Crossbone Children and the Orphans of Avalon

by Gregory Ellis

  To Doddle, Sir Duncan ordered, "Arouse the crews of the other three ships in the harbor. I want them to separate and find the Sugar Cane. With children as the crew, I doubt they have gone very far. When you find it, make sure the gold is safe and then I want those children brought back here and that… popinjay Henry brought to me in chains. Apparently he is not quit the soft touch I thought him to be."

  Sir Duncan's remaining three ships; Crosswind, Tobago and the History, set sail to find the Sugar Cane. All three ships were about the same size with the same armament as the Sugar Cane, ten cannon and four swivel guns. They set sail firm in the knowledge they would find the Sugar Cane, the ship stolen by his escaped children and whoever had helped them. There would be many hangings in Port Royal when all was said and done. Of that he was sure!

  Chapter 16

  On Crossbone Island

  If they were not running for their lives, it would have been quite comical to watch the boys as they ran here and there trying to set all the available sail in order to outrun any ship that might follow them. They had been at sea for hours now and they knew other ships were probably out there somewhere looking to bring them back. They were now pirates. By running away as slaves and stealing a ship they were now branded as such. They knew too, if they were caught, they would be hanged as was the common lot of all captured pirates.

  For now they were free and on the open sea making their way toward a safe haven. Scurvy Jones called it Crossbone Island but now the name really had meaning. They were really pirates and the symbol of all pirates was crossed bones.

  After the Sugar Cane left Port Royal and was safely on her way, they carried the wounded Edward Turnbuckle below deck. What they were going to do with him, they did not know, but Cumberbatch said Turnbuckle was a feared pirate and might be able to help them.

  John and Buster Jack conducted full inventory of the ship to see what provisions they had. It turned out the ship was fully prepared for sea: barrels of pork, live chickens in cages had been found on deck that would lay eggs given the proper circumstances, cheeses of all kinds, barrels of fresh water provisions for making biscuits and breads. Not only did they have food for weeks at sea but the ship mounted ten six pound cannon and four swivel guns; two aft and two forward. There was plenty of powder and shot for the cannon together with canister and grape shot. There were thirty muskets, twenty pistol and chests of swords including cutlass and smaller dirks. In the captain's quarters were maps and charts, a sextant, several compasses and a half dozen telescopes. There was also a signals chest; different flags that could be run up the mast to communicate with other ships.

  Most importantly they discovered a chest in the captain's quarters. When they pried it open, they found the gold John had mentioned. At first, they were giddy and ran up on deck to tell everyone they had the gold, but then Cumberbatch reminded them; "All that gold and no place to spend it… might as well be sawdust. You be forget'n we be pirates now… outlaws with a death warrant on our heads!"

  After a few hours, Ava brought the children up on deck. In the daylight, John could see them and marveled at how they had come to this point in their lives. They were all covered in dirt and dust from their bare feet to the tops of the disheveled hair. What clothes they had on was shredded and in tatters which twisted in the breeze. Some even looked sick.

  John asked Ava, "Are any of them sick or have fever?"

  "Two of the youngest" She announced. "All of them need food, water and rest or all of them will be sick well. Perhaps the two little ones will recover with a little rest and food."

  John nodded. "I'll see what can be done. This ship is well provisioned; we just have to figure out how to do everything. Perhaps you and other girls could go to the galley and prepare something."

  Ava's eyes narrowed as she considered the order. "I'm not a galley slave for you to order about Mr. Henry!" she spat out with contempt. "Let's get one thing straight right now, just because I'm a girl, I will not be a slave for the rest of you boys and neither will the other girls. We are equal in this thing, understand?"

  John's mouth dropped open in surprise. She glanced at him. "Best close your mouth Mr. Henry, wouldn't want a fish to jump down your throat! It just so happens that two of the other girls worked in the kitchens, so if you would be so kind as to show us to the galley, we'll see what can be done, but not because you commanded me, but because it is needed!" She turned and walked away.

  Buster Jack said quietly, "Did I mention she has a quick temper and can be stubborn?"

