“Where are their captain and his two officers?” demanded Heinrich. “Faria was his name.”
Reiner looked at Heinrich and whispered while pointing and nodding his head in the direction of the rowboat nearby. “I believe he and one of his officers are still hiding under the boat over there.”
Heinrich acknowledged with a nod as he followed Reiner and Diego to the overturned boat. Heinrich banged on the boat’s hull with his sword handle.
“Faria. This is Captain Drope. I believe you can come out now since the fighting is at an end and your ship has been fully taken.”
No one answered from underneath, and Heinrich said, “Captain, let’s not play any more games. I am not in the mood for any more tricks either, so come out, or I will have my men fire into the boat.”
The boat began to move and lift as first boots appeared; then another set of boots came forth. A moment later the two Portuguese officers, the captain, and his second officer, were standing albeit with a bit of the shakes as they had been bested at their own game by a supposed merchant vessel crew. Reiner and Diego stripped them of their weapons and pushed them to the center deck to have them see with their own eyes the utter devastation they had ordered their men subjected to.
“Have mercy on us, captain,” Faria begged as he visually trembled at the sight before him. Heinrich stared at him with angry disdain. Several more gunshots erupted from the stern section where Arnold and Bruno’s men had gone off to in purging the ship of enemies. The effect of the shots wasn’t entirely lost on Faria’s mind.
“It was but a bad mistake on my part. I thought that you might have been a … a privateer ship,” Faria stated. “I was only trying to protect my cargo.”
Heinrich brought his face in closer to the man and glared at him with what to Faria seemed like steel-casted eyes from just inches away with furious indignation, “If that were the case, you would have stayed your course and avoided my ship, but instead you decided to approach to exploit us.”
“But captain…if we kept our course, I … figured you would have chased us down and -”
“Enough!” barked out Heinrich. “I will not be subjected to your ridiculous story. You are nothing but a thieving liar. Do not take me for a fool, Faria. Your gamble failed and now your crew and mine have paid dearly for your folly and you will also. Herr Mannheim, please see to it that these renegade seafarers are confined to the brig.”
“Jawohl, captain; with much pleasure.”
Reiner called four men over and instructed them to take the two Portuguese away.
“Off with you,” Reiner said and pushed Faria for both officers to start walking.
Assault boarders started coming out of the quarters below ship holding a total of thirty-eight men and six cabin boys under arms. Bruno and Arnold shortly came back from aft of the ship escorting an additional sum of twenty-two more enemy sailors walking with surly expressions, which immediately turned into fearful ones as they saw the volume of death around them.
“These are all we can find alive, captain,” Bruno and Arnold reported.
“Good job, men,” said Heinrich. “Put them together in the hold of this ship under guard.”
Heinrich went around checking on his wounded crewmen. Doc Siegfried was able to treat and save five mates who had been wounded severely. They were carefully transported back to their ship.
“Many other men with minor wounds; they should be up and around within days,” Siegfried told Heinrich. Siegfried shook his head slowly and held a grimace of disgust. “Four crewmen are dead, Heinrich. I couldn’t do anything for them; they had expired before the battle ended.”
Heinrich felt ill at hearing the news. His crew had performed excellently, but the fact that four had died and others had suffered severe wounds was terrible news.
“Thank you, Siegfried, for saving the five,” Heinrich said solemnly. Siegfried said nothing and left to attend to the wounded. The man would not be satisfied unless no one had died. It was a terrible price to pay in human terms. Siegfried would do his best to see to the Portuguese wounded after he finished with his own crewmen. Later that day Drope would be given the final count of the battle. The pirate ship sustained the staggering figure of a hundred and forty-three men killed, with thirty-two of them wounded. That was over three-quarters of their crew; a deadly price to pay.
Heinrich’s crew had fought fierce and gallantly, but their dead and wounded was no consolation; his heart was in torment over that fact. So, this is how it must feel for a commander on a bloody battlefield, he reflected grimly. Even victory comes hard with pangs of anguish. He was grieve-stricken and leaned against the starboard bulwark taking in the gory scene before him as he pondered over the brutal battle.
Otto came to his side and said nothing. What was there to say after Heinrich had seen everything already? It was a time for thoughtful reflection. Otto was ashen-faced after seeing the horror onboard. Nothing could prepare a man for such a gruesome scene. After several more minutes, Heinrich straightened up and looked at his first officer and friend.
“Might as well look at the ship while we’re here.” He led off with Otto, as Anton fell right behind and the three went over the entire vessel. Injured men continued their litany of moans, groans, and screams from painful wounds. The stench of death would have surely been overwhelming if the sea breeze was not blowing. It had an austere tendency to cloud one’s mind and bring forth a person’s bitter senses in the most disturbing of ways. Heinrich kept fighting the urge to simply succumb to emotions, laboring hard to concentrate on the task that befell him as captain; to be resolute in his thinking and stay focused on what had to be done in this macabre moment.
They entered the cargo holds and were stunned to see them all full to the brim with wooden boxes. Boxes filled with various spices. Several piles even were stacked up on deck for lack of space. Faria did lie about his amount of cargo. Heinrich decided on the spot to have it all transported to his ship. He and Otto guessed it would probably fill three-quarters of their ship’s larger cargo hold.
