Captain Willie
By Rick Salsman, Copyright 1996 All Rights Reserved
"I tell true, sir, were no other man present who can say otherwise. You may lay to, as well, were no other man of a mind betrayan' of mine. The men were of one mind."
The page grumbled and asked the question again.
"Sir, do you vow to tell the truth to the best of your ability so help you God?"
"Indeed, my good friend, I was set to tell you."
"'I do' is sufficient if you are so inclined!" The scrawny page interrupted the man of twice his size. Though twice the size of the page, Mr. Rhene was far less a man behind the dark stained wood railing. The Courtroom dominated the man and turned him soft with the whisper of "Mutiny". Mr. Rhene turned with a start when he heard another in the room refer to him as a mutineer.
"Man of fortune, perhaps. Pirate most certain...but will never be a man as far from mutiny as Sir Marcus Rhene." He felt his pride swell to meet the shore of criticism as he thought his words into order.
"Mr. Rhene, please tell his honour your position on the Sueno." The prosecutor spoke as if from a script. His ritual hadn't changed for several months as the strange fruit of convicted pirates ripened as it adorned the trees on the shores of the Thames. It had only been these few months since His Magesty had deemed free-lance sailors pirates to protect his own weak and slow vessels.
"I were first mate on the Salinas before I come to serve under Captain Willy on the Sueno. I sailed under Teach long before and was in service of Captain Aburro 'til the Brave Sir Willy sliced the wind and come along side us. His men quiet and still with no more than a shaft of metal and the cool night to hide the glint of the blades. Not a ball was fired and still the Sueno took the Salinas before the sun was to wake."
"Mr. Rhene, please just maintain the details that are requested and relevant."
Mr. Rhene eased back and folded his arms. He couldn't find the irrelevant part of his reply, but quickly stood to again as he rememberd the pale faces adorned in their pirate finery. He remembered how much more hemp stretches under the weight of a hanging than a strong wind.
"Sir, I were the Coxswain on the Sueno. I come to the position by promotion from first mate under the captain of the Salinas."
"Please tell his honour what became of the Salinas." The Prosecutor seemed convinced that Mr. Rhene had somehow brought the demise of the Salinas. The seaman almost magestically grasped the suggestion.
"Now, Sir, uh, Your Honour, I were a sailor of good record abord the Salinas. It were the deeds of the fine Captain Willy did turn the Salinas from Spanish to Independant. I served on as Coxswain on the Sueno as due by the election." Mr. Rhene spoke in his assumptions that the isolated court might understand the codes of such man as he: Men of Fortune.
"Just what kind of 'election' might you have on such a journey?"
"Now Sir, Cap't Willy caught the Salinas in fair high seas fashion and the men 'board the two tubs knew it. It was called that the men must decide where to direct the ships. Half said Ocracoke the other men Twickenham. Teach took his men on the Salinas and our Captain set course for Twickenham. Dare I say, Sir, the bolder men set to Twickenham."
"Tell his Honour again about the fighting on the way to Twickenham."
"Now sir, for days our Captain struggled with some kind of consumption like no illness we had seen. He stayed awake all night and spoke in rhyme and odd tale of riches and dangers. He slept only when he stared deeply into the eyes of a mate or officer. He would gaze as if the sun were burning his eyes, but he couldn't see the slightest light. The men first thought he was sick.
As the journey got to, some men set to 'cipher the tales and rants of our belov'd captain. He tossed and toiled in bed. Full dressed, I say. His feet never touched deck and his blade rested close to hand the full journey.
It was late on the clearest night since we set to Twickenham when the men grew spooked by the tales. Our Captain had talked about silver, gold, magnificent stones and scarabs made pure of precious metals. He spoke too of the curse. He ranted and dripped of anxiety mumbling of fires and smoke. He spoke to his pillow and his blade as if they were his only council. He set the minds of the men, months at sea, to the toils of superstition. The men began to worry that Twickenham might be the end of us."
The gallery squirmed and splashed with an occasional wiggle as someone was taken in by the seaman's story. It was still and quiet, yet all who sat behind the rail listened with an activity seldom found in the best audiences. The Coxswain paused and the anticipation of everyone in the courtroom delicately balanced at the point of his pause. He drew a deep breath and continued as the nod from his accusers.
"As you know, Teach had taken the Salinas to Ocracoke, where I will remind you he did no better than our Captain. The men began to regret the vote and they began to talk of puttin' our Captain in the hold until we reached safe port. Then, we were to set him to land with his share and a gather more. The men loved the man, but had no mind to let him rave them into Mr. Jones Locker."
"Who is Mr. Jones, if you will..."
"Uh, Sir, the men were feared of the Captain's poor ability to tend to his duty in his state. They full meant to set him to and go on to Twickenham a sailor lighter. The election had Mr. Rolly set to take Sir Willy's duty.
Late in the evening, after we were set to capture our sick and fragile Captain, our first hand, Mr. Lister, was elected to call Sir Willy to deck and to secure him until the men could surface and maintain him to a safe location."
"Mr. Lister? He was the one to capture the captain?"
"Ay, Sir. Lister were to take the Captain to the deck and to wrap him in ropes safely for later deposit ashore. As I have said here to."
"And is Lister the seaman not present in this room?"
"Ay, Sir. Lister is joined Mr. Jones, the two rest below the waves to this date."
"Sir, you talk of Lister highly. How can the agent of this treachery be thought of highly? Do you consider Mr. Lister a good man?"
The trap was obvious, and as in error as all the prosecution. Mr. Rhene saw the net and altered course toward truth to keep his oath given to truth.
