Pirates of Tahiti: A tale of two ships

By Alan Horsfield, Nancy Nancy Bevington and David Dickson

Before boarding the Sea Breeze for a leisurely cruise of the Tahitian Islands Hawkins is suddenly and strangely transported into another era-the days when pirates plundered the Spanish towns on the South American west coast and took refuge in Tahiti. How did he enter this world? Will he escape with his life? His is an exciting, surreal

• Language: English
• Publisher: EJH Talent Promotion P/L
• Release date: Feb 17, 2021
• ISBN: 9780648027089

Alan Horsfield

Alan Horsfield has published more than one hundred books, many of them educational texts in literacy and numeracy. His works have been published around the world. Alan is a former teacher and past president of the New South Wales Children’s Book Council and is a former judge for the New South Wales Premiers Book Awards. He loves writing books for children with interesting and quirky story lines that encourage children to read and look at things differently.

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Pirates_COVER.jpg

First published in Australia 2019

© Alan Horsfield 2019

The right of Alan Horsfield to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.

Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrievable system, recorded or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission.

Requests and enquiries should be directed to:

Alan Horsfield, 9 Milman Drive, Craiglie QLD 4877

[e-mail]

ISBN 978-0-6480270-7-2

ISBN 978-0-6480270-8-9 (ebook)

Edited by Rosemary Peers

Cover and internal illustrations by Nancy Bevington

Ship illustrations on pages 164, 168 and 169 by David Dickson

Internal design and layout by DiZign Pty Ltd, Sydney

Thanks to Henry Cotter for the photo of the sailing ship deck.

The existence of the sea means the existence of pirates.

Malayan proverb

The Caribbean was not the only place to be the haunt of ruthless pirates.

There were pirates in the South Pacific in the early 1800s. Pirates of Tahiti is loosely based on a mixture of facts from the era. I must admit I played fast and loose with reality and I’m no sailor. I have moved places in time and space to fit the narrative. This is not an uncommon practice for writers (or movie directors)—it is called artistic licence.

The Wind Spirit (alias the Sea Breeze) at anchor off Mo’orea.

Photo: A Horsfield

Contents

Prologue Seeing Is Believing?~2019

Part One

Chapter 1 A Bloody History~1700s

Chapter 2 The Bora Bora Café and Bar~2019

Chapter 3 Troubled Waters, Dangerous Times~1819

Chapter 4 Incident at the Bora Bora Café~2019

Part Two

Chapter 5 Portal into the Unknown~1824

Chapter 6 Kidnapped

Chapter 7 Mutiny and Looting by the Araucano Crew~1822

Chapter 8 On Board the Araucano~1824

Chapter 9 Life of a Cabin Boy

Chapter 10 Day Three on the Araucano

Chapter 11 The Quarry Arrives

Chapter 12 Brazen Subterfuge

Chapter 13 Pieces of Eight

Chapter 14 Second Visit to the Queen Charlotte

Chapter 15 Thomas Ebrill visits the Prudence

Chapter 16 Flight or Fight?

Chapter 17 Dusk Attack

Chapter 18 Escape by Sea

Part Three

Chapter 19 The Bora Bora Café and Beyond~2019

Epilogue Loose Ends

Samuel Henry and the Queen Charlotte

Easy explanations of common nautical terms used in the text

A brief layman’s guide to some early sailing ships mentioned in the text

Prologue

Seeing Is Believing?~2019

Papeete, Tahiti

Midmorning, Saturday 5 October 2019

Hawkins leaned back in his chair, which creaked a little, and looked around the airy room. Not really taking in his surroundings yet he was feeling relaxed and gently excited. He let the new sights, the new smells, the new sounds of the place, find a refuge in his consciousness.

Then, as if a shadow had fleetingly passed by, his mood subtly changed.

Slowly he became aware that he was being watched. It was an unnerving sensation and sent an ominous shudder down his spine.

Keeping his head lowered he surreptitiously let his gaze sweep around the relaxed room.

His parents chatted happily about their holiday plans—the cruise.

Nothing to explain his eerie feeling of being the unwelcomed attention of another person’s interest.

Which person?

