by Smith, Skye
The next morning they set out with only four men aboard. Robert to man the tiller, Daniel to inspect everything as they sailed, Jacob to yell out instructions, and Weston to man the lines. Daniel had never liked or trusted Tom Weston, but fair was fair. Since Weston was signed on as their pilot, he had a right to learn about Bermuda's harbours.
They circled Saint Georges Harbour twice before heading out to sea through Saint Georges Channel. The channel was deep and free of reefs and therefore this harbour was the best choice of a storm hole for larger ships, even though it was not the largest harbour. Thus Saint Georges had become the main harbour and its village had become the main town of the islands. 'Islands', for Bermuda was not one island but the interlocking of many islands that looked like one from out to sea.
Saint Georges was at the north eastern end of Bermuda, and their sea trial course was to circle Bermuda completely, or more exactly, figure-of-eight the islands through the many bays and channels. Even though there were only three of them ever doing the work of sailing the heavy thirty-five foot boat, they spent most of their time sitting beside Robert at the tiller where they exchanged stories, and listened to Jacob's half-Dutch, half-English understanding of how things worked in Bermuda.
"In 1609 the Sea Venture vas blown onto the reefs by the goddess of winds, so the first settlers here vere actually supposed be settling in Jamestown, Virginia,” Jacob told them. "To get off Bermuda, they dismembered the wreck of the Sea Venture and built two smaller ships from the pieces. They completed the journey to Jamestown on those two ships but had to leave a few settlers here. Jamestown vas a great disappointment after Bermuda, ... so they came back. That is vy Bermuda was first claimed by the Virginia Company, even though it is now run by the Somers Isles Company.
One thing ve have a lot of in Bermuda is shipwrecks. There vere many wrecks before the Sea Venture and there have been many since. It is that goddess of winds, ja, that Hurakan. Her winds circle like a giant whirlpool in the sky and suck all other storms towards it so it builds bigger and bigger as it moves. Every summer folk are cast ashore in ones or twos or in entire boatloads, and them speaking every language you can think of."
"What happens to them?" Weston asked.
"Most of them stay on, for though there is not much coin to be made in Bermuda, the life is easy here. Or it vould be easy if not for the Company. The Company patent gives them the rights to all profits made from farming, but this is a small island with little land worth planting. They try to force the islanders to grow tobacco for them, but the folk are more interested in growing food, and in reaping the bounty from the sea and from the ships that seek haven here. Because of the Company I am in the business of re-rigging rather than shipbuilding. The Company refuses to let me cut the local cedars I need for the planking unless the ship is commissioned by the Company."
Jacob nudged Robert and motioned that he should steer through the next bay to the south, which he called Castle Harbour. Daniel and Weston did not need to stand up to adjust the sails, for the trimming could be done using the lines they had run to their seats. "This is too easy,” Daniel told Jacob. "We are four but need only three. How many more crew would we need in rough weather."
"I always say 'double the crew' for foul weather,” Jacob replied. "Not for the normal running, but for the 'oopsies' that always seem to happen ven everyone already has their hands full. So long as you don't have a tall mast with too much sail, you don't need many men. The Swift has short masts, ja. She will be vell behaved with my rig."
Robert and Daniel exchanged raised eyebrows. They both knew that even if it took a month in Bermuda, they must have this type of rig on the Swift before they left for England. Weston nudged Robert and motioned for him to go closer to one of the small villages just to take a look. Bermuda was less than fifteen miles long and less than five miles wide, so in this fast boat they had plenty of daylight left for exploring.
"Vere vas I,” Jacob began again. "The Company has many problems making a profit from this island. Bermudan tobacco is foul stuff compared to Virginia tobacco so no one buys it. They brought in some slaves as pearl divers. Most of them were lost to drownings and sharks, yet not a single pearl was ever found. Vat else vould make a profit in a free port, eh? Brothels of course. The Company now has the patent on all brothels on this island."
"Using Irish women?" Daniel asked.
"Mostly Powhatan from Virginia," Jacob replied. "Vat made you say Irish?"
