Children of The Angry Sea.. Part Three: Behold! The Queen Ann Swayne.

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They were a full eight days out to sea to the northeast of Norwich, and still had a full seven days sailing before they would be within reach of the eastern tip of the Penduline islands. The sea grew rough in spots and swelled mightily in others, slowing the progress considerably, on the morning of the eighth day the rain lashed out at them bringing up even larger swells and the wind began to blow harder into their sails pushing them farther into a fog bank, the wind slowed and settled leaving only the fog and though the seas were growing more troubled the mighty Sea Witch stayed her course. And though he had suffered through a restless sleep, Captain Tristian had come above deck just in time to hear Mr. Finch sound the general alarm.

"Captain Crowley! We have a ship in the fog bank sir!"

Tristian raised his eyes to look at Mr. Finch. who began frantically pointing out through the thickening fog.

"To our port, sir." Mr. Finch added.

He joined Finch on the half-deck and looked through his spyglass, studying the ship carefully. it sat still, silently, almost ghostly, rising and falling with the waves directly to the Sea Witches broad side, Finch gave him a concerned look.

"Sails are torn, no markings, they're not flying colors. No light, no lanterns." 

"Royal Navy sir?" Finch asked.

"Not a frigate, definitely not Navy, Too small, she's adrift, that much is certain."

Tristian changed position to get a better look at the strange ship floating in the distance.

"Kill all Lanterns and noise, all hands move to half sails, reduce speed, and bring us alongside her slow, Mr. Finch." He turned to look down at second mate Farrel Hooker. "Go below Hr. Hooker, put all port guns on full standby."  

He lifted the glass back up to his eyes, returning his attention to the ship.

"No Markings, No Flag, What do you make of it sir? in distress perhaps?" Mr Finch yelled.

Tristian slowly lowered the glass. Before looking back at Mr. Finch.

"There's no one on deck. And I can't see from the fog but if she has gun ports, they are closed, it's a merchant, Bring us in, slowly, I want a closer look."

It slowly drifted, bobbed and swayed there with the rise and fall of the waves. there were indeed gun ports on the side, but they never opened. He carefully scanned the upper decks for sailors maning the sails, he saw nothing.

"Slowly, Mr. Finch, bring us broadside."

The Sea Witch slowly closed to within 50 yards of the smaller ship, Captain Tristian never lowering his glass scanned the entire top of the vessel searching for anything that moved. there was nothing.

"Lower us a jolly in the water Mr. Finch, Osric, Theodore and Seton, you three will be coming with Mr. Hooker and I to board her, Mr. Hooker we'll need loaded Flintlocks and cutlasses. Mr. Finch you have the bridge, all hands stand by, that's an order."

They lowered the smaller boat into the water with Osric Pope, Theodore Paine and Seton Hitch aboard as oarsmen, Captain Tristian and Farrel Hooker would climb the ratlines of the distressed ship that had torn away from the main mast and were hanging over the sides and board her with Osric Pope and Seton Hitch, leaving young Theodore Paine to wait in and watch the Jolly. They rowed 52 yards to the broadside and the Captain and his men tested the strength of the ratlines and then scaled them, when they pulled themselves over the rails and boarded the upper decks, as far as he could see it, it was as much as he had feared there was no sign of the crew. They cautiously made their way to the first cargo hatch and opened it to see light coming out. There were lanterns still lit illuminating the lower cargo bay but still no signs of life to be seen. Osric, Farrel Hooker and Captain Tristian each retrieved a lantern and returned to the upper deck. 

Now more puzzled than ever Tristian made his way to the Captains quarters, there on the captain's desk were charts and two closed log books, One he guessed, was the captains log the other belonging to the Quartermaster. he placed them in a leather bag and returned to the Jolly, before climbing back down the side of the ship he turned to look it over once again, he looked at Osric, Seton and Farrel Hooker, and motioned for them to lower back into the jolly, the entire ship was empty, no captain, no officers, no crew, cargo completely intact. one small boat was all that was missing. and then Tristian saw something under the edge of the rail that hadn't been washed away by the rain, he ran his fingers through it and raised them to the light to see human blood, he walked a twenty-foot length of the railing and found other traces of it, as well as a strange residue that he could not place. They reboarded the Jolly and returned to the Sea Witch with the log book and charts, hopefully there would be answers hidden somewhere in its pages. When they cleared the port railing of the Sea Witch, he turned to look back at the abandoned vessel, that was when he noticed the anchor chain had been deployed.  He was greeted by Mr. Finch.

