User:Jack Pistol/Z-Story4

Claim to Fame 

One day out at sea in the midst of a battle with a Spanish war galleon, I was doing my duty of carting gun powder and ammunition for the cannoneers back and forth. When both ships had their fill of blowing each other’s hulls apart boarding parties on each side were assembled and readied for an attack. Maybe the Spanish had better trained soldiers, maybe the war had taken too much from the soldiers of Port Fraggue, maybe Captain Thorn was just in over his head trying to take this war galleon, but things did not go well.

The Spaniards beat us to boarding and made a good mess of our crew. Our captain was being engaged by the Spanish quartermaster, who had the upper hand on Captain James. One of my colleagues dropped near me and his pistol was released from his hand. I could say what I did next was pure bravery, but it was more like selfishness, because if I didn’t I would have been taken by the Spanish.

I picked up the pistol and connected its single shot to the quartermaster’s head. He dropped. The Spanish were startled, seeing their powerhouse drop dead in front of them did no good for their morale and their momentum began to fade. We began to gain the upper hand and the green-tinted deck of the HMS Loyalty became more littered with Spaniards then with our own crew.

When the Spanish captain called for a retreat from the safety of his own ship, we realized we had won. The cowardly retreating Spaniards were shot down as they tried to leave the Loyalty. The few that made it back aboard the Spanish war galleon now faced ammunition far larger and more deadly than musket and pistol bullets, cannonballs. We ran out the guns and swabbed their decks clean of Spanish occupation.

Both ships were cleaned up by our remaining crew. The dead were fed to the sea, Spanish or English, they received an honorable ceremony and were bandaged up before being cast overboard. Our quartermaster took a small crew aboard the war galleon and followed us the rest of the way back to Port Fraggue.