Samplers from Found at Sea

These are samplers from my pirate story, Found at Sea.  It will be a novel, if I ever finish it and if it ever gets published.  I've enjoyed writing in it up until I hit a gigantic writer's block, but I've been trying to think my way around it.  I'll post a little bit from it:

Plot Synopsis:

Robert Blackburn was marooned on an island on his second voyage. After spending a bit of time on the island, he begins to lose hope of ever seeing anything but water, sand, and palm trees for the rest of his life, which he wasn't expecting to be much longer. But then, the British war ship, the HMS Victoria, comes along and rescues him. Even after all the kindness the ship's chaplain, William Marston, shows him, Robert still takes every opportunity to rob from him and anyone else on the ship. Finally, after Robert pushes nearly everyone to their limits, William Marston demonstrates mercy to Robert in a way that will change his life forever—and the lives of the pirates that did him wrong.

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Chapter One

    The small island was surrounded by shimmering blue water as far as the eye could see. Several palm trees fluttered in the breeze, their leaves seeming to wave a greeting to the clear blue sky above. The white sand covering the beach was soft and warm under the noonday sun.

    However, things on this island were far from peaceful. A man ran back and forth on the beach, screaming and cursing at the retreating silhouette of a ship. The large black vessel had almost disappeared over the horizon. The man ran out into the clear blue water until it sloshed around his waist. He yelled one last curse at the top of his voice as the ship vanished from his sight.

    "Morrigan!!!" he shouted. "You'll regret the day I get off this island!" His threat was lost in the wind. He trudged back to shore and sat down, scanning the horizon for any sign of an approaching ship.

    When none came by nightfall, he collapsed on the beach in despair and tried to fight back the tears that threatened to spill over. A lone seagull flew overhead. Its throaty call sounded like laughter. The palm trees seemed to shake their heads in disgust at the marooned man. Even the wind sounded like it had a tone of reprimand. He pulled his bandana over his ears in a desparate attempt to shut out the sounds of his new surroundings. At last, he let the sweet relief of sleep overtake him.

 

    Cheering. Applause. The metallic chink of gold hitting gold. They were the sounds that filled the ears of young Captain Robert Blackburn as he dropped the last few coins of his first raid into a large leather pouch. He haughtily dusted off his hands and turned to the crew of his ship, the Vengeance.

    "Gentlemen," he began, "today has been a successful venture for us as pirates." He propped a foot on one of the leather pouches. "These bags contain not only gold, but plenty of food, drink, and various other necessities to get us through till our next raid!"

    The ship echoed with the chants of victorious pirates.

    "All of you played a rather important role in my brilliant scheme, but I would like to bring special recognition to my first mate and very good friend, Levi Morrigan."

     A tall, thin man in the front raised a fist of victory, eliciting more cheers from the crew.

    Robert took a handful of coins and threw them to the expectant hands waving wildly in the air. "Take your shares, and make sure they're even!" he commanded, and every pirate on the ship rushed forward to get their hands on the gold, silver, food, drink, clothing, and whatever other plunder the bags contained. Robert scaled the stairs that led to the quarterdeck and took the helm. Checking his map and compass, he adjusted a few degrees north and sailed on . . .

 

    Robert's eyes flew open. Could it possibly have been a dream? Was he back in his cabin on the Vengeance? The grit of sand between his teeth and the sound of the wind rustling the palm leaves reminded him of where he was. In frustration, he spit on the beach and gazed in agony over the clear blue water that reflected the sunrise. The world was waking up.

    He pushed himself to his feet and began to search the island for any trace of food. He was happy to find several banana trees and some good-sized coconuts. The coconuts had inside of them a white, milky liquid that tasted sweet and helped to quench his thirst.

    Robert stayed on the island for another week, living entirely on bananas and coconut milk. Eventually, the fruit started to rot and the coconuts started to run dry. He began to feel dread and fear creep into his heart, and he ate as little as he could, trying to preserve the fruit. He ate the rotting fruit first so it wouldn't rot beyond edibility. In another week, every bit of food on the island was gone. He went a day without anything to eat, and he could barely sleep that night because of the hunger that racked his entire body. The sleep that came was fitful, and filled with haunting dreams of the past.

 

    I did it last time and no one noticed, Captain Blackburn thought to himself. They won't notice this time.  It was shortly after his second raid, and he was counting out his portion of the spoils. His larger portion. The portion he had hid so nobody could tell he had cheated.

    But suddenly, unexpectedly, Morrigan came through the cabin door! "Cap'n, the men'll be wonderin' when . . . " He stopped in mid-sentence, his gaze shifting from the large stack of goods on the table to Robert's greed-riddled face. He opened his mouth to yell at Robert, but the only sound Robert could hear was the cawing of seagulls . . .

 

    Robert sat bolt upright. Seagulls were everywhere! They wheeled and spun overhead, crying and squawking. Several were running back and forth along the shoreline, and others flocked around Robert. He jumped to his feet and flailed his arms at them, shouting louder and louder in an attempt to scare them away. However, the gulls were only encouraged by this. They thought he was throwing food to them, and they grew excited. They cackled in delight and dove in closer. Grabbing a nearby palm leaf, he waved it above his head, intent on whacking any gull that came too close. Just as he was getting ready to swing, he was distracted.