"In Virginia the plantations seemed to be working the Irish men to death to leave the Irish women defenseless so they can be bred with Africans." Daniel approved of the look of horror his words brought to Jacob's face. "It has made me quick to judge slavers who herd Irish stock." He symbolically ran his index finger across his throat.
"Ya vell, I doubt the Company will be sending any more slaves to Bermuda. These islands have not the soil to make a profit from plantation style farming. The future of Bermuda vill be as a supply port to Atlantic shipping. I have shares in two small ships which are right now in the Bahamas looking for sources of salt. You know, from salt ponds."
A grin came to Weston's face, but Daniel saw it and poked him and said, with an edge. "Never mind Tom. You have an oath to fulfill in England."
"But Bermuda is in the middle of an empty sea,” Robert said. "Why are there all these ships to supply?"
"For the same reason that Bermuda vas first settled by settlers on their way to Virginia,” Jacob replied. "The shortest course from the English colonies of the Caribbean to those in New England, is through Bermuda. It is a course that keeps English ships far away from the Spanish Main islands and away from the Florida coast. Also, the shortest course from England to Virginia is by way of the Canaries and Bermuda."
"But I thought most Bermudans were shipwrecked here?"
"Ja, because this is where that evil goddess of vinds blows any ship that angers her. The dream of all Bermudans is that someday a Spanish treasure galley vill be blown onto our reef, and ve vill all return to our original villages as rich as Lords."
They continued on around the islands and they sailed past a half dozen villages. They each had things in common. Each was a collection of palm thatch huts on a white sand beach on a navigable bay that was sheltered from the prevailing sou'westers. Each of the villages seemed to be sleepy places, disheveled but friendly. There were always folk relaxing in the shade. Daniel was not surprised by this, because each village was built in a coconut grove, his favourite life giving tree. "You mentioned the Hurakan goddess. Was that massive cloud we saw on our way here one of hers?"
"Ja, it was a big one?
"Does she ever punish Bermuda?"
"Ja, surely. You see those coco trees over there, the ones with no tops. Her winds are so fierce that they bend the trunks right over sideways and then blow the crowns off them. We lose some boats and some roofs maybe two, maybe three times a year. We lose the cocos maybe one year in five."
"Too bad,” Daniel grumbled "Bermuda seems like a fine place to settle, a paradise, but like every paradise we visit, it has a snake."
"A snake?" Jacob misunderstood. "Nay, our governor is not so bad. Ja, Cap'n Chaddock is a privateer, but who else can protect us from other privateers?"
"So two snakes then,” Robert sneered. "The Company, the Somers Isle Company. That is one of Robert Rich's companies, yes? The Earl of Warwick.
"It is, ja."
* * * * *
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The Pistoleer - Pirates by Skye Smith Copyright 2013-14
Chapter 10 - Lyme, Dorset in September 1641
It was the navigator of the English frigate in Bermuda who told Robert that they had wasted their time sailing all the way to Bermuda to cross back to England. According to his navy rudders, the distance from Cape Cod to Bristol was the same as from Bermuda to Bristol, and the crossing time would be the same three weeks. But then, if Robert had been told this at Cape Cod, he would not now be sailing a Bermudan rigged Swift up to the wharf side at Ly
me on the Dorset coast.
They had made no ports of call on their way from Bermuda, for only the Azores Island of Flores was anywhere close to their course. Flores they steered away from, for it was a renown lair for the pirates who preyed on the inbound Spanish treasure galleons. Besides, with the new Bermuda rig they made the crossing in only fifteen days rather than the normal twenty-one, and rarely did they have to change the set of the sails, or in fact do anything other than loll about under the shade mats.
All the way back to England, Robert and Daniel had planned what they would do once they were home again. The new plans all revolved around this new Bermuda rig. Since the crew had done the re-rigging themselves under Jacob's direction, they knew all the ins and outs of it. Now that they had sailed the rig, they were fully convinced that it was the future of small ships. No other rig was so simple, needed so few crew, and pushed the ship so fleetly even close to the wind. The entire crew now shared the dream of making their livelihoods from the Bermudan rig.
