On Useppa

"It was dark now as it becomes dark quickly after the sun sets in September.  He lay against the worn wood of the bow and rested all that he could. The first stars were out. He did not know the name of Rigel but he saw it and knew soon they would all be out and he would have all his distant friends." Old Man and the Sea

Captain De Madrone of the Spanish treasure fleet ship El Capitan, on its voyage back from the Americas at Cartegena, stood out on aft deck just to windward side, looked up at the foremast and

could see that the wind of the Gulf storm was letting up now.  He looked up and could see the Rigel star, an old friend, he presumed anyway – since he had been on the fleet, his friends were no longer of the human kind, but he could always count on a star never to mutiny – and thought how easily it would be for the Trueheart to lose its course now and ram against the shoals of the islands of La Florida.  For any sailor new to the sea, this would make for a very unlikely moment to gloat upon the prospect of such a dastardly plan; they were off course, they were bound now for the thousand islands off of the coast, each of which were uncharted and potentially dangerous, and he had been outdone by the Trueheart by its southern conquest of much booty.  Yet for the seasoned captain all of this would weather itself and he could picture the very scene of devastation of Trueheart and its crew, his own heroic rescue of the silver load.  Monuments and court positions were delivered for such things.  What De Madrone had failed to observe was that as the weather had cleared so did their position out at sea – a British pirate warship had sidled up to the El Capitan as if a ghost in the night and had

outflanked the galleon in one bold and violent maneuver.  Her Bounty, now positioned at broadside, held at least sixty canons, the lids to which were flipped, and as the first canonball was masterfully placed just below decks against full-sided timber, De Madrone's dream turned to withering smoke.  Captain Hap Rayne, all knew, ruled these waters from the Bahamas upward into the shelter of the Gulf.  The Spanish fleet paid little concern for such singular piracy because it sailed in teams, yet all knew that such circumstances as these could result in the scene befallen here at this very moment.  Out ahead De Madrone

could see the faint brown speck of the Trueheart vanish in the wavy horizon.  "Ready the guns," De Madrone clamored to a surprised quartermaster and first mate.  They could see in a brief glimpse that their own twenty guns would be no match against such an aggressive approach.  "It is Hap Rayne of Her Bounty, all hands on deck." Her Bounty had strung the black flag by now high up on mast and men three feet deep leaned over the edge roaring to the stab of swords in the sky.  They would find nothing here, De Madrone thought, but if they were alerted to the ship ahead carrying silver....