  "Must've missed that part, Jack!" He motioned for the girls to follow him below deck to the galley. After showing them where everything was, he left in a hurry in case Ava should lapse into another tirade.

  During the coming days, Cumberbatch and John took turns instructing the children on how to do certain things on the ship. John worked with the older boys in setting and taking down certain sails, using the braces, tacks and sheets to maneuver the ship when needed. They were introduced to the ten cannon onboard. Apparently Cumberbatch had once been a first-rate gunner somewhere in his background, and patiently went through the steps on to load the cannon without blowing themselves up. They even fired a few rounds and watched the balls skip across the water and then sink with a big splash off in the distance. They were shown how to properly load a musket, a pistol and how to handle a cutlass sword; all very rudimentary of course, having no experience with any of the weapons. With the fresh air, plenty of food and water the children who had been sick showed signs of improving. It was going remarkably well.

  By using charts and compass John retraced their voyage that had brought them to Port Royal and in the early afternoon on the fourth day, John climbed up the mainmast with his telescope and called down the report they were all waiting to hear, "Land!" he announced. All the children gathered on deck to see their new home or at least to be on land again.

  Of Edward Turnbuckle, he briefly woke up only once to ask where he was and who was standing around him. They had put him in the captain's quarters and some of the girls took turns checking on him. His manner of speaking was different… "Err now… wot be all this?" he said in a low, guttural tone. Before they could answer, he fall back to sleep.

  Cumberbatch ordered only topsails be set for the slow approach to Crossbone Island. The ship had to get near enough so John could call out the command to open the rock wall. As they slowly came up the wall, John grabbed a speaking trumpet and stood on the bowsprit and yelled as loud as he could, "By the Crossbone Children, open says I!"

  There was an audible gasp as they watched the solid wall of rock suddenly divide in two and withdraw to either side revealing the lagoon inside. Cumberbatch carefully maneuvered the ship through the entrance and then aligned the ship to dock. John yelled the command for the wall to close once they were clear of it. The boys were up on both masts ready to take in the topsails at his command.

  Those not engaged in working the sails ran to the railing and watched as dozens of boys ran to the dock, waiting for the ship.

  "Now!" Cumberbatch yelled.

  Standing on the foot rope, the boys quickly gathered in the heavy canvas and brailed it up on the yard arm. The Sugar Cane came to a dead stop, twenty feet from the dock. John and Buster Jack threw a line those standing on the dock. Eventually, the ship was secured to the dock. John stood on the rail and announced they had brought all the children from Jamaica and an added guest, Captain Edward Turnbuckle.

  The reunion was a festive one, for most of the children knew each other either from being on the streets of London or when they were in jail waiting for the ships to take them to Jamaica. The children on the dock wanted to come aboard the ship and the children on the ship wanted to get to dry land!

  When all were safely on land, including Edward Turnbuckle who was carried to a hut and laid down, it did not take long for each newcomer to find a place to call home, a place to play in the trees, to eat fresh fruit and to wade out in the fresh water lagoon. When introduced to the
new arrivals, Scurvy Jones scared the young ones but was soon accepted as a friend.

  That night, Buster Jack, John and Mr. Cumberbatch stood around the main camp fire. John gave a heavy sigh and said, "We did it!"

  Buster Jack looked at him in amazement, "We didn't do it, you and Mr. Cumberbatch here did it. You saved all of us!"

  "Well, we didn't have much choice… did we?" John mused.

  Cumberbatch smiled, "Aye, not much choice, but now what? We be pirates now and they be looking for us. If I knows anything, I knows they won't stop until they truss us up like chickens and that's the truth of it, Mr. Henry."

  "What if we just stay on the island for a year? They'll give up then won't they?" Buster Jack asked.

  "You forget one very important detail Jack, we have Peck's gold and I don't think he will give that up very easy. He wants that gold more than he wants the ship or even us." John turned and looked out over ocean. "No… he'll not give up until we are found and the gold recovered. Mr. Cumberbatch is right, we're marked now. We didn't set out to be pirates, but what we did in Jamaica makes us pirates now."

