for her husband, lost at sea."

"A virgin, too, likely as not. And that bodes ill by all accounts."

"I say... that we throw the dress overboard, and we hope the spirit finds it."

"No! That - that will just anger the spirit, Sir. What we need to do is find out what the spirit needs, and then just get it back!" The quartermaster insists.

"Enough! Enough!" Yells the captain. "You're a pair of superstitious goats and it's got the best of you. Now this appears to be no more as we have a stowaway aboard. A young woman, by the look of it. I want you to search the ship and find her. Oh, and uh... she's probably naked."

That gets the crew attention and they enthusiastically rush off in search of the stowaway, including the new cabin boys. Lizzy and Lottie pause for a moment to catch their breath.

"I can't believe that worked." Elizabeth exclaimed.

"Why on earth would they think a stowaway would be naked?" Charlotte asks trying to catch her breath from her tight binding wrapped around her chest.

Elizabeth rolls her eyes, "Why do men think anything they do?" She asks and helps Charlotte adjust the tightly wrapped linen bindings.

"Who would have thought I would ever be jealous of you for a smaller chest?" They giggle.

"Charlotte." Elizabeth asks, "When we find them, Will and Jack, do you think that Jack will cooperate or...?"

"Stop Lizzy, You're letting father get into your head. Jack won't let us or Will hang for him. He's a good man, even if he doesn't always show it."    

Elizabeth smiled at her sister and hoped she was right, for all their sakes but especially for Charlotte's.

Pantano River, Cuba

At the mouth of the Pantano River, two longboats are making their way up the river and The Black Pearl is anchored just in the foreground. The longboats make there way through the swamp and the twisted roots of the mangrove trees.

"Why is Jack afraid of the open ocean?" Will asks Gibbs, glancing at Jack in the other boat.

Gibbs always loves a good tale and launches into one. "Well, if you believe such things, there's a beast does the bidding of Davy Jones. A fearsome creature with giant tentacles that suction your face clean off. And drag an entire ship past the crushing darkness. The Kraken!"