Hoist the Colors:
Chapter 4: The Doldrums and Shipwreck Island

For to see mad Tom of Bedlam
Ten thousand miles I’ve travelled
Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes
For to save her shoes from gravel.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie,
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

I went down to Satan’s kitchen
For to fetch me food one morning
And there I got souls piping hot
All on a spit a-turning

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie,
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

My staff has murdered giants
My pack a long knife carries
For to cut mince pies from children’s thighs
And to feed them to the fairies.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

The spirits hot as lightening
Shall on my travels guide me
And the Earth doth quake and the moon doth shake
Whenever they a-spy me.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

No gypsy slut of a doxie
Shall win my mad Tom from me
I’ll weep all night, with the stars I’ll fight
And the fray shall well become me.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money

So here’s to Tom of Bedlam
Go fill the seas in a barrel
I’ll drink it all well brewed with gall
And Maudlin drunk I’ll quarrel.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

Still I sing bonnie boys, bonnie mad boys
Bedlam boys are bonnie
For they all go bare and they live by the air
And they want no drink nor money.

Colleen sang to herself as she walked on deck in a simply self-loathing mood. It was night time and she had a mug of rum in her hand. It wasn’t her watch, and she was supposed to be in her hammock, but recently she’d been finding it very hard to sleep due to the betrayal she had suffered. She really wanted to talk to them-- or to him rather, to ask why they-- why he, had done what they’d—he’d done. She wasn’t sure about anything yet, so she’d tried Maud’s way of calming down and so far… it was helping.

The three ships now making their way to Shipwreck Cove had just made it to the Caribbean and were making good time. The Captains estimated only another five days to a week of travel before reaching the island, which was very good news since their stores were getting frighteningly low. The last barrels of liquor were being rationed, salted pork, pickles, eggs, and hardtack made up their daily diet. Things were grim in that respect, among others. The Killigrews seemed to be taking the loss of the Pendennis quite hard; all of the women were still a little down, but none so down as Colleen.

Colleen heard some footsteps behind her as she leaned out over the rail gazing at the stars, pleading with them for guidance in life as they did with sailing.

“You know,” the familiar voice said, “You should really be in bed now.”

“So should you, Thomas.” Colleen replied.

“True, but I just got off night duty and since I heard someone singing I figured I should get them back to bed… You’re drinking too much too Colleen.”

“What are you, my mother?” she snapped. Thomas looked hurt. “I’m sorry; I don’t know what got into me.” She whispered turning back to her mug and staring at her hands.

“Colleen, what’s wrong? No one would take the loss of a ship this badly, no matter how attached you were. What’s bothering you? I’m your friend Colleen, you can trust me!” When Colleen didn’t answer he sighed and turned to go back below.

“Gabriel Loffe…” Colleen said quietly.

“What?” Thomas turned back to her.

“Gabriel Loffe, he is one of the prisoners… he was one of my best friends… he was once the boy I loved…” Colleen had turned to face Thomas and they stood half the deck apart, “So when I found out that he was one of the mutineers, naturally I must be upset, a little more so than everyone else…”

“I’m sorry Colleen.” Was all Thomas could say before Colleen dumped the last of her rum overboard and pushed past him, going below deck and to bed.

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Gabriel sat in the hull of the Fortune crowded in the small cell with six other men, in a space that smelled like something had died. He was on the way to his death, for that was surely going to be the verdict of a pirate jury, and yet he was surprisingly calm.

“You should be terrified…” he whispered to himself, “Come on Gabriel! Act like the coward you know you are!”

A soft singing voice reached his ears from above and he looked up. There was a small grate that served as their air hole and it looked up on deck. Since everyone else was asleep and the voice sounded hauntingly familiar Gabriel used the bars of the cell as a ladder and lifted himself up to the grate in the ceiling and listened as hard as he could. Finally he recognized the voice.

“Colleen.” He breathed, nearly losing his grip on the bars holding him up. When he heard the song end he listened harder trying to figure out what had happened. Then he heard another boy’s voice and Colleen reply to it.

Their conversation was faint and dim to Gabriel’s ears but he heard enough to know what was going on. Colleen felt betrayed, she was angry, and she was hurt in a way that might mean he would never be forgiven. As she went back below deck she passed the grate and Gabriel got a look at her face, she was crying slightly. Gabriel lowered himself back to the floor and leaned his head back against the bars and closed his eyes; he had never felt worse in his life.

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Two days passed and bad luck finally reared his ugly head again. The ships had hit doldrums… And for five days and five nights they sat horribly still, not a lick of wind to relieve them from the horrible heat of the tropical sun beating down on the decks. Water and food were now horribly scarce and every minute lasted an hour waiting for the wind.