"Now, Sir, you may lay to the fact that Lister was our Captain's best friend. Not that the men had the company of each other for long. Still, Lister and our Captain shared strange looks and words. Lister understood the stories and rants. He wasn't scared of the talk of ghosts and haunted treasure. Lister tried to make sense of the talk to the other men. It were indeed why we elected Lister to entangle our beloved. The men fancied Lister a softer hand with respect to our Captain. T'were Lister who stopped the election by the other men to kill Captain Willy in his sleep. To put his misery awash."
"Are you saying the crew wanted to kill and overthrow the Captain?" The prosecutor lit up at his own suggestion.
"Ay, Sir, thar will always be talk of Mutiny even when none is to come to pass. Sure you wished your own mother molderin' when she cracked a switch across your larbored side."
A coarse roar exploded from the gallery and was met with a sharp clack of the gavel. The judge leaned to the bench and wiped his mouth to cover the snicker. The Prosecutor adjusted his collar and continued.
"So, Mr. Rhene, tell me about the conspiracy."
"Sir, thar were no conspiracy to kill our Captain. The men were afraid he was unfit for duty. Some, the more direct ones, said we were to kill him so make simple. Lister stopped all talk of this. T'were Lister who suggested to take prisoner the Captain and that is why the men voted Lister the agent."
The prosecutor shifted some papers from top to bottom and ran his finger across his brow to clear a path through the tiny droplet of perspiration. The wave of laughter at him from the gallery seemed to leave a spray across his powdered face.
"Sir, I was telling, Lister and me were to deck to lure the Captain from his tomb. He was to put lights out and sleep, but we heard him about and called. When he didn't come I pushed Lister to the Captain's door. He was unsure of such a direct tack and he and I began a struggle.
At first Lister was just plain cowardly. Then he made clear he wouldn't pound a door of a man ranting and waving a cutlass. He wanted the safe and secure capture of the man, not a struggle with blood and metal. Then the men surfaced to suggest that I push Lister to do the deed for which he was elected. The men had daggers in their eyes. Not for Lister, but for Willy should Lister's plan capsize.
Soon our own brawl brought our Captain to deck. I stood as if nothing were wrong. Coxswain is next to an officer and I have desires to become an officer to this day. So I stood to and Lister began the same. He looked at me and then our Captain. I could see he was unsure of his duty, but I saw him look again at the angry eyes of the men standing in the shadows by the ship's guns."
"Mr. Rhene, are you suggesting that the men were armed with powder weapons agianst the Captain?"
"No, Sir. The men were ahid behind the weapons in wait for Lister to make his grab for our sick Captain. It was then that he stood straight and launched at Captain Willy."
"Did Lister throw the Captain over board?"
"Now, Sir, such a direct accusation before I have finished is surely not to go unanswered."
The gallery began to erupt again but was quick to silence as the look on Mr. Rhene's face suggested he would slit the blanched throat of the prosecutor for his accusation. Or perhaps it was his interruption that brought the response. Still, the gallery calmned again as individual members let their hands glide slow to their sidearms.
"Sir, I was telling, Lister wanted to protect the Captain. The men liked Lister. They respected him second only to our Captain. Lister loved our Captain. No man wanted to kill the Captain except to save himself, and no man wanted to kill Lister. Lister had saved the men from their own guilt with his plan to incarcerate.
As it were, Lister lunged to the Captain and Sir Willy drew upon him with his cutlass. Lister, in defense, took to his weapon as a show while the other men set to grab our Captain with a rope. The Captain was too much a man for Lister and he disarmed him and put him to the deck.
Before we could say a word, Captain Willy had his boot on Lister as a stage for his address. The look in his eye frighted the men more than any tales he had told before. He squeezed the life from his best ally by even and slow pressure to his back. The men watched how slow Lister died and how painful. When Captain Willy shoved Lister's body into the drink to underscore his lecture, the men saw blood.
As I stepped back from Sir Willy I saw the men break in two columns with full weaponry drawn."
"So, Mr. Rhene, where is the Captain's body? How is it that the men say they never drew a drop of Sir Willy's blood? How can you tell this court that Lister was killed by the captain who then was never found? Why are we to believe that you, being captain as the ship was found, were not behind this mutiny?"
"Sir, the crew set to Captain Willy to bury him with Lister. He would have sure died for killing Lister if not for putting a curse on the ship with his own mad sickness. I set myself to the ship's main gun and locked gaze with Captain Willy.
The Captain stared at me for a moment and watched me turn the gun at him. I left the ball on the deck and dropped the fire to the fuse before the men could get to him."
"And what was the reason for this show of fireworks, if I may ask you fabricate..."
The prosecutor had lost all sense of formal litigation and was now locked full in irony and sarcasm. The gallery was set to lower on him with full fury of the men who know real piracy. He again adjusted his collar and Mr. Rhene could see how a rope might nicely fit the fragile neck behind the blossoming tie.
"Sir, I set to the main gun and fired her empty so make the sound that I knew would end the mutiny that was playing out before me."
"Mr. Rhene, how exactly will telling this court that firing an empty canon at your Captain is how you saved him from Mutiny?"
The judge raised an eyebrow and sipped his water in full expectation of a confession. Mr. Rhene, instead of squirming in anxiety, sat toward the railing and spoke in soft and confident strides as the Gallery finally rose up, all weapons drawn, and overflowed the bar.
"Now, most disrespectful Sir, I fired the canon so My Beloved Captain Willy would wake up."
A loud roar like a canon was heard within the courtroom. Before help could arrive, the prosecutor and judge lay dead in a sea of frothy blood and the pirates had fled chanting "Long Live Captain Willy!"
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