Pirates of the Storm (Stranded In Time Book 1) (10 page)

A moment later, Crabtree leaned over
the rail. “Aye?”

“Is that broken mop handle from my
fight with Harrison around somewhere?”

“Aye, it be in the fire wood
box.”

“Would you be so good to get it and
throw it down to me?”

“Aye,” Crabtree said as he backed away
from the rail. A minute or so later, he returned with the mop
handle and tossed it down to Jeff.

“Thanks!” Jeff said, swimming back
toward the stern of the ship. Crabtree simply shrugged and returned
to his duties.

When he once again reached the rudder,
Jeff sized up the broken mop handle to the space between the rudder
hinges. He gently slid the splintered end of the handle into the
space and tested the rudder movement. There was no longer any play
in the rudder. He pulled the handle back out and swam back from the
rudder. “Mr. Crabtree!” he shouted.

Crabtree appeared at the rail, looking
annoyed. “Aye?”

“I’d like to look at the movement in
the rudder. Would you turn the wheel to steer to
starboard?”

“Aye!” came the gruff reply. Jeff
watched as the rudder turned in response to the wheel. “Good! Now
back the way it was,” he called up to the deck. The rudder returned
to the starting position and Jeff swam over and slid the handle
into the hinge space. “Now to starboard again!” he yelled. This
time nothing happened. Just to be sure, Jeff yelled once more, “To
starboard, Mr. Crabtree!”

A few moments later, Crabtree appeared
at the rail. “What have ye done?! The wheel no longer turns to
starboard!” Crabtree growled.

“Good!” Jeff replied as he swam back
over to the rudder.

“Good?!” Crabtree screamed, “Ye have
disabled the ship! Ye have cursed us all!”

Jeff wiggled the mop handle from the
hinge space and swam back out. “It’s OK Mr. Crabtree, I think
you’ll find that the wheel turns now!” he said with excitement.
Jeff did not wait for Crabtree to test the wheel and swam back to
the cargo net. As he climbed aboard, Crabtree was leaning over the
stern rail trying to spot him. Jeff ran across the main deck and up
the steps to the navigation deck.

Crabtree turned to face him, “Thar ye
be! What did you do?”

“I jammed the rudder with this!” Jeff
replied holding up the mop handle, “and I can do the same to the
Spanish ships!”

Crabtree smiled, or at least made an
expression that Jeff figured was as close as Crabtree’s face came
to a smile. “Let’s inform the Captain,” Crabtree said as he headed
for the Captain’s cabin.

The Captain met them on deck, having
overheard their exchange when Jeff was in the water. “So, Mr.
Greene, you know how to disable the Spanish ships?”

“Yes, all it takes is some wood wedges
that can be jammed into the rudder hinges.”

“Aye!” Coxen smiled, “That could work,
but how will you get the wedges into the rudders on 4 ships
hundreds of yards away in the dark? The sun will be down shortly
and the ships are just now anchoring, still a good ways
out.”

“Last night it was nearly a full moon,
so there should be plenty of moonlight tonight. All I need is a
sack of wedges and perhaps a mallet to make them tight,” Jeff
answered.

“Mr. Greene, you’d never make such a
swim at night. No man I know could make such a swim in the day and
at night you’d be taken by the sea beasts long before you reached
the ships.”

“I’m an excellent swimmer, Captain.
I’ll admit, swimming at night in open water is not the safest
activity, but I know I can do this.”

“Very well. Mr. Crabtree, have the men
get Mr. Greene what he needs.”

“Aye, Captain!” Crabtree acknowledged.
Jeff and Crabtree gathered the crew and showed them the size of the
wedges needed. Several men set to work immediately carving out the
wedges from bits of scrap wood.

“With 4 ships, 3 wedges per rudder
side… I need 24 wedges, so let’s call it 30 to have a few spares
just in case,” Jeff stated, as he started to carve a piece of
firewood. The crew worked quickly and soon had the required number
of wedges. Graves came forward with a small burlap sack to place
the wedges in and the other Stevens produced a large wooden
mallet.