On board the Black Dragon, Maud Killigrew was suffering a horrible headache, she was getting sober. This was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in about twenty years, so she began to sneak away from her daughter and nieces to find the barrels of liquor she was sure Cheng kept on his ship. After the destroying of her ship Maud needed more liquor than usual for comfort, but without Colleen to pilfer the keys from, this was becoming much harder to accomplish. After hours of trying Maud finally pick-pocketed the quartermaster’s keys and began to make her way down to the store room.

Since the Black Dragon was much larger than the Pendennis, it was harder to navigate. Maud stumbled and staggered through the vast underbelly of the ship, lying to other pirates about her reason for being there, stepping over the ones that had passed out from heat-stroke. Then finally finding the correct storeroom she slipped the key into the lock and opened the door.

Glancing behind her briefly to see if anyone was there she peered over the rims of her spectacles and then stumbled into the storeroom. Then she crept through looking for any barrel marked with the Chinese symbol for alcohol.

“Maudy Killigrew just what are you doing?” a shrill voice called from behind her. Maud froze and turned quickly hiding the stole key behind her back.

“I Sao? You old pig what are you doing here?” she called back.

“Well you cow I was just going to check on the amount of alcohol left in the barrels… and perhaps sample a bit to see if it is still good!” I Sao said slyly.

“Oh really? Well I was about to do the same! Care to join me?”

“Love to!”

Thus the two women sat down and finished off the last of the alcohol on the Black Dragon and suffered much reprimanding later.

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Colleen lay out on the deck of the Fortune, the sun beating down on her head. Her skin had long ago taken on the color of a beet and was now peeling. Thomas was faring better but only because his skin was more darkly tanned than Colleen’s in the first place. The entire crew was dying of thirst and couldn’t bare another day rationed on water. Full grown men were dropping of heat stroke; they had already lost two and sent them to the sea.

“Well Jack, now what?” Anne asked him from within their cabin while pouring over charts.

“What do you mean ‘now what’?” He snapped.

“I mean we still have another five days worth of travel with no wind, and a next-to-bear storeroom… that’s what. Any ideas?”

“Oh so now I’m the boss when it’s not in our favor… you never listen to me or ask my advice on a regular day! Why should I help you now?” He shouted.

“Because you’ll die too if we don’t figure something out you jack-ass!” she yelled back.

“Alright you two, enough!” Mary screamed. “I’ve had it up to here with the both of ya, so shut up! Don’t worry, we’ll think of something… or the wind will pick up.”

“Or we’ll all die of thirst!” Anne added.

“Aye or that…” Mary agreed.

Colleen lay as still as she possibly could in the shade of the mast. Thomas laid not far from her his lips dry and cracked; Colleen licked hers only to find the metallic taste of blood on them. She touched her finger to her lips and found dots of blood which she licked off for their liquid wetness.

She then flipped onto her back and hid her face in her arms, her entire body felt like it was cooking, but still not a lick of wind would save them from this hellishly slow, parched, drought-like death. She sighed and closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come.

Below her Gabriel and the rest of Kidd’s crew weren’t doing much better, when the meals had first gotten rationed the prisoners were the first to go without their food. A crust of bread and single cup of water had been their life source for the last few days. Each man felt weaker than a newborn, they were too weak to think, and too weak to even look up at the sky were the sun beat down through the bars of their lone window in their roof, where the sun still made its horribly hot slow march toward the horizon.

The night was still warm but it did give them a little relief, but still no wind. The entire crew slept on deck where the stars wheeled over head and served as steadfast guardians of the heavens. Colleen stared at them and begged them to send a wind, just a small one, before the gentle rocking of the ocean and the ship lulled her into sleep.

Colleen dreamed that night, she dreamed horrible things.

At first Colleen was running down a path in what looked like a cave, she was following a man with dreadlocks, a big grey coat, and he walked crookedly.

“Jack!” she cried, even though she didn’t know his name, “Are you sure this is it, Jack?”

“Of course I’m sure! What do you take me for, a loony?” He called back.

Colleen just sighed and continued to follow him. Suddenly the cave path opened into a great room. In the center of the room stood a huge water fall, the water from above fell down the rock walls of the cave and fed the pool of water in the center. The water was illuminated to a brilliant blue hue by how the sunlight was reflected into the cave. The reflection of the water’s light also bounced and danced along the cave walls and Colleen and Jack stood mesmerized for several moments.

