Life of a Pirate | Teen Ink

Life of a Pirate

May 13, 2014
By Stephen Crisco, Olney, Illinois
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Stephen Crisco, Olney, Illinois
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Author's note: I felt that a story of a pirate was intresting and probably somthing not many people would even think of.

Hello my name is Wade Jewell, I am just a crew member for the ship known as Adventure Galley as my captain is William Kidd who had on a black shirt, with this white rag around his neck that made him look more fancy than it did to other people on our crew, his eyes were very fiery and hungry for adventure. Captain Kidd showed us the ship he had which looked brand new with the wood that kept the ship’s structure was very smooth to the touch anyone could stand on it without feeling uneasy.
Captain Kidd had sent us to a pub for a drink and of course you know how we pirates love to drink a lot of ale or rum! I began to drink as much as I could of course now I feel real light headed and dizzy and I went all black out. It is now morning and the ship is ready to sail, Captain Kidd had yelled for his crew to get on board of course I had been woken up by Captain Kidd himself; I ran to the ship so I wouldn’t get the plank, but it is very difficult to run when you woke up after having so much ale and rum to drink. People watched as I stumbled to the ship, swaying back and forth and I had to be dragged into the ship. We had to raise anchor as I began to watch the dock move away as if it did not like me anymore. Now it’s time to sail, as the crew began to watch the sea for anyone to plunder or to raid. I hear the lookout guy begin to yell out “Ship Dead ahead!” that meant we all would get our cannons ready and aimed at the unknown ship that is floating ahead of the Adventure Galley.

I began eating some oranges that smelled so sweet and tasted so fine that I had to enjoy myself as if in a luxury. Only reason we keep oranges and other citrus on our ship is due to a sickness called Scurvy which can do much to a person and we are told to eat a few citruses a day in order to keep the risk lower than it is needed. Captain Kidd was the head news in England since he is well known for his notorious deeds with the sea and we are friendlier to England than any other people we find roaming in the sea. Now the sea is just a deadly place to be at, even vultures would come if land was near.
Night has finally shown itself and the ship is slowly traveling the sea, and our crew is tired from all of the events that had happened on this ship. I went to my hammock that was set up in a room with other crew members and I quickly fell asleep. When morning struck, I woke up to a loud yell for people to get to the deck. Captain Kidd was calling out names to see if everyone was here, though everyone did show up, we had to keep an eye on our prisoners that we kept yesterday. First thing we had them do was fix us food and one crew member had to taste test it to make sure of no poisoning so we drew straws, I had drawn the small straw so I had to taste test this food. The prisoner handed me a plate with cooked fish on it since we did not have much meat to consume due to long travels and short supply of food. I begin to take small bites off the cooked fish and it just had a good taste to it, I felt this was the best thing ever made as if a chef had came to our ship and made delicacies for our crew to enjoy. That evening I had gotten sick and so did the crew since the prisoner had accidently used soap in the fish thinking it was a brush to clean the flakes off the fish. This day will take forever! I hope the night will come sooner than the day goes by. The crew went back to their hammocks, so did Captain Kidd after we finished checking out the prisoners.
Night came finally, but we had a big issue. A ship was spotted about a mile away from our ship; this meant we needed to prepare for battle, course the crew is still sick from the breakfast we had gotten. We got the big old cannons out again. I fired from the cannon, a loud roar that was even louder than monkeys when it went off. Of course our ship got struck with cannons as much as the enemy did, but they tried to escape until they collided into a rock that was near an island which the ship was sinking and people jumped out. Our crew did not care for the enemies as they slowly drowned in the deep, dark, blue ocean which was now their new graves. Me and some of the other crew got on a small boat and went for ship wreckage loot such as food, water, clothing, valuables, and stuff that can be used to repair our ship. When it comes to pirates we know how to fix damages, but our prisoners fixed the damages again. It’s good to have prisoners when you need them, since doing all of that work can take a lot out of you. I will never trust the prisoners to make my food ever again, but we made them food so they wouldn’t starve to death since we will need them later on in our adventure.