  Like a mother hen with her chicks in tow, Ava came walking up to them with all the girls. She stopped directly in front of John. "We have no place to stay, no hut of our own and we won't sleep in the same hut as the boys." She said defiantly.

  Before John could reply, she continued, "So we're staying on the ship until you build us a place of our own! She placed her hands on her hips as if daring anyone to say otherwise. When no one uttered a word, she added, "So no boys allowed on the ship during the night. Is that understood?" Again, no one dared speak up, apparently once Ava made up her mind that was it.

  "Good, come along girls; to the ship." Ava turned and motioned the girls to follow her.

  John, Buster Jack and Cumberbatch turned and watched as the troop of girls marched through the sand to the ship. When all were safely aboard, Ava withdrew the plank so no one could get aboard without jumping over the railings.

  Cumberbatch scratched his head, whistled and declared, "Great heavens man, she'll make some poor fool a fine wife, given she don't kill 'im first!" So, that was that! The boys were to stay on land and the girls were to live on the ship; or at least until they built a hut just for the girls.

  The next morning everyone was aroused by the sudden yelling and cursing of Captain Edward Turnbuckle. Cumberbatch had come to dress the wound in Turnbuckle's side. That's when the commotion commenced. Startled, Turnbuckle lashed out at Cumberbatch, "Err now… watch wot you be do'n! You're clumsier than a poxey dock wench and twice as ugly!" In the dim morning light Turnbuckle could not see who it was that was attending him. "Who be you?" he demanded.

  Cumberbatch coolly said, "Name's Cumberbatch."

  Captain Turnbuckle was a short round man with a raspy low voice. His hair was long, thin and black as night which matched his wispy black beard that seemed to grow all over his face. "Well now, Mr. Cumberbatch, suppose'n you be telling me where I be exactly. Last thing I remembers was jump'n onboard a ship."

  "One of the guards on the ship shot you. We patched you up and brought you with us." Cumberbatch explained.

  Cumberbatch could hear the whisperings of the children who had run to the hut to see what the commotion was all about. He explained to Turnbuckle as quickly as he could how he came to be on the island. He told how the children were taken from England, sent to Jamaica and how John Henry and the second ship were rescued from the natives and how he and two of the children came to Jamaica in a boat and saved the children from the first ship from being slaves to Peck.

  Cumberbatch told the story of how they came to be on this island and all about the ships that carried the children from London. All Turnbuckle could do was to roll his eyes and say, "I'll be a pickled sturgeon! Them babies stole this ship from Peck, then brought me here?"

  "Aye, that about sums it up Capt'n. This 'ere island is what you might call… enchanted. It's got special powers."

  Turnbuckle attempted to sit up. He extended his hand and Cumberbatch helped him to sit up. "Enchanted says you?"

  "Aye, enchanted. We got fresh water, fresh food every day and not a care in the world. The island provides it all." Then Cumberbatch added, "And nobody out to sea can get in here. Yah see, we got a magical wall what prevents outsiders from enter'n our private bay."

  Turnbuckle scratched his chin through his tangled beard. "Magic wall eh?" In the growing light, Turnbuckle looked Cumberbatch up and down. Then his memory came flooding back, "I knows ya now; Alex Cumberbatch, we served together during the war!"

  Cumberbatch grinned. "Aye, that we did, then you sailed with Edward Teach. I went legitimate; more's the pity!"

  Turnbuckle returned the smile revealing brilliant white teeth which contrasted with the rest of his tanned features, "I know'd you come to no good! Now help me to stand, if you please."

  Cumberbatch asked, "What was the name of your ship?"

  "She be the Bridget of twenty guns. A finer ship never sailed. We was in the employ of Sir Duncan Peck, that is until that cursed son of a dog, betrayed me and my crew. They arrested us and sentenced us to hang!"

  "The Bridget?" Cumberbatch asked surprised.

  "Aye… Bridget, named after a fine lass wot I knew in me younger days… flame red hair and temper to match! That ship be equal in temper to the girl - wot with twenty guns and six swivels… a faster sloop of war can't be found!

