To be a pirate or a king's man?

Chapter 4 - A Life In Exile Is No Life At All

Chapter 4

A few tense days later, Sam and James were sure that nobody had followed them onto the island and took the opportunity to have a proper look around. There was a small salt water lake surrounded by a small, tightly packed forest. A small amount of wildlife was on the island, but it was too small to support anything larger than large iguana, although there was some large marine life. James even thought he saw a crocodile on one of the shores. They found a narrow shelf to a larger island, and when the tide was lowest, made their way across. The other island had a lagoon where there were a few crocodiles and larger land life as well, although they mostly stayed at a freshwater lake on a higher part of the island.

For about a week Sam and James survived on those islands, drinking from the freshwater lake and laying traps for wildlife, using their knowledge of knots and climbing to snare animals and then crudely gut them with Sam's knife and sharp stones from the shore. They rarely actively hunted, as the wildlife was cautious and unlikely to not detect them, instead the two outcasts played carefully, leaving their traps and snares whilst they went to the shores of the islands to find a ship to carry them away. James became more reckless as their life as outcasts continued; he always wanted to find new places on the islands and discover new ways to amuse themselves during the day. Sam simply tried to play it safe, staying alive until rescue came, and not risking harming himself or James. He was content to sit back and think at their camp, whilst James went running off to jump from tree to tree or jump into a lake or off a cliff.

Sam confronted him about his recklessness one night; "James, you have to stop doing all of these dangerous things! If you get hurt or even killed, both of us might end up dead. If you start bleeding into a pool and bring the predators or infect our water supply with disease, how will we survive? We can't survive unless both of us are try to be reasonable."

"Why don't you come with me then, Sam? You could stop me doing anything too stupid and if I do get hurt then you can help me!" replied James.

"You know as well as I do that someone has to guard the camp. If a predator gets the food that we've caught, we'll have to kill more animals, and this place can't feed us for long unless we're cautious. I don't want to be mothering you, but we need to stay fit if we're to survive this."

"You don't want to mother me? This is mothering me! I'm a grown man, and older than you to boot. I'll do whatever the hell I want and you can't stop me without hurting me, but you don't want to do that, do you? If you're that worried about my safety, I promise I'll be careful, but without the rush that I get when I'm doing those things, I'll die of boredom before we starve to death!"

"Of course I don't want to hurt you! What I want is for us both to live to see the end of this exile without one of us being hurt or killed by something stupid like throwing yourself at a coral reef or into the crocodile pool!" Sam cried. He had only meant to calm James down and stop him from doing something stupid, but he had only ended up angering him and making James all the more likely to do something that would get them both killed. He sat down next to their shelter and hung his head, trying not to think about the probability of them never coming out of their accursed archipelago. He would never see proper land again, nor have a mug of ale or a tavern song. As he looked up, about to curse the sky and the land and the trees and animals, he saw a gleam coming off the shoreline. He rose and, ignoring James' cry of "where are you going, after saying you can't leave the camp?" went down to the beach, looking out over the horizon. The glimmer came again and the faint silhouette of a ship.

"There's a ship." He mumbled to himself. Then his exhausted brain caught on to what was going on and he yelled "Ship! There's a ship on the horizon!" He waved his knife in the air, the sun glinting off the steel blade. James ran down and joined him, sharing in his exultation as he ran to light the signal fire that they had prepared on that beach. Once the bonfire was blazing, he grabbed a burning brand and ran around on the beach, waving it wildly, trying to get the attention of the ship. Ever so slowly, they saw the ship turning towards them, sunlight glinting off the metal that was on the poop deck. "They've seen us!" shouted Sam, "we're saved, thank God, we're saved!"

Sam and James instantly forgot their earlier quarrel and linked arms, doing a jig on the beach. Despite being barefoot, unshaven and exhausted, they were rejoicing until the instant that the ship's rowing boat came to them on the beach and they were brought aboard their rescue ship. It was a small sloop, carrying sugar and rum to Port Royal. The ship was captained by a short, fat British merchant, who was the owner of the ship as well as its captain. Behind the captain was a tall, muscular black man wearing a brown vest and grey trousers. "Good Lord!" the captain exclaimed, "What have we found on this isle in the middle of nowhere, then?"

"Two men of the King's navy who were marooned by a sadistic and unjust First Officer." Technically this was true, although Sam and James had marooned themselves instead of being marooned by Tyler. "And might we have the pleasure of knowing the names of our rescuers?" Sam asked.

"Certainly! I am Captain Horatio Jones, and the vessel you stand on is my ship; the Duchess of Kent, though the men just call her the Duchess. Behind me is Jeremiah Flint; a freed slave who is now my own First Officer and Quartermaster, and around you is my crew." replied Horatio, gesturing to each in turn. There were about twenty men surrounding Sam and James, smiling and trying to get a better view of the mysterious newcomers. "And might I have the pleasure of your names, good sir?"

"I am Samuel Wheelwright, ex-able seaman of His Majesty's Royal Navy, and my companion is James Crick, who was also an able seaman on the same ship as me. I wonder if you might have a razor and a change of clothes? These rags are terribly uncomfortable and bristle is certainly most uncouth for a sailor. People will think we're pirates next!"

"Ah, yes. There's some suitable clothing down in the hold, and I'm certain that one of my men will let you borrow his razor." said Horatio.

Jeremiah Flint spoke up, "You can borrow my razor, if you want, and I'll show you to the spare clothes." He gestured with his head and climbed down the ladder into the ship's hold.

"Many thanks, Mr Flint. Lead on, please." Sam replied, following Flint down to the hold. They walked about ten metres from the mid-ship access ladder to a small chest. Flint turned and, facing the two men, addressed them, "You two would do well to get off this ship as soon as possible." he said, "The captain don't like the navy and he don't approve of you two, neither. We'll be at Port Royal in a few days, you two just keep yer 'eads down and work with the others. Give him  no reason to fear you or hate you, or the Captain will just have your throats slit in the night." He turned to the chest and pulled out two white cotton dresses. "This is what he meant by suitable clothing, see. The captain's got something against you two, but I don't know what. You can still borrow my razor, though. Give yourself a shave and he might be a bit more reasonable towards you guys."

"Right, and how do we know that we can trust you?" demanded James.

"You don't, but you don't know you can trust the captain neither, and I know that you can't. He's all very well on the outside, but he's got a particular hatred of the navy and all who serve or served it. Bad for business, he says. Anyway, do what I say and you might make it to Port Royal alive."

Sam and James nodded slowly, unsure of whether to trust this stranger. I'll be careful anyway, see what's what and then get off and find a new ship when we reach Port Royal, Sam thought to himself. They quickly shaved, using some spare shaving soap that one of the crewmembers had, before going up to the deck to help sail the ship. They were mostly given petty tasks; knot tying, lookout, helping in the galley and swabbing the decks until they reached the end of the day. "That weren't so bad" said James as they ate in the mess hall, "I might take up civilian shipping and have done with the navy, might get rich off it."

"Yeah, but traders are so boring and self-centered that you'd stick out like a sore thumb." replied Sam, "Though I'm not sure we'd be able to join the navy again without being hanged as deserters as well as cowards, thieves, liars and insubordinates."

"Well, whatever happens, that's the future, this is the present, and at present I'm so tired I could sleep in the ocean." yawned James. He and Sam rose, gave their plates to the galley cook and went to the hammocks that weren't taken. Sam was asleep almost before he had climbed into his hammock.