Morning soon arrived like a friend who had left and just came back to say hello to you. The ship stayed at the island we were near and we took what we could find from the island such as food, lumber, and other items to use for our ship or to sell to other people that can get us any type of currency on our ship. Getting coins is very hard unless you’re a very ruthless pirate and cheap as well, but our Captain made sure to buy a high priced ship, since he knew the ship would be more durable to the nature and in battles that will occur out on the ocean. Captain Kidd came up to me and said ‘get the prisoners up here right now’ I did what I was told and the prisoners stood in line, as they looked at the mighty beast who is hungry for adventure and Captain Kidd asked the prisoners ‘would you like to join my crew in this glorious adventure or would you rather be abandoned on an unknown island and hope that someone finds you’ of course the prisoners began to cheer as they joined our crew and they got better clothing then their tattered clothing that they wore for days.
Now that the new crew members are ready we search the empty sea for prey that can be taken out by our cannons, of course that is difficult when the wind is blowing at our sails real hard as if warning us not to go this way. Now it is night and the stars shine real fine and show off their yellow glows and white glows in the black cloudy sky. I fell asleep on the deck from watching the stars and I heard some yelling as I woke up, the crew was scrambling and the Captain kicked me and I felt a jolt of pain as I got up real quick. I saw a ship near us, with cannons pointing at us in the foggy morning as the ship began firing rounds into our sail and the deck got shot as well. I began seeing holes everywhere and I ran to a cannon that was not being used and I aimed at the people on the ship and I fired at them, to my surprise, the person I aimed at got pelted and flew off the ship real quick. The ship then put up a surrender flag and we moved our ship towards them as they were scared to see what we would do with them. The new prisoners were put in the ship as the crew took over the ship since it was barely damaged from the battle and now this new ship is ours to keep. The ship began to sail behind the Captain’s ship and we moved to a town for repairs and we dropped anchor at the dock and got off ship with some of the cargo we got to sell it off since the weight is too much for the ship to carry. The crew was given coins to spend it on drinks or whatever they felt like using it on.
I walked in the town, looking for a good shop to spend my coins at, since I might like something in the town, such as a new weapon, either sword or gun, but no shop showed promise of selling a good weapon. People looked at me with fear, since they knew I was a pirate, and they know that pirates are very ruthless with no care when it comes to pillaging anything. I tried to ignore the people as I kept walking on, then I felt a blunt force hit my head and I was out like a candle. When I woke up, I was in a building all tied up with no windows or opening to see light. The door across the barren room began to open, squeaking on the floor, as a man came to me with a plate and some food on it, the man looked at me with pure hate as I noticed he had a bag of coins around his neck, then I realized that he stole my coins and kept me in this small barren room. The guy then put the plate of food in front of me, sat down, and began to gorge on it, while I watched. The unknown man stopped eating, got up, and began to throw a ton of profanities at me as he started talking of how pirates killed his family when he was a child and he vowed to get revenge in some way, since the pirates made him watch them murder his parents and siblings, and then they took him to their ship to do work and to learn from them, since they found good potential in this kid to be a pirate and the guy never forgot about how cruel, and savage these pirates had been to him. The guy even told me he joined people in hunting pirates in order to find the group of pirates he has been looking for, but he never had any luck with finding them at all. I took a look at the person in the eyes and only saw fear, and anger in it. The male had then pointed a revolver at my head and told me to work for him in order to kill pirates he has hated all his life and they were the ones who put him in where he is now. I noticed that the pirates he had talked of are the ones that my Captain had hated dearly as well and they influenced him to be what he is now.
I told the guy I would do this favor, but he cannot harm the crew since he is a pirate hunter, he agreed to this. The gentleman then untied me and got me up, handed me the bag of coins he had stolen and offered some food to me as an apology for his rude behavior of knocking me out with a weapon he had held. I accepted the food and ate as quickly as I could since when you’re in the crew, you got to fight for your food in the ship since we do not have a whole lot of food to eat each day. I had asked the guy his name and he told me that he is John Morris. I shook John’s hand and told him “welcome aboard my friend.” John gave me a smile that he was pleased to have pirates help him instead of harming him like he had been before.

