Chapter 104: Barbary Pirates Attack!
Chapter 104 – Barbary Pirates Attack!
On the turquoise blue sea of the English Channel, the bow of the Beagle broke through the waves and rode the wind.
Colonel Fitzroy held a monocular while observing, while ordering the helmsman: “Left full rudder, first seize the upper position, don’t rush to close the distance.”
At his command, the Beagle quickly turned her hull sideways to the north.
Immediately afterward, Colonel Fitzroy shouted another order toward the crew on deck, “Gunners and musketeers load ammunition! Quartermaster, how many Congreve rockets did we bring this time?”
The Quartermaster responded at the top of his voice, “Report, we have two hundred rounds ready for this sea training!”
“Good! Don’t fucking save them, bring them all up here! Set up the rocket sampan first, if the situation changes later, give it two rounds of shelling first, and when it gets close to a hundred and fifty yards, shoot the fuck out of it with rockets! Two hundred rockets, all in eight minutes!”
“Yes, sir!”
Just as the Beagle turned around, the two ships in the waters ahead seemed to have spotted the Beagle as well.
Soon, Arthur saw the red, white, and blue flags on the other’s masts through his binoculars.
He frowned and eeped, muttering, “French flag?”
Elder, who was beside him, heard this and corrected himself with a kind smile, “What the hell! Arthur, the French flag is white, it’s a signal flag at sea, it’s asking us to keep our distance from him.”
As soon as Elder’s words were out of his mouth, Colonel Fitzroy was heard to order, “Tell them we demand a conversation.”
Soon the yellow and blue communication flag was also raised on the Beagle’s main mast.
And on the opposite side of the ship, Fred was pinching himself talking to a man with a white turban, a beard, and a scimitar in his belt.
When the Blackthorn’s first mate saw the flag on the Beagle, he hurried to his side and whispered a few words.
Only to see Fred spit out the straw he was holding in his mouth with a bah humbug and cursed, “Fuck, why is there so much shit on this shit ship? Tell them to get the hell out of here, I don’t have time to tangle with them.”
Hearing this, the first mate could only reply, “Mr. Fred, the opposite side is flying the Royal Navy’s reserve flag, isn’t it not good for us to talk like this? After all, they might just want to accompany the escort.”
Fred glared, “It’s just a fucking crossing of the Straits of Dover, what kind of pirate doesn’t have the eyes to dare to run into the English Channel to rob?”
Hearing this, the white turbaned man on the opposite side couldn’t help but stroke his beard and asked in barbecue-flavored pinched English, “Mr. Fred, I’m afraid it’s not quite appropriate for you to say that, is it? After all, I’m standing right in front of you.”
Fred laughed out loud at his words as he hooked the other man’s shoulder and said.
“Older brother, you are different! Aren’t you a special case? Alas, to say that you are also unlucky, not born in a good era. If this is the 16th century, when ‘Silver Hand’ Barbarossa Hayrettin was alive, the French wouldn’t dare to destroy your base even if they had a hundred guts!
But the French got their comeuppance fast! That son of a bitch, Charles X, had just destroyed Algiers, and the next month the revolutionaries had thrown him out of power. So, God blessed you, and your bad luck was just a doze.”
Hearing this, the other party was also silent for a while, and then he put his right hand on his left chest and sighed with a slight bow, “Ansaram Rikon, I hope we all have good luck in the future.”
Fred heard here, sipped a cigarette and said, “But well …… old brother, in the past to sell some slaves to you, this is no problem. But well, you want me to take over your boatload of people, this can be a little …… After all, you also know, my hands are equally not very generous.”
Hearing this, the man in the white turban couldn’t help but press his hand downward, however, just when he almost touched the belt knife, Fred’s voice sounded again. “But you’re lucky this time, to tell you the truth, I’m not going to do it in London anymore, this Blackthorn is headed for America. I’ve set up some properties there a few years back, so if you’re interested, you can come with me and make a fortune.
I still have quite a few desperate poor bastards on this ship, although they can’t be used directly as white slaves like in Ottoman, they can also serve as laborers in America for seven or eight years, and we’ll replenish some black slaves when the time comes.
Then we can replenish the black slaves. Whether it is a tobacco plantation in the West Indies or a cotton plantation, there is a lot of potential! During the planting season you can run some merchant orders and smuggle goods, and during the picking season you’ll help me transship merchandise.
And when you’ve saved up some money, you can go into serious business, which is much better than floating on the sea every day, isn’t it? With all due respect, since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the crackdown on piracy has gotten tougher and tougher.
Originally, even if you didn’t mention this today, as an old brother, I would have wanted to advise you.”
Hearing this, the other party couldn’t help but ask, “Didn’t you do quite well in England? How come you don’t do it anymore?”
Fred grinned widely, revealing large gold teeth at the corners of his mouth, “Old brother, the situation in England is different from you Barbary pirates. You guys just need to lick the Pasha in charge of Algiers happy, then everything will be fine.
But the shithead that is Britain is different. Not only do you have to lick Scotland Yard, but you also have to lick the parish, the magistrate’s court, and some messed up civilian detectives and trappers, but whenever one of them goes wrong, it’s easy to fall into the pit.
Buddy, think about it, I’m just doing a little fucking slave trading, selling stolen goods, smuggling merchandise, bribing judges, unblocking channels, and all that kind of small business. In a year, after the cost of labor, connections, and so on, there’s only a small profit.
After a year’s work, I sometimes earn less than a few dozen looms in a textile factory. For this amount of money, I have to be so busy, I am easy? I’m not like you, you Barbary pirates do a big job, go back to casually get a few beautiful slave girls to spend the day.
Alas, I am a person who has been a laborer all his life! For that matter, believing in Allah is indeed stronger than believing in God.”
Hearing this, the white turbaned man pursed his lips twice and finally couldn’t hold his tongue, “Mr. Fred, Allah and God are actually the same person.”
“Wow? Is that so?” Mr. Fred embraced the other person and said, “No wonder I feel that you are like my own brother, so we believe in the same thing. Let’s do it this way, you can tell me about the Qur’an at lunch later, and we’ll have a good chat about this topic.”
Fred was chatting with the pirate leader, suddenly, the first mate couldn’t help but interject in a small voice again, “Sir, that ship is constantly approaching us, their behavior doesn’t seem to be quite right.”
“Not right?” Fred opened his mouth and cursed, “Old me is even more wrong than him! What’s wrong? Is it possible that you still want to rob me? Serious pirates are my brothers, you let them have the guts to lean up and try!”
The first mate sniffed, and was almost speechless at Fred who had no common sense in sailing.
At this time, the pirate leader was the first to realize the subtlety of the situation.
He took out the binoculars in his pocket and observed for a while in the direction of the Beagle, and suddenly he mouthed.
“They’re sending out a flag signal, asking us to stop sailing immediately and accept their boarding and inspection.”
“Huh?” Fred was practically on the verge of laughing in anger, “There really are those who aren’t afraid of death? Ahmed old brother, are you interested in doing one more job before going to America?”
Ahmed measured the size of the Beagle and thought for a moment before nodding his head slowly, “We can do it, but after we’re done, we have to flee quickly. If this matter reaches the ears of the Royal Navy, I’m afraid that even if we have ten lives, they won’t be enough to kill us.”
Fred snorted, “This is the effect I want! The Royal Navy? The ones who defeated Napoleon back then were us, the glorious Army that experienced the Waterloo cannon fire! Pass on my order, let them in, I’ll let them see what it means to be shocked by a cavalry ensign from the 18th Dragon Cavalry Regiment!”
(End of chapter)