The seamen of Bridgwater, Lyme and Wellenhay all shared the same problem of lack of work. Their small square rigged trading ships could no longer compete with the Dutch designed cargo fluyts. Because of the fluyts, small ports like Lyme and Wellenhay were being put out of business, as were shallow ports like Bridgwater. As the small trading ships of those ports were being idled so were the crews. The Bermudan rig could change all that, perhaps even reverse it.
For Daniel's village of Wellenhay the Bermudan rig was a goddess-send. His village had only one ship, the Swift, large enough and fast enough to make any profit from the England-Netherlands trade runs for the Dutch cargo fluyts had become so common on that run. Even if they had more ships, the village was chronically short of able men, especially since a shipwreck disaster a few years ago had drowned a third of the village men. For their most profitable trade, the grey-market trade in aqua vitae and fire arms, the Swift was too noticeable. The Bermuda rig could change all that.
Daniel's clan had one other ship seaworthy enough to cross to the Netherlands, the small, single masted, square rigged Freisburn. If they re-rigged the Freisburn as a Bermudan, they could sail her with a smaller crew, and make twice the trips in the same time. Daniel's calculations were simple. The re-rigged Freisburn could be run by a third of the crew needed to run a small cargo fluyt, and yet it would make the crossing in half the time of a fluyt.
Even though the Freisburn could not carry as much cargo as a fluyt, it should turn a per-ton profit that would match that of a fluyt ... and fluyts were the most profitable cargo ships afloat ... ever. If things worked out the way he dreamed, then his clan could expand their trade. Since small ships like the Freisburn could no longer compete with the fluyts, they were being sold off for a song. His clan could pick and choose and buy the most seaworthy of them and convert them into Bermudans.
His clan had enough men to run four or five small ships, once they were re-rigged. By putting them all on the Netherlands run in place of the Swift, the profits would roll in. It was a sweet dream, and his clan had the men, the knowledge, and enough coin to make it come true. As the Swift raced home to England, Daniel had lots of time to perfect the details and to dream of the results.
The men from Bridgwater and Lyme were having similar dreams and making similar plans, for the men from Bridgwater used to trade in Irish whiskey, and those of Lyme used to trade in French wine, that is, before the fluyts. As a favour to those men from Lyme, the rest of the crew had hauled down the sails while still out of sight of Lyme, and then willingly ran out their oars and rowed the last three miles into the port. Once tied up at the quay, they refused to let anyone on board. With the new rig thus kept a secret, the Lyme based crew would be able to buy up surplus small ships on the cheap.
It was the small fishing-smuggling-port town of Lyme where the crew suffered the culture shock of returning from empty wild places, to the crowded civilization of England. Luckily Lyme was a pleasant enough place for a first landing, especially when compared to the other choices of Bridgwater, Bristol, or London.
Putting in to Lyme as a first landfall had been Robert's idea, but it stood to reason. Half the crew were from Lyme, and the other half from Bridgwater. Bridgwater was a half day's ride across the Cornish peninsula from Lyme, whereas to sail around the peninsula would have taken them days. Daniel had agreed with the choice for his remaining task was to return the Swift to the Wash, and Bridgwater was in completely the wrong direction.
Robert had assured Daniel that he would be able to confirm the ship's registry in the Swift's official home port of Bridgwater without actually producing the ship for inspection at the port ... so long as a few coins found the right palms. All Daniel need do is ride to Bridgwater with Robert to present the papers, and to witness the registry. Instead of sailing the Swift around Cornwall, Daniel could rent horses and ride across the narrows from Lyme to Taunton to Bridgwater, and then ride back. By horse it was a half day's journey each way.
There had been a lot of endless sea between Bermuda and Lyme, so it was a great relief to all that the good folks of Lyme welcomed the entire crew ashore to billets and home cooking. The Bridgwater crew decided to postpone the journey home for a day while they got back their land legs, but not Robert, Daniel, or Tom Weston.