“You found it Jack… The Fountain of Youth! You actually found it!” Colleen whispered.

Jack turned to her and flashed a devilish grin, “You doubted me didn’t you love?”

Colleen smirked and replied, “Only a little…”

Suddenly the scene changed and she was in the company of many other people, she felt a hand on her arm and looking down it was Gabriel’s.

“Gabriel! What are you doing?!” she cried.

“Colleen, stay close. That man is a maniac…” he hissed.

Colleen looked in the direction Gabriel was staring and started at the fact that she was looking down the barrel of a navy-man’s pistol.

“So you’re going to kill us Commodore?” a man with a large hat and a monkey sitting on his shoulder snarled.

“Not all of you…” the navy-man said calmly. Then before anyone could react he changed his target from Colleen to another woman and pulled the trigger. The bullet left the pistol and buried itself in the woman’s chest.

“ELIZABETH!” a man with shoulder length brown hair cried his eyes full of absolute horror.

Suddenly the scene changed again and Colleen still stood behind Gabriel, this time however there was an exotic woman with dreadlocks and dots of make-up around her hypnotic eyes, who stood before the man with brown hair, and the woman who had just been shot. She was whispering something and the man fell to his knees clutching his chest in pain. When he stood again the women with honey colored hair pressed her hand to his chest and both of their faces broke out in joyous smiles. Suddenly however the dark-skinned woman turned on Gabriel and plunged a short knife into his chest.

“GABRIEL!” Colleen cried, trying to catch him as he began to pass from the world. She hovered over his face her hands going to touch him but then stopping, going to touch him again, but then stopping. Her voice was caught in her throat. “Gabriel,” she whispered through her tears, “Gabriel!”

The scene again changed and now she was being held by Thomas as Gabriel’s heart was cut out and placed in an oddly decorated chest. Then Gabriel’s chest rose and fell and he got up slowly.

Colleen woke up then, or was woken rather. “Gabriel!” she cried sitting up far too quickly, she lay back down with a groan clutching her spinning head.

“Colleen?” Bea said concerned. “What’s the matter? You okay?”

It was still dark out but she could make out the faces of those around her looking at her inquisitively through sleepy eyes. “Yea,” she replied finally. “I’m fine, just a bad dream…”

She curled up again surprisingly chilled now. She fell back to sleep relatively easily and did not dream for the rest of the night.

The next day was just as hot and horrid as the last one. Still Mary, Anne, and Jack tried to think of something to do. Still was the food and water rationed. Still was there not a spit of wind. Still was there the blinding sun and damnable seagulls taunting them. What were new were the haunting memories of her dream. Unlike most of the time, she remembered it clearly as if it had actually happened.

She stood leaning over the rail of the ship watching the horizon as the water glittered like it had diamonds beneath its surface. Colleen thought long and hard about the dream. What happened in it? Who were all those people? Why was I so sad when Gabriel was stabbed? Don’t I hate him? Who are Jack and Elizabeth? Could it be a premonition? Could it just be overactive nerves? Why do I care so much?
Colleen reached up and brushed the tendrils of hair out of her eyes that had blown into her face. Colleen stopped suddenly her eyes wide. She quickly licked her finger and turned around in a circle. Then sure enough, there was a cool wind blowing in from the South and it was growing stronger by the second.

“Wind!” She cried, joyfully, shifting her weight from one foot to the other impatiently. She could hardly decide what to do with herself there were so many thoughts buzzing in her mind. “Wind!”

Soon the entire crew had noticed it and was trimming the sails. The three captains came on deck and began to dance and laugh happily along with the rest of the crew.

There was a great whooping that came from the three ships as the wind picked up, the only people unhappy about this turn of events were the prisoners, because that meant their trial and doom was at hand.

The next few days flew by without a hitch, the wind was strong and out of the South, guiding them swiftly to Shipwreck Cove.

It was on the fifth day of travel when the lookout of the Black Dragon shouted, “Land-ho! Port bow!”

Everyone flocked to the left side of the ship and gazed out into the morning mist rising off the water, and there stood a great hulking rock of an island that was Shipwreck Cove.

“We made it!” Maud sighed to Hannah who was cradling the well-singed sea-cat whom she had saved at the last minute from the burning ship.

On the Fortune similar news was sweeping the crew and Colleen smiled for the first time in a few days. There was finally land to sleep on, plenty of drink, and food. Colleen turned to the southwest and looked at the rising sun painting beautiful streaks of color across the sky. Suddenly as it crested the horizon there was a flash of green. Colleen’s eyes grew wide and she turned to go and tell someone what she saw and nearly ran into Captain Bonney.

