Good Boy

The boy sat perched on the main mast overlooking the vast ocean. From the crow’s nest he had a 360-degree view of the merchant ship from about twenty-five feet above. “Three masts,” and “Darkness on the horizon,” he calmly repeated to himself, two bits of advice the Captain told him before sending him up the rigging for his first night watch. Since then, the boy had taken this advice to heart and was now on his third straight night incident free. Not bad for being only his fourth night ever on a sea-going vessel in his fifteen years alive. He was very green, and the last thing he wanted to do was let his Captain down. So, the boy repeated the advice and attentively did his job.

This merchant ship was running the latitude for Jamaica from Boston. She was on mission to stock up on sugar, rum, and spices for the Massachusetts Bay colonies. She was a rather slow-moving vessel. A lookout in a crow's nest could find their job rather monotonous throughout the night staring at the dark void that is the Atlantic Ocean. To further add to this night’s task, the moon was ducking in and out of clouds the whole watch, hindering visibility. The combination of these factors made it awfully hard for the new sailor to keep his focus. The boy’s mind started wandering. During the day, he would listen to the salty dogs on the ship talk about Jamaica - the food, the rum, the women - so it is not shocking the boy did some daydreaming while alone up in the nest. He was so excited and scared about the island that he lost track of what he was doing... until a whistle snapped him out of his trance. Tobias, a master sailor, was on the helm below steering his course, and his whistle reminded the boy of what he should have been doing. The boy glanced out over the lip of his nest, down toward the aft of the ship, and waved at Tobias. Tobias, being an old salt, laughed and shook his finger up to the boy. The boy returned to his duties of lookout.

The boy scanned the horizon, from stern to starboard, and starboard to bow. The opaque sky blended with the mysterious darkness of the ocean and made for a dark blank canvas. Yet, as the boy continued his glance of the horizon, the moon broke through a few clouds. And as he continued his counterclockwise panning of the waters, there was a darkness on the horizon that stood out. The moon shone just at the right moment to reveal a silhouette of a ship off in the distance. Immediately he remembered what the Captain told him. “Does it have three masts?” This specific detail was still unknown to him, but he had to make sure. And as the silhouette crept across the horizon slowly, he could easily see three masts on the ship. This triggered the boy into action, and he recalled the Captain telling him to immediately come get him. He hopped onto the rigging and made his way down the main mast and onto the deck. From the quarterdeck, Tobias watched all this unveil, and he himself was brought to a heightened sense for alarm. Then Tobias watched the boy enter the Captain’s quarters without hesitation or timidness. Something was going on.

“Captain, Sir,” said the boy softly.

“What do you have boy?” asked the Captain as he stood up from his hammock and took a stretch.

“I have three masts on the larboard side off on the horizon.”

“Three you say?” the Captain responded with a dead stare at the boy. “Fetch me my spyglass.”

The Captain went to a small basin filled with salt water, splashed his face, then exited the quarters, the boy following with the spyglass in hand. The Captain made his way toward the bearing the boy had stated, took the spyglass from him, and peered through it. He pulled the spyglass from his face, let out a sign and called for Mister Calhoun, the Quartermaster. While waiting for him to arrive, the Captain looked back through the telescope and then up at the sails repeatedly.

Up from a hatch in the main deck appeared a weathered man in his thirties, Mister Calhoun. He approached the Captain, where he was given the spyglass and the Captain gestured the direction. The men agreed on what they were seeing through the looking glass.

The Captain yelled first, “Ship on the horizon, make ready for arms.” And the rest of the crew began scouring around the deck lashing loose items up tight.

Then it was Mister Calhoun’s turn. “Turn ten degrees starboard and restrict the flame.” Then he turned and pointed to the boy, “On me, Boy.”

The boy followed Mister Calhoun down the hatch, and into the hold where there was a large chest. With one arm the old sailor picked up one side and motioned for the boy to grab the other. After several clumsy shuffle steps by the boy, due to the weight of the chest, the two men finally got it to the main deck. From around the Quartermaster’s neck, he drew a key for the chest and handed it to the boy.

“Open the chest and pass the arms. Then find me on the deck and stick by me, you hear me, Boy?”

And like that Mister Calhoun was gone in the shuffle of crew. The boy of course did as he was told. After all those dreams of finding a treasure chest, low and behold the boy had one giant one right at his feet with the key in hand. However instead of shiny pieces of eight and gold doubloons, he opened a chest filled with cutlasses and flint locks. Fear and anxiety began to set in for the boy. This was real. Whomever was on that ship on the horizon meant battle. Quickly the boy focused and began handing flints and swords out to the other merchantmen sailors. Some took the arms with a smirk, some without, and it eased the boy’s nerves to see some of the sailor’s were just as scared as he was. He proceeded quick with his task, and then found Mister Calhoun loading more pistols on the larboard gunwale. The boy sat down beside him.

“Pirates” was all the old Quartermaster said. He never took his head up to look at the boy, just kept to what he was doing.

“I was like you when I came across my first pirate ship. They boarded our little vessel and they laid waste. My friend Samuel got two pistol shots to the head before he could even raise his sword. He fell right into my lap, where he gasped for air, and I saw the whites of his eyes fade into a black. The quartermaster of the boat was hacked into bits then set on fire before being tossed over. The deck of our vessel was drenched in blood, and not a single remorse was given by those murderous thieves. They left me to live, but they put me in a jolly boat with all the dead and shoved me into the open ocean.”

The Quartermaster finally stopped, and under the moonlight, he saw the boy’s face; pale and scared, holding a cutlass for dear life, knowing he did not have the slightest idea on how to use it. The story from Mister Calhoun hit too hard, since his first experience was around the same age as the boy. Yet, Mister Calhoun did not have it in him to soften the situation. He knew just like every other man on the boat, that if that pirate ship sees them, hell will be brought down upon them. The boy peered over the gunwale to see the if the ship was closing in on them. He sat back on the deck, gripped his cutlass, and tried to stop his hands from trembling so much. He did not know how to hurt another person and he was coming to grips with the fact that he would have to, to save himself or a shipmate.

A boot kicked the boy, he rambles himself together and found his cutlass as he was trying to adjust his eyes in the bright sun. The man who kicked him awake was none other than his Captain who’s face had a smile on it. He knelt to the boy and opened a cloth he had in his hands. There in the cloth were a few pieces of hard tack and a little bit of meat.

“Morning, boy, you deserve this.” As the Captain handed him the handkerchief filled with food. The boy immediately looked over the gunwale and saw an empty ocean as far as the eye could see.

“You can stop looking for the pirates, you saw them so far in advance. Tobias was able to change course for us. And the rest of the crew was well prepared. Ya did good Boy. Ya did good.”