“Take whatever you feel could be of use to us and transfer it to our ship, Otto. That obviously means the weapons also.”
Otto nodded and went to find Fritz Huber to put together a large party of sailors for the task. Klaus approached Heinrich and asked if he was all right. Heinrich instantly looked at the tall lad. He had forgotten Klaus in the excitement of the battle. Mentally he thought he should never do that as important as the lad meant to him.
“As good as can be expected under the circumstances,” he answered. He noticed the dark splotches of crimson red on Klaus’s and involuntarily his thought was that the lad might have been wounded. Klaus saw the dread in Heinrich’s face and realized directly what he must have been thinking.
“I’m fine; it’s not my blood,” he stated. The lad was unexpectedly calm and not besieged with fear after having been on Gerhard Sauer’s number five boarding team that stormed the pirate ship and had been in the midst of the killing and fully participating in it. Heinrich avoided asking Klaus any of the details; at least for now. There would be plenty of time to discuss with him about it later. Heinrich briefly thought what he would have felt if this young man, who he had taken under his wing and had adopted as family, had suffered death during the battle. It gave him a bitter taste in his mouth, and he drove the thought aside as rapidly as he could. He put an arm over the lad’s shoulder and held it there for a moment in silence. Klaus knew what Heinrich was thinking and squeezed Heinrich’s arm in reciprocation.
“You should get back to the ship and away from this slaughter.” he softly said looking at Klaus with moist weary eyes, which the lad did not miss.
“I will in due course. I will stay with the other boarders. I’m all right, don’t worry. Please don’t take this fight so hard; it was unavoidable. There was nothing you could have done otherwise,” Klaus stated factually, and yet laced with a gentle composure in trying to reach out to Heinrich’s pained spirit. Heinrich couldn�
��t but help think how far Klaus had come in his maturity level in such a short time. He was extremely proud of his younger adopted brother. He squeezed Klaus’s shoulder again and let go. “Go then and join your mates,” he could only say at the moment in his emotional state. We will talk later.”
“Aye, captain,” the lad answered and went walking off, sword scabbard dangling against his leg. Heinrich watched him go for a moment with a feeling of admiration the way Klaus had held himself up lately; then turned back to his thoughts of what to do now after defeating this ship. He decided to call his entire crew together later in the afternoon to address them regarding the battle and rain down praise upon them for their valiant action. Then he would meet with his section heads privately and go over the incident with them. For now, he would leave his crew alone together and allow them some time to confront their demons over what had occurred and have them discuss it among each other. He thought it was best that way for now. In the meantime, he decided to have the Portuguese crewmen who were not wounded start preparing their dead mates for burial and to clean the ship of the blood and gore. He wanted the decks to be scrubbed thoroughly clean before the sun went down this day. It was the very least the scoundrels could do to bring some semblance of order and regularity back. He went at once to order this done.
* * *
The crew was assembled as Heinrich stood on his railed platform on the afterdeck housing looking out over his men with a tight-lipped smile, as he was still in serious thought of the day’s horrific action. He was emotionally drained and figured his crewmen were as well. He was wondering how one carries himself after experiencing such a deadly confrontation. ‘Certainly not with a happy attitude and toothy grin’ his mind answered. As much as he was extremely grateful his men had not suffered any more than they did, he certainly didn’t want to give the impression that he was elated about the event and look like he didn’t care about the casualties. That would make him out as a cold bloodthirsty individual, which he was not. He didn’t feel overjoyed in the least.
“Men, my first instinct up here is to take my hat off to all you in what you … and I seriously mean you, accomplished on this fateful day. If it weren’t for your bravery in defense of your fellow shipmates against a belligerent enemy, we would not be standing here right now. But the fact is that we are standing here together because you took the fight to those despicable brigands and you beat them at their own game. They thought we were a weak target to be wagged about as all bullies believe they can, but you showed them wrong.
I want to say that I am a proud captain sailing the seas with a crew as trustworthy, loyal, and of worthy fighting men that any ship could possibly boast about. Now I say this in all seriousness, and at the same time, I want you to know that I am deeply grieved for the loss of four good, decent and brave men today. There is no harder fact than facing that truth, and it sickens my insides in the knowledge that we lost four fellow mates. Our hearts are heavy with grief. I believe and do not doubt that they fought their hearts out in protecting those of you who stood shoulder to shoulder with them. As much as we all feel their absence among us, they did not die for nothing. They gave their lives to save ours. So, we have a great responsibility a duty to them to go on with our lives. To do otherwise would null their sacrifice. Oh no, we are not men who would allow that to happen. The very air we breathe right now was paid for by their deaths. We owe these four courageous mates a debt. A debt paid by our cause to go forward with our plans.”
