On Useppa

"'The fish is my friend too,' he said aloud. 'I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not have to try to kill the stars.' Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. But imagine if a man each day should have to try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought." Old Man and the Sea



De Madrone could see that Her Bounty, the infamous black flag of Hap Rayne, was gaining but in these rough seas looks could be deceiving so he clamored out the order to vice admiral Savoy to send

out the log line in order to test the true speed in knots.  Speed ultimately would not be the deciding factor, he thought, for the war ship in pursuit was not built to carry cargo but to chase and evade. No, the best chance in this particular case would be to sacrifice his post and this ship for dear hope of using her as a decoy and finding for himself Trueheart somewhere inside the tangle of the Ten Thousand islands emerging

very quickly on the horizon.  "Twelve knots," Savoy, vice admiral, shouted to the palm of his raised hand as he stood at the deck reading by hourglass the knotted rope.  To open the sails any further to the gusting, looping wind would most certainly begin to disturb the masts.  He must call out order quickly. The crew stayed busy at the riggings, but all knew secretly the situation without a single word: they had no cargo to pillage, they would be subdued within only a short while, all they had was a potential fight that would most certainly leave the ship either devastated by a dominant gunnery or would leave their small crew dead or captive.  "Lower sails. Ease the knots.  Hang the white!" De Madrone shouted and telescoped the bobbing forecastle of Her Bounty.  He caught the image of Hap Raynes, himself telescoping El Capitan.  He

was a fit man of the Old English Navy, turned pirate.  These men, he knew from experience, were often the worst and most ruthless of the pirates – men who had been turned away from the career of the British Admiralty and who found a taste of pure independence out here on the lawless seas.  De Madrone signaled to his quartermaster to stock a row boat with drinking water and guns.  He barked to the vice admiral to take the helm and prepare for surrender.  In virtually any other circumstance this would be a brazen maneuver of cowardice, yet if the implicit goal was to protect the Trueheart by serving decoy, it could be understood and accepted by the crew without mutiny and rage.  West, as he reversed his telescope toward La Florida, he could no longer see the sister ship, but he knew, with virtually no doubt, that it would be hung soon on a shoal in shallow waters.  He climbed into the row with six others and as the

small craft hit the bubbling ocean it tipped and nearly folded forward onto a roil of scattering waves.  As they rowed long sticks, El Capitan began to look like a dark house full of little else besides ghosts.