The Huntress ✓

06. A Ship is Lost

Lucien stood on the empty beach, his arms crossed over his chest, looking out into the abandoned sea. There wasn't a sail on the horizon as far as he could see—namely not the sail of his newly finished sloop. When the shipwright informed him the ship had gone missing, along with his two apprentices, Lucien stood stunned with disbelief. That girl and her friend stole his ship. His freedom.

Lucien didn't bother to tell Blackwater one of his apprentices was a she. If anything, that only piqued him more. Not because she was a woman, but because Lucien knew yesterday she was playing the shipwright for a fool and said nothing. Now she'd played him for a fool as well.

Governor Heydon graciously offered a vessel to hunt down the two pirates, embarrassed they'd gotten away so easily. The galley was getting ready to leave port on the other side of the island now. Lucien decided against going with them. The galley was a fine ship, but it'd never catch his sloop.

Pirates he thought, morbidly amused. They were hardly grown yet they'd pulled off the stunt without a single hew and cry. Neither of the guards had turned up and Lucien wondered absently if they were in on the piracy. Another thing he found curious (though he was loathe to team with the thug) was when it'd been suggested to set Captain Bartholomew on the pirate's trail, he was nowhere to be found. It seemed he also sailed from the island that night.

The pungent smell of sweat alerted him to someone approaching from behind. He turned his head slightly and caught a glimpse of the intruder.

The aggrieved shipwright stood nervously twisting his cap in his hands, the sun glistening off the sweat beading on his bald head. "The captain's sent word he'll sail within the hour. Are you sure you won't be going with 'em?"

"No." Lucien found even the idea of being a passenger rankled him. He should be sailing today with his own crew. "When can you start on another ship?"

"Another, Sir? Don't you be wanting the one I just built?"

"Of course I want it! But I will not wait here for the governor to catch those two sneaky thieves."

The shipwright looked to the ground, obviously ashamed of what his apprentices had done. "I'm sorry for it sir, I did'na know of their plans."

"If I believed you had you'd already be fitted for a noose! Now can you build the ship or not?" The older man winced and Lucien immediately regretted his harshness.

"I've another slated at the moment," he said apologetically, his head bowed. He looked up then, glancing around, as if to be sure no one was listening, and said, "If you could be patient, I'll start yours first thing next year. What with everyone pokin' around the shipyard, I don't want The Company getting too interested in me, you know what I mean?"

The Somers Isle Company (Somers Isle was another name for Bermuda), a group of proprietors who oversaw the running of the colony from London, enacted laws pertaining to the exporting of goods and the division of shipyards vs. plantations. Claiming restrictions were for the protection of the Bermudan Cedar, you needed a license to build ships, and these were rarely granted. Many suspected an ulterior motive of forcing the population to continue agriculture, from which they could collect a tax. But crops continually failed and Lucien wondered how much longer the people would put up with the Company's mandates.

They'd also put severe limitations on trade, only allowing exports on their own ship that came once a year, taking the goods to England. Often, what little crops colonist produced spoiled while waiting for that ship.

Shipbuilding was a far more dependable occupation and people would only tolerate the squeeze on trading so long before they had enough. But, for now, settlers tried to stay within the law for their livelihood.