Heinrich paused to let his words sink in as he looked at his crew. He looked at faces that showed a mix of expressions; hardened and staunch, yet all very gloomy. All had experienced the dread of combat, and they would never be the same for it. It was tragic and yet heartening because they had escaped death’s gruesome result. These were hardened sailors; men who had years of harsh experiences under their belts. Yet the shocking and destructive bane of deadly combat went beyond what any of them had ever endured. The tragic encounter had taken a toll on all of them, which no one could ever reverse. But Drope still needed a crew that could bounce back from tragedy with resilience to continue their business endeavor.
He saw a head nod from a sailor below, and he acknowledged it by nodding back. Albeit just a slight gesture, men had noticed and gradually began to nod in turn. The simplest of salutations became contagious as others followed suit and somber expressions changed to stern ones. Heinrich balled up his fists, raised them over his head and extended them outward to his men. Men now began to stand straighter and mirror his gesture while showing strong resolve on their faces and postures.
Producing a hard stare with fists raised, he stated, “I am still outraged at the audacity of the Portuguese ship to decide to attack and seek to plunder us. We did not break under their attempt to do us in. I say to you all to hold your heads up high in the fact that we stood by each other’s side today against an antagonistic foe that sought to destroy us.”
He could see he was getting through as faces from below began to look at him more intently. There were always others that would take more time to sort things out in their minds, and he hoped the motivation and encouragement of those with stronger resolution would take hold over them in the days to come.
“Now, we will continue our voyage to San Juan as planned just as soon as we decide what to do with the remaining pirate crew, and damn anyone who stands in our legitimate way as free men when we reach our destination. You will be given port calls as always and make the most of your time in town. You deserve it, and that’s an order.”
At that announcement, grins broke out among the men.
“Each will be given an extra stipend when we reach port.”
Although somewhat subdued, bigger grins broke out across the decks.
Heinrich had to shout to be heard. “That’s all I have to say at this time, men. You are dismissed.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EXECUTION of a PLAN
Late that evening the section heads gathered in Heinrich’s cabin to discuss the fate of the Portuguese crew. All of them looked haggard, and blood splotches still stained their flesh and clothes from the brutal battle. None had the time to clean up. The mood was pensive at best as they awaited their captain. The men did not take joy in deciding other men’s destinies – especially when it may include death. However, to a man, they believed that these Portuguese scoundrels had well decided their fates by their own actions.
When he walked in and sat down, Heinrich didn’t hesitate, and he plowed right in proceeding with a quick summary of the ensuing action as it happened just hours before. He could have easily communicated with great detail of the incident as everyone’s memory was quite fresh and they could all have contributed to the horrific account. Rather than having the group reliving the agonizing episode he decided to stick to pertinent details in regards to the encounter with the Portuguese ship and get to the consequence of those still alive. His entire crew would have plenty of time to relive the episode in the days and weeks to come. And he knew no one looked forward to that reality.
He keenly understood the grievous countenance that had swooped heavily onboard ship and had gripped the crew. And in his cabin it was if there hung a musty odor of foreboding sadness caused by the death of shipmates and outrage at having violence waged against them by the pirate crew. All this was not lost on any of the men present in the room as the mental anguish coursed through everyone’s minds like an open wound festering with intense agony.
It was due to this bitter emotional state which had settled amongst them that Heinrich wanted the men to discuss the punishments to be meted out soon as he had highlighted what he thought was pertinent. He figured the outrage against the Portuguese would all too easily form the appropriate level of punishments. Not necessary to Doctor Siegfried Strobel as the caring humanitarian balked at such severity.
The good doctor recommended all the Portuguese including their wounded be taken to San Juan for further medical care. A heated discussion followed with t
he doctor’s suggestion receiving overwhelming opposition. “These wounded men need medical care to survive their injuries,’ he argued vehemently. “I can’t believe you are so cruel to send even the non-wounded men off in rowboats to face probable death. Haven’t we seen enough fatality? We are not murderers.”
Arnold Schroeder spoke up. “Doctor, you are missing the point. They are pirates for Thor’s sake! They attacked us. Those men have slain our men, without conscience. I respect you for your commitment to saving lives, even scoundrel’s lives, but we have to draw the line somewhere. We are not a ship of Franciscan monks sailing the seas to give sanctuary and medical aid to the needy.”
“I agree with Arnold,” said Manfred. “We have no obligation to treat them with mercy. I have complete disdain of what they did. Throw good intentions out and give them what they deserve. Damn their souls!”
“That is vile talk. We should be grateful we came out of this fight in such good condition. We were lucky,” Strobel argued.
“Tell that to our dead and wounded, doctor,” countered Manfred. “See how they feel about showing mercy to these cutthroats!”
Conrad jumped in. “Lucky? To hell with being lucky to have survived such a foul deed! We came through it as well as we did because of our ability to fight; no other reason, doctor. They had absolutely no mercy on us. They would have wiped us off the face of this earth if it were not for our ability to have beaten them.”
“Look, I understand our anger at what happened, but being just as wretched in regard for life is not who we are. We are better than this,” exclaimed Strobel.
“Yes, we are, doctor. That is why we are recommending these men be sent off without killing them. If that isn’t enough mercy compared to what they committed, I do not know what is,” Conrad said with a scowl.
Winds of Fury Page 47