I showed John to our huge wooden ship and told Captain Kidd about the problem, but Captain Kidd told me he cannot join us, due to him being a pirate hunter and he cannot risk losing crew members over a small story that is meaningless to him. I told Captain Kidd to talk to John to see how they can make an agreement on the ship so that no one gets harmed. Captain Kidd agreed with me as he took a few steps towards John and they began chatting as I had left in case they needed some privacy to make their agreement on this wonderful sunny day. Sometime later, I went back to the ship, and Captain Kidd told me they made their agreement that John can have is revenge, but we get the ship’s loot. I knew that Captain Kidd wanted something good out of the bargain as well, but I wonder how the crew will think that we are going to have a sea battle again with a stronger pirate group. Captain Kidd began heading to the Pub for a drink and to get the crew back on the ship, the city was small so we knew where the Pub was only. I followed Captain Kidd and John had stayed on the ship to keep an eye on it so no one thinks of plundering the ship while the crew was away.
I headed inside the Pub; people drinking Ale, Rum and other good drinks were taking a look at Captain Kidd and backed off as they watched him order a drink. I sat by Captain Kidd and the people watched me as well, as if they thought I was the new guy in town and they were waiting for a bar fight to occur over a drink or something else. I began to order my ale as me and the Captain hear gun fire outside the Pub and Captain told me to look outside to see what had gone wrong if anything at all. I slowly made my way out, without a drink and I saw two guys holding guns at me as they are the town guards and they told me to get the Captain or they would barge in and shoot. I walked into the Pub and told the Captain what is waiting for him outside, the Captain then got up, with his revolver hidden, made a slow exit out of the Pub as the crowd in the Pub made no noise to listen. No gunfire had occurred, only talking and yelling. I slowly made my way out of the Pub to see the sunny sky get darker from a storm that is coming in, the Captain is arrested as the guards than told me that I am arrested as well, I pulled out my revolver and shot both guards, one in the chest, the other one got a bullet in the neck. I ran over to the Captain to make sure he was not tied, but he wasn’t as he got up to see the bloody scene that I had done and he yelled at me to get on the ship, so I ran for the ship as people began screaming in fear from seeing me shoot the guards and the people began hiding in their homes or wherever they can find a spot not to be seen at. I got on the ship as John looked at me and nodded, since he knew what happened.
The crew got on the ship as quick as possible, more guards show up with their guns, aimed at the ship and began firing a few rounds, I felt a jolt of pain as I noticed a hole in my shoulder and the crew saw me go down as I began to cry out in pain from the wound that was inflicted upon me from this hole made from such a force that the bullet had done. The Captain had the crew carry me to my hammock in the ship. One of the crew members was putting rags on my shoulder to keep the red fluid from escaping out of the hole that was such a gory sight. John walked in with a bowl of citrus for me and I grabbed whatever I could, it was another orange like I had before. I couldn’t use my left arm too well since that was where the wound was. John understood what I am thinking and he began unpeeling the fruit for me and handed me the raw fruit that was bear naked to the eye. I began to eat the fruit as the sweet flavor kicked in and made me feel somewhat more comfortable on the hammock. Captain Kidd walked to me and told me I cannot leave the hammock until my arm is fully healed from the damage that was dealt to it. I put my revolver on the floor next to my hammock and began to rest.
I slowly wake up as the moon was gleaming light at the water which was outside the ship, I thought I had a dreamt, but I felt more pain in my arm as I tried to move it. I was really upset that this wasn’t a dream now, and an actual guard got one lucky shot on me. I looked outside still, feeling worried of what will come of me from this small event that had happened earlier on this day. I tried to sleep as I am told to, but the pain is now keeping me from sleeping. I looked around to see what I can do to keep myself busy, but of course there really is nothing to do in the ship unless you got two good arms to use; of course that does not fit the bill for me. I watched as the moon slowly made a journey across the sky until the sun began to show itself to people like it was a might deity.