Weston was in a hurry to get to Bristol and see the family he had left there a decade ago. Daniel was in a hurry to get the Swift's registry confirmed so he could sail the Swift back to the Fens. Robert had no choice but to go with Daniel in order to arrange for the registry and witness it. Within two hours of landing at Lyme, the three of them were riding along the Taunton road on rented horses. None of the men could remember the last time they had ridden a horse, and it took a mile or two for their legs to accustom themselves to the change from the pitching and rolling of a ship's deck.
The mid September days were only twelve hours long, so it was dark by the time they rode, saddle sore and weary into the port town of Bridgwater on the other side of the Cornwall peninsula. Weston had missed the last coach to Bristol, and he couldn't continue on using this rented horse, for Daniel had to return it to Lyme. It was disheartening for him to be so close to home, yet thwarted.
"No problem, Tom,” Robert assured him. "We'll all have a warm welcome at my family home. I can promise you a good bed. Think of it, a bed that doesn't toss with the swells, and a feather bed at that." Welcome was an understatement compared to the hugging and peels of laughter that greeted them on the Blake doorstep.
"Robert, perfect timing as usual,” his brother Humphrey began but changed what he was about to say after his wife nudged him and gave him a stern stare, "but that can wait. How was the New World? I rejoice that you are home again and safe, but where is your ship?" He signaled the younger brother Samuel to take their cloaks and horses.
"Tom this is my brother Humphrey and his wife Tilde,” Robert did the introductions. "Tom Weston is on his way to see his wife in Bristol for the first time in ten years."
Tilde, the only woman in the room, let out a loud harrumph and walked away from them to go and make some food. As she went, she mumbled, "As if any woman would wait for ten years."
That night, as tired as Daniel and Tom were, they got little sleep. They had a rapt audience in Robert's brothers as they described the Americas and their adventures there. Just before midnight the women and children went off to their beds, and then the more lurid topics were breached.
"The paradise Caribbean islands are at the mercy of privateers and pirates,” Tom told them. "Godless men who will turn their hand to any profitable business, from theft to slavery. Men whose single solution to resistance and witnesses, is to drown their problems."
"The same can be said of Virginia, which is now a Royal colony,” Daniel added, "but there they justify their immorality as 'following orders'. Orders given by the lordly plantation owners, who sit in London and count the profits." He told them long tales of how the natives of Virginia had been exterminated by purposefully infecting them with
measles, and how and the Gael-Irish were being enslaved and abused, and were even being interbred with the black slaves of Africa in hopes of creating a new race of half-breed slaves. Eventually he could not go on, for the telling of such evil took away his will to say more.
Humphrey was the factor of the Blake family businesses and he used a question to fill the embarrassing silence. "You said earlier that the Irish lords have sold entire Gael villages to the Barbary slavers?"
"Blame Lord Strafford,” Daniel replied. "During his reign as the King's Deputy of Ireland, the traditional Irish clans have been cleared to make way for plantations. The other Lords of Ireland, whether they be Red-Irish, English, or Scots, have allowed it, and encouraged it. They pretend they are clearing out villages of rebellious Catholics but that is false. Nay, it is all about stealing communal land. It is all about greed."
"Strafford has been dead four months now,” Humphrey said with a slow smile. "At first he was impeached and charged with treason, but to no avail. His fate was debated long and hard with King Charlie and the House of Lords, and in court, but his lawyers and his guarantors prevailed, but eventually John Pym and the Reform Party got rid of him. All of London turned out to see his head fall. Hundreds of thousands of all ages, for the news of the legal battle had filled the daily pamphlets for months."
"How could the King's Deputy be charged with treason for following the King's orders?" Weston asked.
"That is exactly why it took so long. In the end the Reformers presented a Bill of Attainder to strip his family of all wealth and honors, and he of his life."
"So Parliament executed him without Charlie's seal?"
"Not so. Charlie signed the order of execution. He had no choice. Secret letters introduced as evidence against Strafford proved that other Lords had conspired with him to have his Irish army march on Westminster and arrest or kill all of the opposition MP's. Charlie signed away Strafford's life in order to save the others who were implicated.