The few café clients were either reading, watching the big TV screen or enjoying coffee.

He sank a little deeper into his wooden chair.

He intuitively glanced at Sam, his teenage brother, whose attention drifted from the froth and ice in the bottom of his drink glass to wistful looks at his mobile phone lying silently, like a discarded toy, on the tabletop.

When Hawkins looked across the room he had the briefest glimpse of movement in the eyes of one of the pirates, as if the pirate had been caught out watching him covertly. His eyes instantly reverted to an unblinking, glassy gaze.

Hawkins’s mouth went dry.

Was this a portent that something unpleasant was likely to happen? Not likely. Surely not?

The pirate’s movements were so swift Hawkins couldn’t be sure he had seen what he thought he had seen.

He blinked once, trying to clear his eyes. Then again. Nah! he rationalised, hopefully, mentally. But the vision lingered.

It was probably a trick of light, an optical illusion or a figment of his imagination. After all the pirate was just one of two life-sized pirate models used as café decor near the back wall of the dining area. They were seated at a small table on which stood a rum bottle and two empty glasses.

Maybe the mist from the cooling system had distorted his line of vision?

Models don’t drink and certainly don’t have a will of their own!

But these pirates were so realistic it was disconcerting. Unsettling.

Hawkins studied the pirate’s face, half fearing his suspicions might be confirmed, but the pirate remained staring unblinkingly, steadfastly, ahead.

He blinked again just to be sure.

What had he expected?

He sucked in his lips. Nothing really.

Maybe he was just overtired—adjusting to the time changes between Sydney and Tahiti that are part of air travel. Not clock time so much as date and day changes! Crossing the International Date Line after leaving New Zealand took a bit of mental gymnastics!

Today was Saturday! It was Sunday in Sydney. He had that firmly set in his consciousness.

Hawkins guiltily shot another glance at Sam, who continued to paddle with his straw, totally oblivious of the change in Hawkins’s demeanour.

Nothing, Hawkins hoped tentatively, would spoil his holiday. But his relaxed feeling had lost some of its edge. It was an uncomfortable sensation.

It was more than just the dull pain in the pit of his stomach. It was an odd unsettling feeling.

Where it had come from he had no idea.

Part One

Holidays are about experiences and people, and tuning into what you feel like doing at that moment. Enjoy not having to look at a watch (or your mobile phone).

Evelyn Glennie (adapted)

The whole point of life is learning to live with the consequences of the bad decision we’ve made.

Sherrilyn Kenyon

Chapter 1

A Bloody History~1700s

Centuries earlier

Whether we wound or are wounded, the blood that flows is red. Hawkins rarely thought about blood. That would change.

The word pirate conjures up vivid images of outlandish daring coloured with some admiration and awe. In the 17th and 18th centuries, legendary pirates such as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd gave rise to the fictional characters of Long John Silver and Jack Sparrow.

The term piracy can be applied to a wide range of sea crimes, including coastal raiding and intercepting ships on the high seas. Robbery, kidnapping, smuggling, murder and executions all qualify as piratical activities, provided there’s some water and a boat involved. No water and no boat? Then bandit is a better term.

Hawkins knew a bit about piracy—mostly from movies! But movies don’t provide an accurate picture of history.

Back in time whenever people used the sea for trading there was always the threat of piracy. People suffered. Blood was spilled!

Spanish ships had seized goods (loot or booty) from North and South America (the New World) since Columbus’s first expedition of 1492.

In the early 1500s the Spaniard Cortez ruthlessly destroyed the Aztec Empire of Central America. Pizarro did the same horrific thing to the Indians on the west coast of South America. Both Cortez and Pizarro were motivated not by defence but rampant greed.

Aztec towns were ransacked, ravaged and destroyed as ship after ship carried the spoils of war back to Spain—finely worked gold, silver and jewels, as well as the resources of the gold and silver fields of the entire South American colonies. Spain became the richest country in Europe by the end of the 16th century.

But transporting such wealth posed its own problems, cyclones being the least of them.

Over the centuries other colonising nations grew in strength. The Spanish trade of goods was threatened by its colonial rivals, who tried to seize islands as bases in the West