The crew started to wake up as they did their morning work of cleaning the deck, checking the sails for damage, look for land or a ship, and to have one person make the morning breakfast for the crew. Usually when it comes to breakfast the Captain ate first if the taste test did nothing to the person. Later in the day the Captain came to see me, and began to tell me I might have to leave the ship for good, I thought this was a nightmare I wanted to wake up with two good arms, and a crew who looked for pleasure of plundering and ransacking other ships. I knew this was not a dream but I had wished it was so I can stay with the crew until I had passed on or found a new way to live my life.

John called for Captain Kidd and I was left alone, again. I looked at the entrance, hoping someone would come to chat with me of how wonderful it was when we plundered ships and took in new crew members for the ship, but no one came and I felt gloomy from being so lonely and without someone to keep me busy chatting with to kill off time. I never paid attention to my arm as I thought of some new good outcomes of my arm being healed from the injury. Then I knew it was time for me to move on with my life and to look for something new to do. I called for the Captain and I told him I will leave the crew for good. Both the Captain and I knew this was something that should not have happened, but he liked me as one of his crew member, but he knew I was useless to him. Captain Kidd had left the room after looking at my injured arm.

Soon night came, and went real fast, morning shown as the ship had hit land on a port with the Dutch. I explored the town to see what I can do to survive and I saw a job needed for lumberjacking and I knew I could not do that job since my arm was in bad shape still. I had to find something and real quick or I would not survive very long in this town. I wondered the town, with the marble roads, and the crowded roads that have people in horse carriages, people walking, and people who rode on horseback. It is time for me to look for a new way to do things in life, since no one is hiring an injured man to work.
I saw a stranger in town who needed a job as well, he was good with farming, but he cannot find a job for farming in such a town. I asked the guy if he wanted to come with me, and he said he will since he has no home to live in, I even told him I had none either so we both laughed as we walked through town. I and the guy walked out of the town, and into the green land that is empty and ready to be claimed by anyone. The land looked so fine and very useful for food crop. I asked the gentleman to chop wood as he pulled out an axe from his leather bag he had on his back. While the guy was chopping,
I had asked the person his name and he told me his name was Fabion Meer. While the logs were piling up, I had to start building the home that we were to live in, it was not easy, these logs are real heavy to hold, and they needed to be secured without moving while we establish the building. Fabion had asked me if I needed help, I did need his help so I allowed him to help me build as we began making a log cabin from the oak trees that were nearby and some pine trees as well. Fabion had taught me that these trees go by names and what type of tree they are. I was glad to have someone who knew a lot about trees. Time has gone, as the log cabin is fully built, and Fabion headed to a nearby farm to get seeds for our farm. I had gotten my revolver I still had and walked into the forest to find dinner. It is hard to find food in a forest when animals move very swiftly. I took a few steps further into the dense forest, where trees show themselves as tall as they can be, the grass is green, several white mushrooms are on the ground, and you can hear the chirping of birds as they flutter by. I see a deer grazing on some grass in an open field that was near the forest as I slowly took some steps forward with the revolver aimed at the deer, of course I am using my right hand to hold the weapon as I aimed at the deer carefully, but something had scared off the animal that I had hoped to make a meal of and I saw a bear charging after the deer,
I knew this was a loss for me, so I had to look elsewhere for an animal to hunt. I saw the sun traveled long distance across the sky as night was about to come. I grew tired of hunting, but I had to find something to hunt. I see a rabbit hoping along; as I try to aim my revolver at it and I took one shot, it had missed the rabbit and boy did it take off without hesitating. Man I sure am a bad aimer with my right arm; I wish my left arm was as good as new. I walked back to the cabin without food; Fabion knew I had nothing to show from being gone so long. Fabion asked me to go fishing instead; I told him I am tired of fish. Fabion never knew what I was before I met him, but he kept on insisting I go fishing, so I agreed to after a few minutes of argument, of course he knows more than I do, but not enough to know what I had done. I asked Fabion if he had anything I could use to fish with; he grabbed a sturdy stick and tied on some string he had pulled off his shirt. Fabion asked me if I had any sharp stuff, I told him I did not, so his face turned from happiness to being worried. I had forgotten my sack of coins I still had as I pulled it out and Fabion was surprised to see so much coins in a sack, and asked me how I had gotten it. I began telling Fabion my adventurous story of how I started out as a new crew member of the Adventure Galley and told Fabion about how I was a pirate for so long and how fun it was before I had to leave the crew.