    A group of the gulls were bickering over something. They chased each other across the beach, bills open and wings outstretched in a threat. Robert creeped closer to see what they were fighting over. A fish, mostly untouched, was the cause of the disturbance. He was overcome with hunger. His need for food took control of his thoughts and he rushed into the midst of the angry birds to get the fish. Once it was in his hands, he ran to the shelter of the trees and hid it under a palm leaf. Robert stacked dry palm leaves on the beach and held his pistol close to the leaves. He pulled pack the hammer and trigger halfway to ignite the flint. A spark leapt from the flint and set the leaves ablaze.

    The gulls were startled by the flames and flew away, scolding him as they went.

    Robert skewered ths fish on his cutlass and held it over the fire, which was now sending thick columns of black smoke into the air.

 

    Robert was so busy with his fish he didn't notice the white sails on the horizon. They were the sails of the British war ship, the HMS Victoria.

    Captain James Evans looked out across the water. In the distance he could see a very small island with clouds of black smoke billowing from it.

    "Commodore, what do you make of that?" he asked curiously.

    Commodore Matthew Abrahams followed James' gaze to the narrow strip of land. He opened his telescope and surveyed the island.

    "Probably some poor wretch marooned and left for dead. The smoke could be a call for aid." He lowered his telescope and returned to his business-as-usual attitude, acting as if the island wasn't even there.

    That didn't feel right to James. "Well?" he pressed.

    "Well what?" replied the commodore in a rather irritated tone.

    "Shall we rescue him?"

    "The very question is unthinkable," he retorted. "Only pirates would maroon each other, and just the thought of having a pirate aboard this ship is enough to give me heart failure."

    Another man had been listening to the exchange between the two. His name was William Marston, and he was the ship's chaplain. He edged his way into the conversation.

    "If I may add my opinion—"

    "You may not." Commodore Abrahams cut him short.

    William continued as if he hadn't been interrupted. "—it's not right that we should leave him out there. He's all alone on that island, and for all we know, he could be out of food and water."

    "Let him starve, then," muttered Abrahams.

    Ignoring Abrahams' comment, William went on. "If we leave him there to die, we will be no better than the people that marooned him in the first place."

    James looked at the commodore expectantly, anxiously awaiting his decision.

    Abrahams stewed over William's comments for several minutes. He did not want to have a filthy, thieving pirate aboard his ship, but he certainly did not want to be compared with a pirate either. Deciding that being equal with pirates was worse than having one aboard, he turned to James and said in a low, disgruntled voice, "Adjust course five degrees northeast."

 

    Robert threw the fish's bones onto the beach and began to search for more food. When he couldn't find anything, he looked up at the sky for more gulls, his own version of Elijah's ravens at the Brook Cherith.

    That was when he saw it.

    A huge, beautiful ship was sailing right in his direction! He shouted and waved as the ship came closer and closer. Overjoyed, he began to swim out to the boat. A sailor threw a rope to him and he was hoisted aboard.

    "Welcome, our new friend," a man said. He was holding a Bible, and he had a kind smile on his face.

    Before Robert had a chance to respond, he was knocked to the deck and his hands were being shackled with iron fetters. He loudly protested.

    The man with the Bible jumped to Robert's defense. "Commodore Abrahams, was that entirely nece—"

    But he was cut off. "With the authority given to me by the British Crown, I place you under arrest for piracy, murder, and whatever you did to earn yourself a mutinous crew. State your name."

    Robert remained silent.

    "Pirate!" Abrahams shouted. "I believe I asked you to state your name!"

    "On the contrary," Robert shouted back, "You did not ask me to state my name. Your rather rudely told me to. That would make what you just said a lie."

    Abrahams drove the heel of his shoe between Robert's shoulder blades. "You filthy, disrespectful pig! State your name!"

    "No!"

    Abrahams added a sudden burst of weight into the heel of his shoe, driving it further into Robert's back.

    "Would you please stop doing that?" Robert moaned.

    Yet another burst of weight was added to Abrahams' shoe.

    "Commodore!" Robert shouted. "I believe I asked you to stop!"

    The commodore removed his foot, only to bring it back and slam it into Robert's ribcage. "Must you test my patience?"

    "I must," Robert said as he gasped for air.

    Abrahams' foot came back once more, but before he could strike Robert again, William ran between the angry commodore and the weakened pirate.

    "Commodore," he said softly, "why did you accuse him of such things before you know them to be true?"

    Abrahams said nothing.

    "And why are you being so violent with him? Maybe if he had something to eat and drink, he would be more willing to speak."

    "Reverend Marston," Abrahams huffed, quite irritated, "if you allow me to do my job, I will allow you to do yours."

    "But I already am doing my job," stated William matter-of-factly.

    Abrahams scoffed. "It is your job, then, to question my authority?"

    "It is my job," said William, "to make sure the love and mercy of Christ is shown to everyone aboard this ship." He looked down at Robert, who was still trying to recover from the blow to his ribs. "No matter who they are . . . or what they've done."

    The commodore scowled at William before finally conceding with his wishes. He pulled the gasping and panting Robert to his feet. "Since Reverend Marston has been so kind to save you from what you really deserve, pirate," he spat out the last word as if it were a curse, and locked his gaze on William's sullen face, "he will accompany you to the galley."

 

That's what I got for you so far!  I hope you enjoyed it!  Hopefully, more samplers will be on the way soon.  And please remember, I have the right to press charges if this work, either in part or in entirety, is reproduced without my permission.  That's my miniature version of the FBI Warning you see in every movie.