“Ye should have this as well,”
Crabtree said, handing him a large knife with a sheath and rope
belt.

“Thank you, Mr. Crabtree,” Jeff said
as he tied the belt around his waist. Jeff looked at the sack and
mallet and realized that it was going to be difficult to hold onto
all of it while swimming and placing the wedges. He was going to
need an assistant.

“I need a volunteer to go with me,” he
said to the gathered crew.

“None of the crew can swim, Mr.
Greene,” Crabtree said dejectedly.

The last thing Jeff wanted to do was
ask Jenny to place her life in danger, but she spoke up before he
could. “I can swim,” she said stepping forward.

“Why did I not know this?” Crabtree
inquired with surprise. “There is much you do not know about me,
simply because you have never asked,” she replied, with a slight
wink toward Jeff.

“Good, it’s settled then,” Crabtree
said to Jeff, “You have your assistant and your tools.”

“But you are lacking your sanity!” the
Captain said walking across the deck toward the group. “Mr. Greene,
please reconsider. Your chances of success are small and your
chances of dying are great.”

“Your concern for my safety is
appreciated Captain, but I truly think this will work and I believe
I - and Mr. Robinson – will return safely,” Jeff replied
confidently.

“Your safety is not so much my concern
as the potential loss of my new ship’s surgeon and now my cook.
Actually, the loss of my cook would be the worst of it if you did
not return!” the Captain said with a smile.

“I will do my best to return your
cook, Captain,” Jeff said with a chuckle.

“Very good. I leave this endeavor to
your discretion then.”

“Thank you, Captain. We’ll leave after
it gets fully dark - as soon as the moon comes up sufficiently to
light our way.

“I’ll see you off when you are ready,”
Coxen nodded before turning and heading back to his
cabin.

The rest of the men wished Jeff and
Robinson luck and dispersed to their posts. “We should get ready
for the swim. Do you still have my swim trunks, uh, the skivvies I
was wearing?”

“Aye, in my chest below,” Jenny
said.

“Good. I’ll change into those and
we’ll need to modify some clothing for you to wear that won’t have
as much drag in the water.”

“Aye,” she replied as they headed to
the crew’s quarters. Jenny opened her chest and pulled out Jeff’s
swim trunks. He pulled off his pants and she swatted his bare
behind as he bent over to pick up his trunks.

“Hey!”

“What?” she said, trying to look
innocent.

Jeff pulled on his trunks and then
looked at Jenny. “OK, we can cut off the sleeves of your shirt and
shorten the legs on your pants so you can swim better. It would
also make it easier for you if you take off the wrap on your
chest.”

“I think you just want to look at my
bosom,” Jenny said with a smile.

“Well there is that,” Jeff agreed,
“But that wrap is really going to weigh you down. The problem is
that in a wet shirt, your breasts are going to be hard to disguise
when we get back.”

“What if I remove my shirt and wrap
after we get in the water and stash them somewhere so I can put
them back on when we get back,” she suggested.

“It’s probably going to be tough
getting that stuff on in the water, but I guess there’s not really
another option. We’re also going to need something to re-disguise
your face after you’ve been in the water.”

Jenny pulled a small leather pouch
from the chest. “I can carry some ash and grease from the fire pit
in this.”

“That will work,” Jeff agreed. “Well,
let me get your pants cut off,” Jeff said as he pulled his knife
from its sheath. He bent down and carefully cut the cloth to just
above Jenny’s knees. “I guess we don’t need to do the shirt if
you’re going to take it off anyway.”

“Cut my sleeves too. It will make it
easier to put it back on if the sleeves are short,” Jenny
said.

“Good thinking,” Jeff
agreed.

When the modifications were done,
Jenny made her way to the galley for the ash and grease as Jeff
made his way onto deck. It was now getting quite dark and the 4
Spanish ships were just barely visible outside the reef. Jenny
joined Jeff on deck. “I’m ready when you are,” she said.