"All eyes to the water Mr. Finch, There is treachery afoot here sir, get us away from this vessel immediately." He stared solemnly at the doomed ship as the Sea Witch pulled away from her. Moses Finch once again appeared at his side.

"They dropped anchor, before the weather turned foul."

"Captain? what did you see, sir?"

"Nothing Mr. Finch, absolutely nothing, no crew, no captain, no officers, cargo intact. there was however the small matter of human blood beneath the port railings. Something happened to those poor lads aboard that ship, Mr. Finch, something very bad, I retrieved the Captain's and Quartermaster's logs and charts I'll be in my cabin reading. Armand Keel! you and Theodore take a couple of spyglasses up to the nest, sharp eyes to the port and starboard lads, The fore and aft, anything that moves in that water besides whales and the fishes sound the general alarm. The Witch will not be had by pirates today, mates. That is all."

He went to his cabin and sat in front of his own desk and emptied the contents of the leather pouch, he unrolled the charts and gave them a quick inspection before opening the ship's Captain's log. The name of the vessel was the Queen Anne Swayne, and the captains name was Hiro Shamus, it was a refitted small merchant ship tasked and commissioned by the Frizzante Spice and Rum company to deliver a small load of spices with twenty-two barrels of sugarcane rum to Whiteshire in Grimshim Bay on Tamberth island, off of the Horn of Belegedde, which according to the charts that he had, put them at about 1ooo miles off course. if they were coursed for the Belegedde, how did the ship end up 800 miles to the southwest of the Penduline cape? and what was so special on that ship that the 34-person crew had to be killed for? According to the log, the captain began to suspect that something wasn't right aboard his own ship, he used the word saboteur several times, he began setting four man watch teams at night to keep the vessel safe and on course. Three nights in a row the crew were disappearing from watch never to be seen again, what remained of his crew were not fighters but merchant sailors. They fell easy prey.

After the third night of watch, Captain Shamus came to the upper deck to find the first signs of trouble, in addition to the missing crew members, He found blood along the railings of the port bow, the watch crews hadn't gone missing they were murdered, and their bodies had been more than likely disposed of over the sides of the Queen Anne. The last entry in the journal was written four days before the Sea Witch had discovered the Queen Anne Swayne anchored in her last known position, and the way it was written was like he had a suspect, but the page where he had written it had been torn from the log book. On the empty page, Captain Tristian took a lead pencil and laid it sideways on the blank space and gently rubbed the lead across the indentation to see a single word appear... "Officers." Mister Finch knocked at his chamber door.

"Sir, we resumed our course and have pulled away from the vessel." Mr. Finch eyed him curiously as he stared down at the closed log book.

"Someone aboard cut the throats of the crew, and threw their bodies over the side to be rid of them, I suspect the officers at least in part murdered the captain as well. there was something far more valuable aboard that ship other than rum and spices." Tristian's eyes narrowed.

"Yes but why would they then abandon ship if they had already successfully taken it over sir?"

"I suspect the ship was someone else's prize, and the officers were already paid to leave it to be taken by whomever planned the mutiny, but the captain already had something aboard of greater value than their cargo, something that only he had known about, and perhaps the officers had only later discovered. They dropped anchor four full days before the foul weather after the deed had already been committed, and the real treasure aboard found and loaded onto the missing Jolly to which the officers took supplies and headed toward I'm guessing Archipelago island, it's only 60 miles to the west of here, five solid days of hard rowing could have put them there ahead of any storm."

"And their original destination, sir?" Mr. Finch questioned.

"According to the log book, Whiteshire in Grimshim Bay." Tristian answered.

Moses Finch's eyes widened.

"They were way off course, then?" 

"According to my calculations about 1000 miles off course. I must look into this log book further. hold our present course, Mr. Finch, you have the bridge until further notice.

"Aye Captain."

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