⛵ ⛵ ⛵ ⛵...(Tour of "High Island")...
[Last time...]
She instinctively raised her free hand and ran her fingers through the hair on the back of his head as he pulled her into him tighter. His strong arms wrapped themselves around the small of her back and pressed her warm body against his. She offered no resistance…she melted into his embrace.
Their lips finally parted and with a heavy breath, Errisl buried her face into his chest, her eyes clenched tightly shut.
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[On La Serpent…deep in the lower hull…]
Galligan set them apart as he stood there. He gazed at her beauty in the light of the lantern and felt a great rush of emotion pass through him. He cleared his throat and spoke softly…
“Ahh…. Ahh thinks we…crossed th' line a wee bit…”
Errislravenhill held the edges of his vest with her fingers as she gazed up at him with a cheerful smile...
“Aye Sairrr…”
“We better…git oan wi' th' task of smokin' th' ship…” He added awkwardly.
“I thooght we jist did?…Sairrr.” She answered wryling.
A slight smile appeared on Galligan’s face as he gazed over her shoulder, “Aye…weel, noo we need tae smoke it fur th' rest o' th' warld…”
Errisl let go of his vest and glanced down a moment. ‘What had they done?!’- She wondered silently to herself.
Galligan then turned and began picking up handfuls of sailcloth strips and packing them into the cast iron kettle tightly. Errisl helped. He then poured a little lamp oil on the cloth and lit it. Carefully he hung the kettle from the ceiling beam and when the flames licked upward in a healthy fire, Errisl handed him the pail of water and he doused the flame just enough to leave a bed of glowing embers in the bottom. A thick plume of dark smoke began to rise up out of the pot.
They both stood back a second, making sure the flame did not erupt again…
“Time tae gang.” Galligan said as they turned and headed back out into the narrow hall and up the galley stairs.
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Up top, they stood on the main deck and watched as smoke slowly began to rise up out of the stairwell, then downwind, out of the cracks around the portside gun doors, and finally up through the freight hatch in the center of the deck.
“She’s weel smoked…ower th' rail wi' ye!” Galligan said as he gently helped her onto the ratline ladder, and she quickly climbed down to the longboat.
Suddenly, just as Galligan raise his leg to scale the rail he heard the sound of coughing! Glancing back over his shoulder, he saw the image of a man appearing out of the cloud of smoke, with one hand holding a rag over his nose and in the other a cocked pistol!
Before the Commander could even react, his vision was suddenly blinded by a blast of light!
He fell chest-down on the rail... the stranger slowly advanced.
Galligan’s strength wicked-out of his hands quickly and he felt himself slipping, slipping backwards as the ratline quickly ran through his fingers!
Errislravenhill looked up in shock at the report of the gunshot!
“Galligan?!” She cried out.
He finally lost all hold of the ratline and plummeted to the bottom of the longboat in a heap!
“Galligan! Galligan!” She cried out again in utter dismay as she pulled him up to a half sitting position, leaning him against the front bench. That’s when she heard the coughing…
<<< Cough, Cough! Coough! >>
Quickly glancing upward, she saw the smokey outline of a man standing at the portside rail, a spent pistol in his hand, and a rag over his mouth...
In a move of lightning-fast instinct, she pulled her own pistol out of her belt and pointed it squarely at the ghostly figure, and pulled the trigger!
⛵ ⛵ ⛵ ⛵
Vocab fur lainlubbers:
att's (that's)
barnie (fight)
brine (sea)
cannie (careful)
cheil (man)
dae (do)
doon (down)
enaw (enough)
feit (feet)
gang (go)
glaikit (stupid)
haur (here)
heel (hell)
isnae (is not)
jawbox (sink)
loon (boy)
mair (more)
mirk (dark)
nae (no, not))
noo (now)
oan (on)
onie (any)
poke (pocket)
puir (poor)
reit (right)
scran (food)
spyug (bird)
swatch (look)
tae (to)
three bells into the morning watch (5:30am)
tint (lost)
wee (little)
weel (well)
wi' (with)
ye (you)
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"Irondequoit is a toon who's name has an Iroquois origin an' means "Whaur th' land meets th' water". In 1687 Marquis de Denonville (what a dobber he was!) led an army o' French soldiers an' Huron warriors oan a punitiff expedition against th' Iroquois through Irondequoit Bay, beginnin' th' long enmity atween th' Iroquois an' th' Franks! Ahh aim tae tak' advantage o' th' situation, an' find a wealthy buyer thuar fur th' corvette La Serpent! (Ur what's left o' her!)" 🤨 -Keptin
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References: - Pictures from: www.freeimages.com, www.pexels.com, pixabay.com, steemit.com, GSM- Fractional buffalo, Wikipedia an’ www.google.com/maps. Data loosely interpretted froms: Wikipedia, an' sometimes finely crafted reit from th' author's extensiff personal experience an' such.
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"Confused? Ascared? Seasick? Need tae gab with th' Keptin?- Skelp th' 'Reply' button muckers!
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What's the punishment fer fraternizing with an officer?
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"Ahh thinks ye hav tae git caught first...an' o'coorse ye havs tae decide if ye wants tae tangle wi' th' commander. Coorse wi' heem shot an' all...coolds be a brief encoonters...?" 🤔 -Keptin
A little kiss wouldn't Hurt. Of course it wouldn't help either.