It is 1754, almost two years have passed since Pirates of the Bahamas ended. The resumption of peace between the European nations has meant England now allows Spanish and French ships to use the North West Providence passage, a deep channel through the Bahama Islands, as a short cut from Cuba and the Eastern Caribbean islands to pick up the gulf stream in the Florida straits. The free use of this passage is key to Rum and Wrecks, the next Historical Novel in the series that I am in the process of writing (in addition to the prequel, mentioned in an earlier post).
Peace brought an end to privateering as a livelihood, but opened up a new source of revenue to the former pirates who had remained in The Bahamas: licensed wrecking, or the salvaging of shipwrecks. Rum and Wrecks begins with the wreck of a Spanish ship, and I’ve given a short excerpt from it, below the video:
Jack was easy to spot, standing high on the beach looking out to sea. Mary walked up behind him, wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled the left side of her face against the soft silk shirt covering his back. “It’s getting windy out here,” she murmured.
“Indeed it is,” Jack responded without turning around. “It looks like there’s quite a storm blowing in.” He focused his spyglass back and forth.
“What do you see?” Mary whispered into his right ear as she peered over his shoulder. The setting sun was brightly illuminating something on the southern horizon. Sails?
“It looks like a brig,” Jack answered. “But if she’s a merchant then she’s way north out of the shipping channel.” He handed Mary the spyglass. “Here, take a look.”
“They can’t be more than a couple of miles away from the reef,” Mary gasped. “I’m sure they can see it from there.” She handed the glass back. “Why aren’t they turning back?”
“They can’t; if they come about and run with the wind they’ll be facing shallows and reefs. The only way out of this for them is south, but with this wind that isn’t an option for a square rigger. Only a sloop can sail that close. Now that he realizes where he is, that captain’s going to be desperate for a way to get close to shore so he can anchor in shelter and wait the storm out. They’re pointing as hard west as they can while hoping to come across a cut through the fringe reef before they’re driven onto it.”
“But there are no cuts in that part of the reef.” Mary’s head vibrated from side to side.
“That’s right.” Jack folded the spyglass onto itself as the rain began. “And that means we’re looking at a doomed ship; they’ll be a wreck on Dead Man’s Reef before morning.”
