The warm summer winds filled the sails of the Slippery Eel as it sailed north of Cuba. Jill “Red-mane” MacPhee took the ship from slavers almost seven years ago. Rumor has it the slavers slept off an extra potent batch of rum that they won in a card game against Red-mane’s second in command, Admiral Pennyweather Farthing, or so he calls himself. He was a tall slender man with an infectious smile and greedy fingers. Captain Red-mane met the flim-flam man when she was still just a thief more than a decade ago.

The Slippery Eel was cruising in open water when the ship’s barrelman, a tiny Spaniard with a long name, Jaime Diego Ruiz de la Cruz Cortez Sierra, spied smoke in the distance.

“Captain! Smoke on the water, south!” He bellowed.

Red-mane squinted her eyes to make out the wisp of smoke.

“Hard to port!” She commanded.

“Hard to port!” Repeated the helmsman.

Farthing came up from below deck where he was napping.

“What’s the commotion?”

“Smoke on the water, probably a wreck, who knows, Captain Red-mane ordered us to get a closer look.” The helmsman said in his thick Welsh accent.

“Tell the men below deck to get ready to board, Admiral” Redmane said.”

“Aye,” he said as he ambled back below deck.

Red-mane prepared herself for battle. She pulled her wild locks from behind her head and tied them in front of her face with black ribbons to fashion a big bushy red beard. She put on her long black coat and smeared tar on her cheeks, to make herself look more fearsome. She lit her ebony pipe and smoked. It calmed her nerves while she awaited for more information for the crow’s nest.

She thought back to her last boarding party.The men were too slow and greedy. We need to take the best and leave the rest or someday we’ll get caught unawares. I need to be clear with my orders. If they lag behind, they’ll be left behind, that’s what I’ll say.

“Captain! The smoke, is a ship burning, eight miles, southeast,” Barrelman Sierra said.

The crew from the lower decks had started filling the deck to get a better look at their next target. They had empty burlap sacks in one hand and weapons in the other.

“Stop! Turn us around helmsman!” Red-mane said.

“But Captain, we’re nearly there.” He replied.

“It’s a trap! Turn us around or must I keel-haul you for not following orders!!”

“Nay, turning us around Captain!” He said.

“Good man!” She said.

She reached into her coat for her spyglass.

“Give me the helm,” she said.

The helmsman stepped aside.

“Look through this, past the smoke. What do you see?”

“I don’t see anything, ‘cept the burning wreck,” he replied.

“Keep watching,” she said.

“Oh, something’s moving. Something big. It’s hard to make out,” the helmsman said.

“That’s a navy ship waiting to catch us red handed. Now, man the helm and take the long way home,” Red-mane said.

“Aye Captain.”

Just as Captain Red-mane was headed to her chambers she heard the boom from a cannon in the distance. She felt the wind from a piece of flak fly past her face. She looked up at her sails. They had missed. They must be desperate to try and hit us from that range.

“Full sail!” Red-mane commanded.

The crew worked quickly, deftly untying and tying the rigging.

“They’re gaining on us, Capitan!” The barrelman said.

Another thunderous boom rang out from the enemy cannon.

“Man the stern cannons!” Red-mane said.

A pair of young pirates loaded the two rear cannons and lit a slow-burning fuse to light the gunpowder with when the moment came.

She waited just before they got into range.

“ Ready…fire!” She ordered.

The cannonballs soared through the air and bounced on the deck before tearing through sailors on either side of the enemy ship.

“Nice shot boys!” Red-mane said, “Now, brace for return fire!”

The captain and crew hunkered down. The enemy fired a volley of six rounds in quick succession. Half of the shots went wide but the others hit the deck and damaged some of the rigging while one crewman lost an arm.

“Take that man below deck and tend to him! The rest of you turns us around! If we canny outrun’em, we fight’em!” The captain slipped into her brogue when things got heated.

“Man the starboard cannons!” She commanded.

The ship turned around leaving its broadside exposed to enemy fire, but it was a risk they would have to take.

“Half sail!” She roared.

The ship slowed giving them a better chance to hit their target.

The enemy ship fired their cannons again.

“Brace!”

Four enemy shots hit. One hit one of the two young cannoneers. Three shots hit the broadside, damaging the Slippery Eel’s hull. The enemies opened fire with their flintlocks.

“Fire the canons!” Red-mane yelled.

All six cannonballs flew true. They tore through the enemy, maiming and killing at least a dozen men. The sight of it was a scene out of pandemonium.

“Bring us in closer! Boarding party ready!”

“Aye! Aye!” The crew replied.

Admiral Farthing finally joined the fight. He couldn’t shoot straight, but he was an excellent swordsman. He watched the captain’s back as she shot the enemy ship’s commander with her trusty flintlock pistols. Soon the enemy crew gave up the fight and begged to be spared.

“Give us your booty and your arms and you can leave with your lives” She said.

“But Captain, if we let them live, they’ll just come after us again.” Farthing said.

“They will always be after us. Whether it’s this crew or another. It’s our lot. We won the prize, don’t be so eager to kill. Now hurry up and help the men load this booty onto the ship.

“Aye, Captain.” Farthing said as he stared at the enemy with disdain.

They took all the enemy weapons that they could and what they couldn’t, they pushed overboard.

The Slippery Eel limped back home to their pirate hideout on a tiny island surrounded by coral reefs. They drank barrel upon barrel of rum that night. All in all it was a good day for a brave pirate captain and crew.