Chapter 3

The pursuit of the slave ship lasted a few hours. The sun was starting to rise in the east and set their sails a glow. They were finally closing the gap between the two large ships and all the men on board were waiting anxiously to see if the brig vessel would simply surrender or if they were going to fight.

As The Robin cut through the gentle waves closer to their target, Mark gave the order to raise the colours to let the occupants of the slave ship know they meant business. A large man hoisted up the classic Jolly Roger on the aft mast of the ship and the men aboard The Robin readied their pistols and retrieved their cutlasses and weapons from a chest stored under the for deck. Shane waited patiently by one of the large cast iron guns with her cutlass sheathed at her side and her flint lock pistol secured to her waist with her faded red scarf. Shane watched Mark as he watched the slave ship. She could tell from his expressionless face that this was nothing new to him.

The last captain Shane had served under always had fear etched across his face during a pursuit. He was a coward and it wasn’t long before she lead a mutiny against him and became captain.

“Are you ready?” Mark asked stepping down from the shrouds he had been on while trying to use his spy glass to get a better understanding of what they were up against.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Shane kept her eyes trained on the large vessel in front of her, “They’re ready to fight.” She nodded with her chin in the direction of the ship as it slowly turned to it’s port side.

“All hands to the guns!” Mark bellowed out as the slave ship turned and their small mounted guns fired. They were still to far away to be accurate but 2 cannon balls did make contact and ripped small holes into the main sail. “Get closer than turn sharp to port and broadside the son of a bitch! But spare the twenty-fours, boys! We don’t want to ruin our spoils! ”

A large black man at the helm turned the buckle sharply and quickly as he could and the ship turned sharply to port as soon as they were in good range. All the men rushed to the guns and quickly paired off. One the powder monkey, the other loading and firing the large guns.