Children of The Angry Sea... Part Four: The Ruse.

 

He had stayed at it, going over the entire log book, for several hours until Mr. Finch once again came knocking upon his chamber door. He bellowed for him to enter, which Mr. Finch did with a hesitancy, as if unsure of what to expect from his Captain. He entered the chambers at just before 7:00 PM with a tray of food, Morley Trimble the Sea Witches cook had prepared the last of the roast mutton with roasted potatoes with other root vegetables with a bottle of fine wine. Mr. Finch, when the Captain failed to show up for the officer's meal, grew slightly concerned and decided to take his dinner to chambers. When he entered, there stood Tristian over the walnut map table with papers strewn in an unorderly fashion about his feet, pining over the Queen Anne Swayne's nautical charts as if he were silently hoping to find some unknown secret of life. Mr. Finch sat the tray of food down on the desk before joining him at the map table. Calmly clasping both hands behind his back at the wrists, his own eyes now wandering across the nautical charts, trying to discover for himself what Tristian was seeing.

"What are we seeing then, Captain sir?" He asked.

Tristan shot him a sideways glance, and looked back down at the charts, calmly lying his pencil down. He produced a tall flat hard spined book that he had also retrieved from Captain Shamus's chambers. He gave Mr Finch a curious look.

"Quartermasters log, Mr. Finch, time measured and kept in meticulous fashion, look at the last entry when they were scheduled to leave port at Old Towne Lyptak at 0700 hours on a Monday morning, November 3rd heading due East, this chart here shows the original course, they should have taken to get to Whiteshire in Grimshim bay, Now setting that aside, This ships quartermaster had this trip calculated down to the exact hour."

He closed the book and then reopened it at the first page.

"Now then, take note Mr. Finch, the quartermasters name according to the signature in the upper left-hand corner of this first page, is Benjamin Holm. Now we go to the captain's log and look in the later entries, and we discover, that after members of the crew on the first nights watch on the half-deck came up missing, on the second night whose name is mentioned first to go on the next watch. Benjamin Holm, Now I ask you, there are missing men already, the captain does not know at this point in time if they washed or jumped overboard or were possibly murdered, so he appoints his ship's quartermaster to the very next watch? Curious decision is it not? now then we go back into the captains log on the 35th page where he notes in his own log that they left port in Old Towne Lyptak on Sunday night, November 2nd a full 12 hours earlier than what is registered in the quartermasters record?"

"So someone changed the course set by the quartermaster?"

"So, following on this line, they must have gone northeast rather than due east. And they left a week early to allow for the change in course. So they didn't go off course it was a planned alteration, the extra 12-hour time allowance as much as states it so."

"And the only one that could alter the course would be-"

"The Captain himself." Finch said.

"The captain and the officers sold the ship beforehand to privateers or pirates, left it in a predesignated place, killed the quartermaster and crew, dropped anchor and left the ship, and it's cargo for whoever paid for it and abandoned it on the jolly and took whatever else the captain had smuggled aboard to sell or deliver. The one thing they hadn't calculated was the storm, which created time for us to make the discovery."

"And left behind the log? Why?"

"Part of the Ruse, Mr. Finch. of that I am now certain. A ruse left behind in case someone made the discovery before the ship was taken."

"As we did."

"You wouldn't bother with searching for someone whom you already thought dead. hold our present course, Mr. Finch, we'll be placing our own four-man watch team tonight. assemble the crew below the half-deck, I will briefly address them."

They gathered below the half-deck to where Captain Tristian Crowley addressed his concerns as to the fate of the crew of the recently discovered Queen Anne Swayne. The Sea Witch would hold course making its way toward the eastern tip of the Penduline Islands, before sailing onto Pigrim The weather had calmed some and the wind though slowed it steadily kept them on their course. He addressed his crew with great concern over the fate of the crew of the doomed Queen Anne, He himself, along with Farrel Hooker, Seton Hitch and young Theodore Paine would stand watch while the rest of the crew rested, all would be armed with loaded Flintlocks and cutlasses one to port, one the starboard, one on the foredeck leaving Captain Tristian himself to keep a sharp eye on the aft. They would sail on through the night maintaining their course without incident, however at first light Seton Hitch would yell out to Tristian from the starboard the same time as the captain himself spied the small boat set adrift on the horizon. He stepped up behind Seton Hitch, softly patting him on the shoulder while whispering as if someone would hear.

"Sharp eye lad." 

He raised the spyglass to see the small boat gently bobbing and swaying in the current, surrounded by a soft blanket of fog. Mr. Finch now appeared on his right side. The rest of the crew had gathered on the top deck, now all looking on with growing curiosity. As the Sea Witch drew closer to the small craft, Captain Tristian could see someone lying in the bottom of the boat, they came alongside it, and he ordered the ship's doctor to come topside. Doctor Irwin Donaldson had been the most recent addition to the Sea Witch before Fiona Tidas, but he had many times over earned the respect of his Captain and crew. He and Tristian lowered themselves into the small craft to check the body for life, but when the doctor had turned the head of the older man, the hole in his forehead told them that his death had been swift.  He raised the sleeve cuff on his right wrist to see a tattoo of a human skull, beneath it the letters H.S. in his hand he was clutching something, and when Tristian unfurled it in his palm he found a small red ruby. 

"Ahhh, and we now know of the prize," Tristan said while holding the small precious stone up to the light. 

Irwin Donaldson gave him an odd look.

"Yes, but why leave it to him? he's already dead." He asked.

"Payment from a guilty conscience, for his part in the conspiracy, Doctor. Mr. Finch! if you please, send down a line we'll bring the body aboard, we'll wrap him in our old stitch sailing, at least we can give him a proper burial at sea. Leave the boat adrift." 

They returned to The Sea Witch raising the body of Captain Hiro Shamus whom they wrapped and stitched him closed in old sail canvas, and laid him at the port side while waiting for the captain to say a few words, for the fallen sailor. While in private the Captain and the doctor both knew of the stone, and Tristian, knowing his crew, would trust them to speak to them of the absolute truth on the matter. The Doctor however questioned whether anyone should be told about the small stone they found in Shamus's palm. Still Tristan stood fast on his decision, he would hold nothing back. He would not speak a lie to his crew.

"My mates, it has now been 4 days past since we found in the storm the vessel known as The Queen Anne Swayne, anchored and abandoned, with her crew freshly murdered. From the evidence I have read in the Queen Anne's log, written by this man's own hand speaks of this dire fate suffered by her crew, the evidence tells me that the man you see lay before you conspired with his officers to murder their quartermaster and shipmates, and to leave the ship, and it's cargo to privateers or pirates who bought the ship and arranged the deed. I believe this was carried out because the captain, perhaps with the aid of one or more of his officers, smuggled aboard a cache of valuable gemstones. He died at the hands of his officers, who boarded an unknown vessel and left him to die adrift in the jolly they used to abandon the Queen Anne. when we return to Norwich, I will turn all the evidence over to the Royal Navy. For now, we say a few words for Captain Hiro Shamus.

"O Father, grant his family today, and in the days hereafter, peace and comfort in the glory of his service to his fellow man, and flawed though he may have lived, Please forgive o' lord, his trespasses his sins and misdeeds, against his fellow man, cleanse his soul, and may he find peace and comfort in the knowledge that he now sails with you, O Lord, our maker and protector."

"All hands Sail away, Mr. Finch. Take us around the eastern Tip."

 

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