When I had finished telling my story, Fabion turned all pale and backed away from me. I began asking what was wrong, as Fabion then began heading out the door, as I stopped him. I kept on asking what is wrong, now Fabion is yelling in fear as if I am a murder of some sort. I got Fabion to calm down after awhile of trying to keep him from escaping the log cabin. Fabion started telling me how that my crew had been the ones to put Fabion at where he is now with pillaging his trade route ship and left him at an unknown island, he even told me how a ship had stopped at the island to check around for any good materials to take as they found him and took him to where we are now. I had forgotten what it was like to feel what a victim of my own demise was like. I tried to apologize, as he had forgiven me and we started fresh as if I was never a pirate and he was never the victim of the pirates. It was time to get some food as I headed to the town which is almost night time and I found a shop still opened.
I entered the nearly empty shop, seeing plenty of fruits and meat for sale. I picked up some fresh cattle meat and went over to the owner of this establishment to see how much he wanted it for. He told me the cost was six coins, so I handed him the coins and left. All of the items for sale were so good looking for a meal and I thought this was a miracle, but I know I cannot steal from a shop or I would be under arrest. When I got out of the shop, Fabion was waiting for me and I showed him the food I had gotten, he was so happy to know we can eat now instead of having hunger like we had for a few days from building the log cabin and no one took our meals while we had worked. Ah yes the cabin was nice and cozy now, we had no way of getting fire, due to the risk of burning our own home down, so we had to sleep with our clothes on and lay on the wooden floor we had. Now it’s time to eat, as I had to make a spot outside the log cabin for a fire and I stacked some logs together with some stone making a circle around the logs so that the fire does not escape.
I had forgotten we had no pot to put water in! Fabion told me he can go fetch one from the nearby farm and I was uncertain if they would allow it or not, but Fabion headed out anyways to get what we needed for such a good meal that I was about to prepare. A few minutes had gone by and Fabion had returned with an empty pot and I was glad he did, we both needed something to eat. Even the nearby farm owner came by to see me, he was a pleasant muscled guy, with a white shirt, and tattered leather pants on and black short hair. The farmer looked like one of us with the clothes he worn, but we knew farmers never make good money from their fresh produce. The farmer came up to me and greeted me with a jolly smile as he shown me how friendly he can be. I greeted the farmer with asking him to stay for dinner, he sure liked that idea and he offered to go get wooden plates for the meat and some wooden forks to use on it as well, I allowed him to as he ran back to his place. Man this farmer can run faster than me! A minute later, the farmer came back with wooden plates, with wooden forks on top, and some carrots to add to the meal. I sure am happy to have a friendly farmer as a neighbor, maybe he can teach me and Fabion some tricks into farming since we both are new to this. I had to get some water for the meat as I asked the farmer if I could use the river near his home, he allowed me. I picked up the empty pot and asked Fabion to help as we both walked to the nearby river and filled up the pot with water and we both had to hold it back to the log cabin where the farmer was setting up the plate and fork for each of us.
I put the pot beside the pile of logs and grabbed a sturdy long stick to put inside the meat and I had Fabion hold it over the fire with me on the other side. We both stood there, letting the meat cook as the water in the pot was our drinking water in case someone needed a good drink. Now that dinner is ready, I and Fabion put the raw meat on a log that we used as our seat and I pulled out a dagger I had hidden in my sack and I began cutting the meat into 3 sections. Each section was for each of us who were going to eat and boy I grabbed a carrot and began eating it, I never had a carrot before until now, and I sure love it. I used my dagger to cut the meat into pieces and used the fork to hold each piece of meat and boy it looked all nice and smelled better than fish. When I began eating the meat I couldn’t stop myself from eating more of it until it was all gone. I ate so fast both the farmer and Fabion began laughing since they never met a man who never had cattle meat or carrots before. I was finished with my food when they were only half way done and I asked the farmer if he had anything to put the water in so I could drink, he had some wooden bowls used for water so the farmer stood up slowly and pointed to his home. I walked to the house and found an unused wooden bowl and I picked it up. I left the house and got back to the log cabin with such a unique item to drink water with.
I dunked the bowl into the cold pot of water and filled the bowl up. I took one long drink of water and I felt revitalized. I saw that both the farmer and Fabion were done eating and the farmer left, thanking us for the dinner. I felt real good that the farmer had more kindness than anyone else I had met, besides Fabion. I lay on the sturdy wooden floor in our log cabin as night rolled on without stopping. I tried to sleep and began to feel uneasy as I hear howling in the forest, I never dealt with wolves when I was a pirate. This was new to me as I had never heard a howling before, we never slept on an island, but now I had to since I left the crew for good. I finally got some sleep, until Fabion woke me up and began to tell me “Wade look outside! “ I got up and looked outside as I was told, and to my surprise there were people outside our log cabin. I got up and went outside to see what the issue was.