“We’ll wait until the moon comes up a
little bit so we can see where we’re going,” Jeff
replied.

A short time later, the bright orb of
the moon appeared above the trees onshore. The Captain had noticed
it through the windows of his cabin and made his way on deck to see
the pair off. “Good luck and please return safely.” Coxen said,
bowing to them.

“Thank you, Captain,” they replied
together. The other members of the crew circled around them as Jeff
tied the bag of wedges around his shoulders with a piece of rope
and slid the mask over his face. Robinson gripped the mallet in one
hand as she grabbed hold of the cargo net with the other and the
two swung themselves over the side. They quickly made their way
down the net and into the water and then swam to the back of the
ship where Jeff helped Jenny remove her shirt and wrap in the
darkness. They secured the clothing as best they could to the
ship’s rudder with a length of twine and set off for the closest of
the Spanish ships.

The moon was now high enough that all
of the enemy ships were clearly visible against the night sky. It
was a long swim, but to Jeff’s relief, Jenny was obviously a very
strong swimmer. As they approached the inside edge of the reef,
Jeff stood up slowly in the shallows to find a path through the
rocks where there was too little water to even swim across. Judging
from the break of the waves, Jeff saw what looked like a good
opening and led Jenny to it. They made their way through a small
break in the coral and out to the much deeper part of the reef.
After swimming for what seemed like an eternity, they finally
reached the first ship.

The pair swam slowly toward the stern
of the ship in hopes to avoid detection by the crew. Fortunately,
the two swimmers blended in to the waves and they easily made it to
the rudder. The two treaded water as Jeff pulled the sack of wedges
from his back and handed it to Jenny. Jeff untied the sack and
pulled out a wedge. “Back in a moment,” he said before taking a
breath, grasping the rudder, and pulling himself below the water.
Though it was dark, the water was clear and the space in the rudder
hinges was visible as the ship bobbed in the moonlight. Jeff placed
the wedge just below the lowest hinge on the rudder and shoved it
in as hard as he could. He returned to the surface and Jenny handed
him the mallet. Jeff pulled himself under once more and attempted
to swing the mallet, but quickly realized the buoyancy of it was
going to limit his swing. He opted instead to grasp the very top of
the handle and use short strokes with the top of the mallet head to
tap the wedge into place.

He had been a little worried about the
noise the mallet might make, but he was relieved to find that the
sound of the small taps was largely muffled by the water and Jeff
reasoned that the usual creaks and groans of the wooden hull would
easily mask any remaining sound. After testing the security of the
wedge, Jeff was satisfied that it would hold and he returned to the
surface. He handed off the mallet to Jenny and pulled another wedge
from the bag. He pulled himself down and placed the second wedge
just above the hinge on the opposite side of the rudder from the
first and pushed it into place before retrieving the mallet once
more to tap it tightly into place. He repeated the process with
another two pairs of wedges and then tested the rudder for
movement. He smiled at Jenny when the rudder failed to budge at all
no matter how hard he pushed and pulled. He dove down once more to
check the security of the wedges and all seemed to be holding fast.
“One down, three to go,” he whispered upon surfacing. They
carefully tied the sack of wedges closed and Jeff placed it on his
back for the swim to the next ship.

The pair made their way the few
hundred yards to the next ship without incident. Now having
practiced the procedure, Jeff and Jenny worked together much more
efficiently in sabotaging the second rudder and they soon were
preparing to swim to the third ship. As Jeff was slinging the bag
of wedges onto his back, Jenny let out a muffled cry. “What’s
wrong?” he whispered.

“Something touched my leg!” she said
quietly. Jeff lowered his face and searched the dark water through
the mask.

“I don’t see anything. Probably just
some seaweed,” he whispered reassuringly.

“It wasn’t seaweed!” she hissed back
at him.

Jeff took another look and carefully
scanned the depths for any signs of movement. “Whatever it was is
gone. Come on, we need to get to the next ship.” Jenny took a deep
breath and nodded.