48 Hours a Day

“I’m sorry. Did I interrupt your celebration?” asked Orff.

He then took a look around at all the pirates. A few pirates that stood close to Orff wanted to sneak away secretly.

“Don’t worry. I’m not here to reprimand you guys for not doing your job. After all, we have just won a huge battle. I just want to tell everyone that it’s my honor to fight alongside all of you. I think this is a good time for all of us to relax a while. Am I right?”

Immediately, all the pirates let out a sigh of relief. The celebration carried on right after that. Some of them started to tease Orff about a young sailor that almost landed a shot at his private part.

“Just now I heard that someone mention wanting to do something big,” said Orff with a smile on his face.

“Mr. Orff. All of us here want to know that when can we do something big enough to shake the whole world. With this ship, we can defeat all kinds of ships that go against us!”

Owning a battleship like the Scarborough was every men’s dream. Some of the pirates were still injured, but the excitement that they had right now made them want to rob another ship right away.

“Great. Let’s test the firepower of the giant cannon,” said Orff.

“Right now?”

All the pirates around Orff were left baffled. The battle was over, and there was no target around them. How was he going to test the firepower of the cannon? Was he going to shoot it in the air?

“Who told you that we don’t have a target? Isn’t that our target?” said Orff while pointing at the Sea Lion.

All the captured British navy soldiers were transferred to Sea Lion earlier. Most of them were upset and felt lost. They still could not figure out how they lost the battle. It killed them for not knowing what was going to happen to them. Not only they lose the possession of the Scarborough, but many of the navy soldiers were also killed during the battle as well. Even their captain was being held hostage by their enemies. And, the enemies were just a group of pirates but not navy soldiers from other countries. Usually, they were the ones who went after them. This incident was one of the most embarrassing moments for the royal navy.

Looking at the Scarborough, many of them started crying.

On the other hand, the pirates that stood on the second deck of Queen Anne’s Revenge was left in silence. The world saw them as monsters and villains. They did not deny the saying. On the contrary, they were happy that this was how the world saw them because one had to be strong enough to survive on the sea. The storm was their companion whenever they set sail to loot other ships. Not only that, but they also had to face navy soldiers, reefs that were hidden under the sea, bounty hunters, and pirates. The weaker one would always be eliminated. Those that survived on the sea for a long time considered themselves as fearless warriors. Queen and laws meant nothing to them. However, that did not mean that they do not have a principle.

As men, they valued promises a lot. Earlier, their captain told the enemies that they would not kill them as long as they surrendered their weapon. Right now, Orff was trying to break the promise. He wanted to kill a large group of people that could no longer fight back. It was hard for the pirates to execute such a heartless decision.

“We have never done this before. Is this order directly from the captain?”

“Why would I fake an order?”

“According to the rule, we are required to follow the captain’s orders 100% during the battle. Now that the battle is over, I think we should vote.”

“You are so damn naïve! Do you know what they will do to us if we let them live? They will tell everyone that the Scarborough is in pirates’ possession. By that time, they would call for more people to attack us with more cannons! Once Bellomonte knows about this, he would definitely not travel to Charleston to attend her daughter’s wedding. If we miss the golden opportunity, it’s not going to be easy for us to capture such a high-value target anymore. This is the risk that we cannot take. The captain said that he would spare their lives because he wanted to stabilize the whole situation. Don’t you forget that. Our enemies outnumber us, and we are at a disadvantage. There were only 100 of us left just now, and we were exhausted. A strategy was what we need to force 400 armed navy soldiers to surrender to us. Everyone, please remember the end goal of this voyage. Without the treasure, why would we risk our lives to take over this battleship?!”

Orff’s final sentence had managed to make every single pirate rethink their goal. In order to look for Kidd’s treasure, they had sacrificed a lot of things to get to where they are today. Right now, there was only one-third of them left. No one would be happy if the whole plan went south.

…….

The small boat made a last trip to send the captured prisoners to Sea Lion. The pirates on the Sea Lion tossed down stairs that were made of rope to allow the prisoners to get on Sea Lion. All the captured prisoners felt extremely lucky that they were still alive. Though they had lost the battle, they knew that hope was always there as long as they were still breathing. In a circumstance like this, the hierarchy system in the navy did not really matter anymore. The quartermaster was distributing the biscuits with worm to all the captured prisoners. And the captain room was reserved for those that suffered severe injuries during the battle. Suddenly, the crowd was left in a panic. They saw the cannon from the Scarborough aimed at them—like a sea monster ready to devour them.

“Oh, god!”

The basket in the quartermaster’s hand dropped on the floor, and the biscuits were scattered everywhere. His mouth was wide opened, and his eyes were filled with despair. At the same time, panic and fear spread to everyone on Sea Lion like a deadly virus. Their survival instinct told them to run, but there was no place for them to run. Those that could still stay calm went to release the mainsail, but it was all too late. They knew precisely how far the cannon could shoot.

Edward Teach was standing in the captain’s quarter and witnessed the Sea Lion being engulfed by fire. After five minutes of continuous shooting, the Sea Lion ceased to exist, and the sea was covered in flames. Only a broken mast could be seen, and it was carried away by the wave.

“Too bad. Your god is not with you today.”