  Cumberbatch helped him to stand. His legs were wobbly, but after a few minutes, he seemed to find his land-legs. Turnbuckle could now hear the whispers outside the hut. "Them be the little ones you be talk'n about?"

  "Aye, there be close to eighty of 'em."

  "By thunder… that's a lot!" Turnbuckle yelled. He took a few wobbly steps toward the door and opened it. There, standing before him, were all the children minus the girls who were still on the ship. Each orphan stared intently at the latest member of their little community. John and Buster Jack stood off to the side and did not say anything as Turnbuckle surveyed the crowd.

  To Cumberbatch, Turnbuckle whispered, "I've not been this close to this many children in all me life!"

  "I know what yah mean, but you'll get use to 'em. They sort'o grows on yah!" he whispered back.

  Ethan, a blonde boy asked, "You a pirate, Mister?"

  Turnbuckle rubbed his chin as he replied, "Aye, that be the truth."

  Cole, the oldest of the Seachrist brothers said, "You gonna take us home?"

  Cumberbatch intervened, "Now 'old on Lads… all of you. This here is Captain Edward Turnbuckle. He used to be captain of the Bridget. He's been wounded as you all know… so leave 'im be for now. Go about your business and give the man some rest." As silently as they had stood outside the hut waiting to see a real pirate, the children turned and went their way. That is, all but John Henry and Buster Jack.

  "Ah… Capt'n Turnbuckle… this 'ere young gentleman is John Henry and next to him is Buster Jack, we just calls him Jack. It was Mr. Henry what saved the children on the second ship and led the rescue of the others on the plantation."

  Turnbuckle eyed John with uncertainty. "Mr. Cumberbatch told me the whole story. I be grateful for you have'n taking me out of Jamaica and not leav'n me on the dock to be hanged."

  John smiled, "Any enemy of Sir Duncan is welcome here, Captain."

  "You be an enemy to Sir Duncan?"

  Again Cumberbatch intervened and told Turnbuckle about John's father and the loss of his mother to which Turnbuckle replied, "Tis a hard thing to bear, Master 'enry. Life be hard so we must take wot we can while live'n it, savvy?"

  Cumberbatch showed Turnbuckle the island and told him of how they arrived in this location from the other side of the island and how Scurvy Jones had saved John. Turnbuckle did not know Scurvy Jones but when he finally met him later that day, he was certain he had seen him somewhere but soon gave up trying to remember where.

  After a while, Turnbuckle wanted to know if they had any rum on the island. Cumberbatch
said they didn't. But Turnbuckle suggested they look on the ship for a store of spirits down in the bilge area where it would be kept nice a cool. Sure enough Cumberbatch returned with a small keg of rum and few mugs. The two of them found a cool spot under some trees and unstopped the barrel and poured the drink. They toasted the island and death to Sir Duncan.

  ————

  Inside the main house on Sir Duncan Peck's plantation, his ships captains gathered to receive their orders. Captain Doddle returned to Port Royal one week after the Sugar Cane was lost and reported to his master that the ship was gone. "For all we know, it might have gone down with all hands."

  Peck was not buying it, "They had help. It takes skilled sailors to operate a ship of that size. No, they had help and they are out there. We have to assume they found the papers that detail where the location of our treasure is. Whoever is helping them will eventually try and get there and take all of it." Sir Duncan bent over the table with a chart laid across it. He tapped the chart with a pair of dividers. "My ship, History, is on watch there until the end of the month, correct?"

  Doddle replied, "Aye, Sir. What do you have in mind?"

  Sir Duncan continued looking at the chart as he slowly stood up, "You take the Bridget and the Tobago and go to the island. Inform Captain Sedley of the History I want a trap set for the Sugar Cane in case whoever took that ship decides to come for all the gold. Understand?" without waiting for a reply, "Tell them to set one ship near the cove's entrance and another around the headland out of sight. That way, whichever ship sees the Sugar Cane first can signal the other and together retake it, but more importantly, if that chest of gold is on board, I want that retrieved too. Without it, her plans for the entire Caribbean are just a dream and I don't want to risk her anger!