“Good, Jack Sparrow has returned from the realm of the dead… and the Black Pearl.”

“The Black Pearl? I thought that was only a legend.”  Colleen said. Anne walked up and watched the horizon.

“No, the Black Pearl only became a legend when Sparrow’s first mate Captain Barbossa mutinied and sailed to the Isla De Muerta, where he picked up a chest of Aztec gold, and a curse with that.”

“You can’t be serious?” Colleen smirked, “I’m seventeen I don’t believe in ghost stories anymore. Does Captain Rackham honestly think he’s got it in with Davey Jones? Davy Jones isn’t a real person, just an old wives’ tale… right?”

“Barbossa is the reason Jack has that debt.” Anne replied completely serious. “Barbossa attacked the ship Jack used to be a sailor on, hardly left any survivors and the ones he did leave, were tied to barrels and set to sea. Jones picked them up one by one and made deals. Jack being wily as he is talked his way out of a direct one-hundred years of service. Jack’s been regretting that bargain and looking for a way out as hard as he can.”

“Surely, you can’t believe any of that! It’s only an exaggeration! A drunken sailor’s story!”

“No Colleen, it’s the truth, every word.”

With that Captain Bonney walked away leaving Colleen to ponder that. ‘Maybe the ghost stories are really true? But that couldn’t be, why wouldn’t I have run into any of them before this if it was?’

Colleen was about to turn away and help prepare them for docking when she noticed a glinting light on the horizon. She went to Corner who was manning the Helm to get the spy-glass.

“Corner, can I use the spy glass?” she asked.

“I don’t know Colleen? Can you?” he replied.

“May I use the spy-glass Corner?” she huffed.

“Colleen if you didn’t use that tone maybe I’d give it—“Colleen cut him off mid-sentence by grabbing the telescope and turning back to the horizon.

“Hey! I didn’t say you could--! You little thief!” He screamed after her.

“Pirate.” She retorted. She then turned back to the horizon and looked carefully through the glass. The glinting she had seen was now closer and much more frequent. What the glint was was seven East India Trading Company ships. Each one heavily armed with twenty guns, and about one-hundred men.  

“God help us!” she swore under her breath. “Captain!” she cried turning to run down to the main deck, “Captain!” all tree turned to look at her from the chart they were reading, “Company ships, thirty points south by south west. Seven fully armed naval brigantines!”

“You’re sure?” Anne snapped taking the spy-glass from Colleen’s hand and training it in the direction she had led them.

“Yes Captain, positive. I’ve never mistaken an enemy ship…”

“My god Jack, she’s right!” Anne gasped handing off the glass to Mary Reade.

“What do you think we should do?” Mary asked while looking through.

There was a slight pause before Jack flew in to an angry frenzy of yelling orders.

“Alright dogs, full canvas! Anything that can be lost see that it’s overboard double time! Hurry, hurry you lot, move it!”

Colleen ran off in the direction of the bilge to try and see what could be thrown overboard.

“Miss Killigrew!” Jack’s voice cut into her like a knife, “if they get too close, I’m putting you in charge of the long-nines.”

“Excuse me?” Colleen stuttered.

“That’s an order, now move!” Colleen jumped into action before receiving another tongue lashing from Rackham.

“Alright men,” she heard him yell over the din of the men struggling to make the ship as fast as she could possibly be. “I want to out-run those dogs as long as we can, if they overbear us, wait for Miss Killigrew’s order!”

Colleen grimaced at the thought of so many lives depending on her skills of timing. ‘Oh lord,’ she thought, ‘I know I’ve never been that devout, but please help me now!’

The three pirate ships outran the Trading Company ships for a little over a half an hour. Then suddenly one of the bow cannons on the Company ship Carpathian sounded and knocked the railing off the starboard side of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

By this time, word had been sent to Shipwreck Cove, and was hopefully received in the form of Wiggles, Thomas’ parrot. Help was supposedly on the way.  

“Alright men, we’ve run enough. We can’t lose em’ in the shallows so we’ll have to make a stand.” Rackham barked. “Miss Killigrew, on your order!”

Colleen’s eyes scoured the other ships judging distance and movement. “Steady lads…” she said still watching. “Steady, steady…” Finally she saw the opportunity to fire. “Now!” she shouted and a hail of cannon balls streaked towards one of the Company ships. The Queen Anne’s Revenge was already locked in a heated battle with one of the ships. Being slower that the rest the Queen Anne’s was unable to outrun them as long, but she had superior fire-power to anything the Company presented, save for the flag ship Endeavour, and the Dutchman herself, so a battle of the long-nines was easily in the Queen Anne’s favor.

