Pirate of Compassion

By Cameron Sewalish

Pirate and First Mate Conor finds himself a captain of his own ship, but torn between his love of pirating and a girl. Amidst a war what will Conor do and what will he choose?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Apr 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665556385

Book preview

Prologue

T he Year is 1760, Conor MacGiolla, is the first mate on a ship named the Kraken. His captain and best friend is Sigric Polton, they are pirates and damn good ones. For years they’ve raided the Spanish taking their gold and weapons and selling them to the English for immeasurable amounts wealth. Yet Sigric has grown bored with the slow, fat Spanish ships; it has been months now since they have made war on any ship that crosses their path. They made themselves enemies of every crown that has a fleet in the sea. As problematic as this may seems it was fortuitous, they had grown to be better armed and stocked than ever before and yet Conor was worried. Sigric had grown bold, too bold; they had heard rumors of an English armada making way towards London with gold, jewels, and guns; this is what they needed. It’s been their dream to overthrow the English for quite some time now, but they would need more ships and more guns if they were to ever take back their homeland from the tyranny of the English crown.

1

End of the Beginning

I t was on the fifth day of March when they finally spotted it; seventeen ships all flying the English colors. Men on the decks of these vessels were dressed in handsome red coats, and the officers wore blue with their flamboyant feathered caps atop their heads. There were six man ’o wars’ and eleven armored brigs. The pirates only had one galleon, and yet Sigric began to call all hands to the deck and ordered them to have the guns at the ready. All hands, you bilge rats! We’ve got lobsters here to loot..

He met Conor at the helm and asked if he was ready, to which Conor replied, Always, mate. Let’s steal a ship!

The plan was for Conor to board a man o’ war with ten men, commandeer it, and begin blasting the other ships as hard as they could before scuttling it to give the pirates an edge. At a distance, the pirate ship looked like nothing more than a merchant ship. The ports were closed, and the colors were: not yet struck, but Sigric bravely sailed towards the armada with his tan coat flapping in the wind and his hair flowing freely. The men all looked to him for order. All thirty-two guns were loaded, and full crews awaited orders. Conor’s men stood at the ready by their rowboat, their cutlasses hidden underneath their coats with loaded pistols strapped to their chests.

The calm seemed to end too soon. As they closed the gap with the English, Sigric turned hard to starboard, hatches were opened, and the colors were struck; their black flag had a kraken skull crossed behind with a pistol and sword. It flew into the wind like a bird catching a breeze. The English armada had no time to act. Before they could get to their positions, the pirates began blasting them to the weighty blue depths. Eighteen cannons rang like the bells of hell and shredded the first man o’ war into pieces. The armada’s closest ship tried to spin around, but it was too late. Sigric’s men reloaded at incredible speeds and continued to pound away at the armada. It seemed the battle would be easy.

In the confusion and bustle, no one had noticed Conor and his men slip their boat into the water and make for the head man o’ war. It was huge and well-armed, and it was the fabled BrandyBuck they had to board. It was host to over three hundred sailors and soldiers, yet Sigric had only given Conor ten men to take her down. This would be an easy task for Conor, for he carried six loaded pistols, two swords, and five daggers. He was the scourge of the sea. He could clear the deck of a brig himself, so with ten men at his side, this should prove to be a mere trifle. Even soldiers feared Conor, so he chuckled to himself and his men as they rowed over to the ship. This oughta be easy, boys.;

But it seemed he was mistaken. While Sigric rained hell on the rest of the fleet, Conor and his men climbed aboard and immediately began to engage the Englishmen. They held them off for a time, but after a half hour of straight fighting, it was clear they could not take the BrandyBuck as the plan dictated. Conor grabbed the five men closest to him and dove below the deck, yelling, Send them to the locker, boys!

They dropped everyone they could and began diverting the English cannons away from their beloved Kraken and shot at the armada. They jumped down the ladders like rabbits into holes if only to skip the next deck. Thud! They hit the storage deck and looked around quickly. To the pirates’ surprise, it was filled to the brim with gunpowder ; more than they had ever seen in their lives. Quickly they started cracking open barrels and spilling the gunpowder everywhere. They ran a thick trail to the ladder and struck a spark with the dry flint of their pistols. Then they ran like foxes from hunting dogs to the top deck, but as they ran, more men spilled out on them, swinging swords and shooting pistols. Conor was hit several times by a sword’s slash here or there, but he would not let them kill him. He ran and ran as fast as he could, cutting down anyone in his way, and when he reached the top deck, he dove far and hard to the sea, wounded and bleeding as he was, for he knew that the greatest explosion ever created was about to rip the sea in half.

Just then, the water erupted with a great fire ball, and debris began to fill the sky. The greatest ship to ever sail the sea had been sunk by ten men, but it wasn’t over yet. As