Love on the high sea Part 2 We Remember Candy.. By Clifton Seeney We remember Candy, not since Anne Bonny has there been a more fearsome female pirate. Candy was taken on broad one of the sloops as we were leaving Italy a right skinny Gal she was and very feral she was, nevertheless it did not take her long to get a reputation in the fleet. After she started eating on a regular basis, she started to show promise as an able seamen able to handle her self on the top sails of that sloop. She was also like a mermaid when it came to swimming. She was one of the few that El Captaine would chose to swim to a ship that the Man of war was attacking . Once we cleared Gibraltar we headed for open waters. Not long after a British patrol was on us, the fleet was forced to scatter. Candy’s Sloop was pursued by a lone frigate. (vessels of 28 guns and above were classed as 'frigates' until 1817, thereafter ships of up to 32 guns were also counted as sixth rates) The frigate not only out gunned the sloop but was much larger and carried more men than her Sloop. The Captaine of that Sloop was Winston Grinder a very good looking man and tall and a excellent sailor . You could hear the splash of the British frigates forward guns as it tried to slow the Queen of the sea. That was the name of the Sloop, it was named that way because it carried most of the Harlots bound for the west Indies. There was also a few Irish Marines on broad her and a crew of thirty some able body seamen. Candy did not want to become any man’s play toy so she dressed as a sailor and worked twice as hard as the men. Boom, you could hear the slash of another round of shots fired at the Queen as the Frigate closed on the Queen. The MS Hound had about one hundred men compared to Queens fifty and one hundred women. Splash, splash, as the guns of the Hound were hitting the water not far from the after deck of the Queen, screams and crying could be heard from the cargo hole where the women where. More shots this time coming closer to the Queen, boom, boom , and then it tore into the Queen as skin and blood was torn from men bodies as the spenders of wood torn into them cries of pain as legs and lambs were torn off of the poor souls that were unlucky then shots fired on the Queen from the British Marines tearing into heads and bodies how much more could the Queen take? Captaine Winston turned the ship to deliver some broadsides to pay the British back for all the death. that was going on, boom, boom ,fire was called out. As the smoke of the guns made the white and brown faces black, boom ,boom was the return fire of the British as guns were torn from there placements on the Queen. Death awaited many of the her gun crews, Candy and her Van guard were ordered out of the larder side gun ports to swim to the enemy ship and catch them unaware. Closer and closer they swim as the two ships pulled together. Marines firing at each other, clearing the decks of each other’s ships. You could hear the English Captain yell “”prepare to be boarded!”. As ramps were let go so that the sailors could engage one another in hand to hand fighting, as more shots were fired from the crows nest of both ships killing the attackers. Outnumbered the Queens men were determine to win, swords of steel were hitting swords of steel cling, cling as the men fighting with swords and pistols. As the Van Guard climbed on broad the larder side of the Hound, the hounds crew unaware of the many swimmers that were there to sound a death blow to the British . As the fighting proceeded the British Captaine yelled out to Captaine Winston “Do you yield?” Just as a musket shot hit Winston in the arm and leg from the craws nest you could hear, “Sails, Sails!” Who’s ships were coming, British or El Captaine’s ship. As they closed and the black was flying high, boom ,boom as the Pirates ships fired in unison on the lone British ship winning the day for the dying Captaine Winston and his crew, a new ship to add to the pirate fleet. The British crew who did not pledge to serve El Captaine were left a drift. The Hound earned it’s name with Captaine Richard’s at it’s head and Candy leading the van guard. They were unstoppable once they reached the west Indies. Not since Jack Reckon and Ann Bonny where there ever two more exciting pirates .Raiding the south coast of what was now New France and New Orleans and carrying off slaves and goods. Sailing was calling the youth of America and it was not hard recruiting new young men to man to the Hound. The Hound along with two smaller ships, which were used to hide the real killer the Hound. It took all the power that El Captaine had to keep them from going on their own. They were hardly ever at the new kingdom he set up, only to unload their bounty and get paid by the quartermaster Mr. Tucker. After they were refitted and were off to get the wind on some unsuspecting ship with information drying up because of the Americans the highest bidder would get on information on the best ship to hunt. The Hound was bringing in twice the money as any other ship, so El Captaine let them go. Nevertheless, two French brothers were bent on stopping the Hound. The newspapers in Europe were reporting some crazy stories about a Pirate fleet that was commanded by a Spanish Renegade who recruited slaves to be his crew and that they were eating the people that they caught. The real story was that this took the minds off of what old Bony (Bonaparte) was doing. He was now Emperor of countless Kingdoms and it also was helping the Government of England since the slavers were now bringing their slave ships to Liverpool to wait for escorts to the American city. Namely, Boston this was playing into the hands of the anti – slave movement by fear and the fact that an English city was now a slave port. It was costing the Royal Navy time and men escorting these slavers to America since they were now traveling in fleets. The papers also said that the Irish regiment was causing up risings in Ireland and that it was not only a pubic notices but a national one that called for the invasion of Ireland at once. All of these stories were fabrication because at this time El Captaine fleet was south of the Bermuda island and not off the cost of Africa.
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