The Black Dragon was still escaping to the safety of Shipwreck Cove since she was carrying the passenger of most importance to the voyage. If Cheng I Sao died and didn’t manage to pass on her piece of eight, the court would be in great peril.

By this time the Company ships had regrouped from the surprise of the pirate’s sudden attack and were firing back at the Fortune. One knocked Colleen from where she was standing by bouncing across the deck a few feet in front of her and she fell backwards trying to escape its fatal blow. Thomas was crouched next to her as he helped load one of the cannons.

“Waiting on your order Captain Killigrew…” he smirked.

Colleen stared at him for a second after realizing what he had just said, then shook her mind free. “Ready boys…. Fire!” Another volley of cannon balls pelted into the Company ship and there was an explosion.

The explosion was from the ship that Queen Anne’s Revenge had just finished off, breaking herself free from the three ships that had ambushed her. ‘Four left…’ Colleen thought.

From the other side of the ship Mary Reade was giving orders for their guns to fire and was targeting a ship that had squeezed past their defenses and was going after the Black Dragon. Colleen called for another volley and it was evident that the enemy ship was beginning to take on water badly. She had no idea how the Fortune herself was faring, the only thing in her mind being the desire to sink that ship opposite her.  

With a final call for a volley there was a satisfying crunch and boom as the powder magazine on the Company ship was breached. Colleen let the breath she didn’t know she had been holding out in a sigh of relief, cheers went up throughout the crew and she was suddenly mobbed by pats on the back. Unfortunately this victory for Colleen was short lived as one of the remaining two ships began to fire on them. Rackham had told the helmsman to steer them to the island and upon further inspection five pirate ships were sailing out to meet them. The two sloops in the front of the reinforcements firing as quickly as possible at the remaining two ships. Whatever they did they couldn’t let these two ships escape, too much was at risk, the location of Shipwreck Island, the names of the ships tied into the Brethren Court, and most importantly where the last cache island of the Rumrunner’s was located.

The Queen Anne’s Revenge had regrouped and was now firing at one of the other ships sinking her quickly, and just as suddenly as it had started, the battle was over, and the crews of the pirate ships were almost entirely intact.

Now the crews were allowed to celebrate, the captains assessed the damage to their ships, and how to repair it before they left the island, and soon the crews were back to preparing for landfall.

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The sun was getting low in the sky when Colleen finally stepped onto solid ground. Her legs wobbled slightly from the feeling of not having her ground move below her. She had her pack slung over her shoulder containing the letters she had managed to save and her trinkets, as well as her blanket from the Fortune and other hygienic materials. Colleen walked down the make-shift gangplank onto the make-shift dock and into the make-shift city. Everything was made of the hollowed out remains and not-so hollowed out remains of ships, many with large gaps in their hulls from where they had wrecked on reefs. Colleen stared up in wonder at the mountain of ships that had been piled atop this one rock in the middle of the cove. Every gun port on each of these ships still worked, so if there were enough people in the city at one time, the entire thing could become an impenetrable fortress of guns, it was very intimidating even for a pirate allowed on the inside. Colleen kept on glancing up as she was shoved down the dock by men helping to unload and tie up the new ships. She caught brief glimpses of her family here and there but then lost them again in the sea of people.

‘I’ll find them again,’ she thought, ‘…somewhere…’

Colleen turned thinking she heard her name and saw Gabriel staring at her intently. He was being led away with the rest of the crew and his captain to where they would be held until the full court was convened. Gabriel was straining against the shackles that bound him hand and foot to the men in front and in back of him.

“Colleen… please I know you’re mad at me. I just want to say I’m sorry for everything…” He was shoved roughly back into line before he could say anything else and Colleen glared after him, clutching her pack with all his letters closer to her body.

Suddenly Colleen felt a hand on her elbow, she turned swiftly only to find herself staring into the smiling eyes of Thomas Diggles.  “Let’s go get some food!” he suggested, and Colleen agreed wholeheartedly pushing the events of the last few moments from her mind entirely.

After her meal with Thomas they stumbled upon her family making merry at a bar. She bid him goodnight and sat with her family relaying details of the voyage, and getting other perspectives. She was happy to finally be with her own crew again, something familiar, they were her family, they would help keep her from being too depressed while the trials and execution went on.

Finally after long drinks of beer, rum, grog, gin or whatever happened to tickle their fancy slid down their throat, and their pockets were spent for the moment. They found an inn and slept soundly for the first time in days.