The people began to look at me at a different perspective than before as they told me a guy named Kidd was looking for me. I was shocked and so was Fabion he had shown me fear in his eyes as Captain Kidd showed up and looked at me. Captain Kidd was star struck to find me still alive and looking better than before. I gave Captain Kidd a good handshake as he handed me a sack and told me to use this well and he would come back to help me out more when he can. The people were all happy since Captain Kidd was allied to the Dutch town and not against it since I live here now. I opened the sack to find some citrus, and coins in it I felt real happy and I wanted to see the crew again. Captain Kidd had read my mind as he asked me to follow him to the ship for awhile as I looked at Fabion I asked Fabion to keep an eye on our stuff while I was away. Fabion listened and did what he was asked to do. The wind was breezy today as the trees were showing off their leaves when the wind gave it a good push. I saw the Adventure Galley and the other ship we had taken before and the crew gave me a good cheer as they ran out the ship to give me bear hugs which I cried a bit in pain from my arm being hurt still. The crew stopped touching me since they had forgotten the only reason I had left was from my right arm being shot. I was glad to see that everyone was still alright when I had left, they did admit they had missed me when I was gone and they all handed me a little something to remember them by. I couldn’t keep track with what I was given but I got a sack and put them all inside of it, then I promised to remember them, even that I would go fishing with them for a day so we can have fun making jokes together. I really wish this day would never end, but of course you know a day will never last so long in life.
The crew waved one last time, as they went aboard the ship. John Morris had gotten out of a nearby shop with some goods. I waved to John as he noticed me; John gave Captain Kidd the goods and gave me a good hand shake, since we did not know each other well enough to give hugs. I had to give John a good smile as he then looked at my arm that I was given a wound to and he told me it looked better than before. Both I and John knew my arm was doing better than it had been before. Captain Kidd told John it was time to go as we both waved goodbye. I looked at Captain Kidd one last time as he headed back onto the ship and sailed off. Such a lovely view of two tall ships with men tougher than anyone in any militia who sail on it. I headed back to the log cabin with the two sacks I had and Fabion asked how it went. I told Fabion it was all good until they left, but Fabion knew how that felt. I gave Fabion the sack with coins and citrus in it. Fabion was surprised to see so many coins as he thought pirates don’t give things out for free like that, but he never knew that I and Captain Kidd are real close friends as we had sailed almost all our lives in the open sea, battling other ships and plundering them for loot or new crew members. I had looked at Fabion as I told him ‘I wish I had the life of pirate again



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