Jack Book Two in the Trilogy: Murder on the High Seas

Which Side Ye Be On, Matey Part 28

28 "Which Side Ye Be On, Matey?

I was summoned to the captain's cabin early the next day. Pendleton sat on his cot on the red and black plaid blanket he had purchased in Kingston. Six men were on the list the captain gave to me. Jenkins had excluded Jack and me whom he considered his "eyes and ears in the dungeon."

I showed the men named on the list into the cabin one at a time. Each, when his turn came, sat on a stool across from the captain. I was ordered to take notes at each interrogation. The ship's crew from mid-ship to the bow was mostly sleeping this early Sunday morning. Some slept in strung hammocks in the lower hold when little cargo was aboard, like on the run from Florida to Charleston when the ship would be lighter. But not this time. Sixteen hands slept in the crew's general quarters. Jenkins, after his appointment as executive officer, strung a hammock topside and had a tiny cabin mid-ship erected for his comfort and privacy just below the deck which he descended to from a short ladder. It was about six feet by six feet square but was luxurious after life with the general crew.

The captain had sent me to wake men on the list. They asked what he wanted but I said I didn't know. Jenkins then was ordered to his tiny cabin, Jack and I, as instructed by the captain, locked him in with chain and padlock across the door as soon as Jenkins went inside.

"Hey what is this?" Jenkins said. "Let me out you cutthroats! You won't get away with this. I'm loyal to the captain. I'm ..."

We left Jenkins there pounding upon the door. Foster stood guard so no one could set him free. However, Foster and Jenkins, worked well together. Foster - who had a large reddish birth mark that extended from his upper neck to his cheek - was a stocky, rude and stupid man who liked to yank men out of their racks (beds aboard ship) when they failed to get up immediately when he rang the reveille bell each morning. He would drop them from heights of three to five feet onto the deck - some still dreaming, that is, until they received their rude awakening. Foster loved intimidating the crew and Jenkins had his trust. Before his arrest, Jenkins had encouraged these abusive antics. Foster had been Jenkins right hand man. Hard to know now where he stood now.

The first alleged spy, Samuel Wright, who had been on Jenkin's list, entered the captain's cabin. He sat on the only seat - a stool in front of the captain's writing desk - fidgeting with the string on the cuff of his gray wool sweater.

Wright had the kind of eyes that never settled for more than a half a second on anyone he was talking to. It was a nervous habit, I guess, but it always made a person uneasy as though you could never pin the man down to anything, or maybe you felt he was too shifty-eyed to be trusted with anything. So people didn't tend to take him into their confidence. Instead, many of the crew avoided him, but not Jenkins who offered Wright a position of trust and gave him rum nearly every day while out at sea.

Jenkins also paid a half dozen others with rum - all they wanted - at night in violation of the captain's orders. Jenkins' bribes with the rum were known to just about everyone with one exception - Captain Pendleton whose power and control Jenkins eroded with each drop of stolen liquor he provided to his trusted network of spies. Jenkins was smart enough not to let just anyone into his spy nest. There were only 18 men in the crew and, Jenkins reasoned, six spies and no more would be ideal. He couldn't have just anyone join or there'd be no one left to spy on. But he intended to take the ship after Cuba and then he would need their cooperation. The six in his spy ring knew of his ultimate goal.

I had overheard them talking with Jenkins late one night about a mutiny. Jenkins had told them he intended to throw the captain overboard with any and all of the captain's sympathizers, sell the darkies and split the profits with them while turning the ship into a privateer - a pirate ship that would raid other ships, demand ransom, and offer their services of whatever kind to anyone who would pay. With war looming in the United States, Pendleton's idea of running blockades was immensely attractive to Jenkins. Nobody would care then what happened on a little slaver in the West Indies. Jenkins couldn't wait until the war started. He couldn't wait to become captain.