Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers
by Bob Kranich
Wrecker’s Tale, (Part 9, Excerpt 60)
This is a new story, titled “Wrecker’s Tale”. Captain Dan Benson is the captain of a two-masted schooner , the Jenney Mae. His schooner is used to take his pineapples from his plantation to market and also wrecking. Wrecking means he will go out to a shipwreck and save people, ship, and cargo. It is an additional lucrative business because of the many storms and the reefs along the Keys. He and his sailing crew are running a load of pineapples through the Caribbean and up to New York. Two pirate ships are attacking them.
Wrecker’s Tale
At that point Captain Dan spun the wheel, and the schooner leaned far out to starboard, and then straightened up, heading right towards the pirate ship, aiming mid-ships.
“Men, swivel guns up and fire all you can!” Captain Dan ordered.
The pirates were taken by surprise. The two bow swivel guns of the Jenney Mae fired. Blam! Blam! Grapeshot bounced and raced across the deck of the pirate sloop. Blam! Blam! More grape. The pirate gunners ducked down forgetting to fire. They were just trying to save their skins.
“Fire! Fire you swabs!” was the last thing Captain Gomez ordered as the Jenney May hit the pirate sloop, not straight because at the last minute Captain Dan turned the wheel to glance at a slight angle.
“Hold on, men! Cease fire!” Dan yelled.
The Jenney May came to a sudden crashing stop as it slammed into the sloop and rode up on it. The pirate sloop tipped way up as the hit side dipped down into the sea, water racing over the gunnels.
The Jenney May slid back. It was now at an angle to the sloop. Her men picked themselves up from the jolt and started working the sails’ ropes. She pulled away as the sails filled. The pirate sloop was upright but dangerously low in the water. The pirates could be seen swimming or hanging on to parts of their ship. As the Jenney May pulled away, the smaller sloop gave up the chase and was last seen pulling up to the sinking sister ship.
The sails were billowing out, and the Jenney May was moving at a fair pace. All that could be seen behind them were the triangles from the smaller pirate sloop.
“John,” Captain Dan called, “Let’s get a damage report. Where’s the carpenter, Matthew? Are we taking in any water?”
“Needn’t worry Capt’n. Matthew’s already down below. Benjamin is with him,” John answered.
The two men came up from below. “Sir, one plank had some separation. We plugged the leak. She’s a tough lady! Now if you wish we’ll take a look up front.” Both Dan and John nodded.
“Take the wheel, John,” Dan said, “I’m going up front to see what they find.”
As the captain came up, Benjamin was hanging over the bow looking down, Matthew holding on to him.
“What’s it look like men?’
Matthew pulled Benjamin up, and said, “Sir, the bowspirit has a nasty crack and the support ropes of the foremast and jib sails are about gone. If you please Sir, we’ll splint the cracked bowspirit and then replace the bad sections of rope.”
Benjamin piped in, “Sir, if we could slow down to about three knots, we’ll get that bowspirit spliced and wrapped. Then if we can go dead in the water for about an hour, together with all the men we can get those support ropes fixed.”
“Very good, men, we’ll do it. Carry on!”
“John, we’re going to ease down to three knots while the men splint the spirit. Then we’ll go dead in the water while all hands get our mast support and sail ropes repaired.”
“Aye aye, Sir!”
John didn’t even have to issue the orders. The men, upon hearing the captain’s information being passed on, set to work trimming the sails. Matthew found a piece of splicing wood which is kept on all boats for such an emergency. Benjamin, Matthew, Roberts, and one other of the men laid the eight-foot piece of wood across the crack and parallel to the bowspirit as it jutted out in front of the ship. Then they took wet rope and lashed and wrapped it evenly around the bowspirit and the wood they were using for a splice, stretching the rope as they went.
They waved to John who then commanded the men to drop sails so the schooner would go dead in the water. This took the stress off all of the ropes that supported the masts. These ropes ran from the top of the foremast, holding the two jib sails down to the bow spirit, and then down to the bow of the ship where they were attached at the waterline.
All of the men then commenced splicing the now slack ropes. They had rigged up a kind of a breeches buoy.* It was hanging from the bowspirit over the water so a man could sit in it and work on the ropes where they attached near the waterline.
It had taken only a couple of hours for all of the repairs, and Matthew gave John the high sign. The men scurried about, sails went up, ropes were tightened, and the wind took over. The Jenney May was doing what she did best...flying in the wind!
“Sir, in thirty miles we’ll be turning north and heading up the coast of the Florida mainland,” John stated.
“Good work, John. I’m going below to my cabin, and look over the charts. We’ll start an every four hours shift. See to the men’s schedule.”
Aye aye, Sir,” John touched his forehead.
Four hours later the captain came up. “Has the cook got the men’s food, John?”
“Yes Sir, here‘e comes now with some coffee.” John pointed, “Well, Sir, we left Hawk Channel and the Keys three hours ago. We’re on a northwest bearing. Should sight St. Augustine by morning.”
“Very good, John. We’ll keep it up...as fast as the wind, sails and Jenney May will take us. Got to get these pineapples to market.”
They were in the Atlantic, keeping the coast in sight but out where the land swells didn’t affect the water.
Morning…
“There’s Augustine, Sir, off the port bow.”
“Thank ye kindly, John. We’ve been at it for a day and a half. What I want to do is bear slightly east of north. We’ll be out of sight of land for a time, but should be back along the coast by this time tomorrow.”
There were very few large cities or towns along the Georgia coast. If you were in close you might see an occasional small harbor with a few cabins and some fishing boats. But the main places of civilization were St. Augustine, Florida; Savanna, Georgia; and then Charleston, South Carolina.
Twenty four hours later they sited Charleston off the port bow on the distance shore. The bright early morning sun was just rising up out of the calm Atlantic.
Captain Dan was suddenly awakened by a strange inaction. There was no movement. He got up slipped on his boots and went topside. The sails were only slightly flapping...the schooner was dead in the water. The waves were heading in towards the shore. The boat was gently rocking to and fro.
“What’s happening, John?”
“Don’t know, Sir. We’re going along at right smart pace, a sudden gust of wind hit, and then bam! No wind...no nothing!”
“John, let’s fool around with the sails a bit. See if we can catch any breeze.”
Nothing happened.
From The Author:
My second full-length book , Florida Keys’ Watercolor Kapers is composed of 336 pages. There are 12 stories running from 6 pages to as many as 72 pages. It is fully illustrated with 88 watercolors and sketches. The watercolors I made roaming around Key West after I finished my 750 mile hike from Georgia to Key West. (See book or Don Browne’s SouthWest Florida Onlin News records, A Walk Across Florida.) As you read these stories you will experience Key West, the Keys, and the Caribbean. These stories span the time of the early 1800’s to 1969. bkranich.wixsite.com/bobkranich
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