The Guns of Tortuga (2003)
“Somehow he bullied and cursed, threatened and pleaded, and his crew kept the Fury limping along, low in the water and threatening to sink at every third wave. My uncle and I went across several times to treat the wounded. Six of them died, and over the side went their bodies, with not so much as a prayer or a moment of silence.
When the water was swishing ankle-deep in the captain’s cabin, my uncle whistled and said privately to Barrel, “You ought to bring your men across as soon as may be. She... cannot swim another day.”
“Swim or sink,” the old buccaneer said firmly, “I stay with the Fury, and so do the hands!” And he snorted so fiercely that I heartily believe not one of his sailors would have chosen to leave his vessel.
Even Captain Hunter admired the man. “By heaven, he has pluck,” he declared the next day, when we were scarcely seventy miles along and the poor Fury was wallowing like a dying whale. “Look how they pump! I wonder his men can even stand after so much effort.”MoreLess
When the water was swishing ankle-deep in the captain’s cabin, my uncle whistled and said privately to Barrel, “You ought to bring your men across as soon as may be. She... cannot swim another day.”
“Swim or sink,” the old buccaneer said firmly, “I stay with the Fury, and so do the hands!” And he snorted so fiercely that I heartily believe not one of his sailors would have chosen to leave his vessel.
Even Captain Hunter admired the man. “By heaven, he has pluck,” he declared the next day, when we were scarcely seventy miles along and the poor Fury was wallowing like a dying whale. “Look how they pump! I wonder his men can even stand after so much effort.”MoreLess
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