After a few days aboard the ship I quickly adapted to the life of a Sailor. I learned how to react to things they did, and how to talk like them. Most importantly I furthered my ability of drinking. Nearly every night the men would gather below deck and have a drink. After a cold night of duty I stepped down the flight of stairs and entered into a whole new world. Under the deck the atmosphere was musky, cluttered, polluted with body odor, and the smell of vomit. Someone always vomits at these get togethers.

"Oy it's little Johnny!" announced a particulary drunk sailor. He handed me a fresh cup of rum and smiled at me, showing off his lack of teeth. I sipped at the warm liquid and let it burn my mouth. After a few sips the burn was numbed and it did not hurt, but the rum tasted good. After my third glass of rum a sailor my size bumped in to me, causing me to spill my glass of rum on him.

The drunk sailor acted appalled, "You little bugger! You don't know your place do you?" He stumbled and caught himself, "Maybe I should teach you it!" I replied not as he wavered to and fro. He lurched at me with his fist, I dropped my glass and easily side stepped the blow. He threw his hands at me and shouted, "You little snot!" He got a firm grip on my shoulders and his breath stung my nostrils. He yanked me around a few times and then I got angry. I shoved him away and he retaliated with a punch to my gut. The blow took my breath away as I doubled over, gasping for air. He turned around and triumphantly said, "This little boy is not a sailor!"

After that night of the fight I gained a sort of new respect. I made my bones as some say, I was now looked at as a man instead of a child. That kept me happy for a few days but in all reality none of that mattered. Everyday on the ship is the same, you wake up, eat a horrible
breakfast, go do your duties, get drunk, and then sleep.

I wiped the sleep from my eyes and hopped down from my bunk. The other sailors were stirring as well, in fact that was what woke me. I slipped on my pants and my shirt and my boots then walked up to the mess hall. I grabbed a bowl and filled it with the sludge they called breakfast. I ignored the taste and just swallowed the thick rough paste. After washing it down with a swig of rum I made my way to the deck. The day was grey, a mist covered the ship making everything cold and wet, it was most depressing. The captain yelled, "Sails full!" The sailors, including myself, scurried about, unravelling ropes and what not. After we did this we set sail at full speed, after that we mainly just waited. As I was walking to the front of the ship where I like to sit I saw a man leaning against a wall with his shirt off. I peered around the corner and saw the captain there with a whip.

Crack! The whip sounded, Crack! With every stroke the leather tore pieces of skin from the man's bare back. Not like your parents tell you, it was not just whips. It was bloody scratches. After witnessing this and hearing his screams I ran to the railing and vomitted into the sea. When I was finished a man approached me and said, "My name is Tim, don't worry about that. Just ignore it." He patted me on my back and I opened my mouth to answer, but vomitted more. He chuckled, "That breakfast didn't do you no good." He walked off to go about his business.

We made port after a long time of sailing, I lost track of time on the boat. The island we landed at was very nice, just like my dreams of the Caribbean. There were alot of different people, white people, black people, brown people, and yellow people. They all looked equally menacing. Once everything was unloaded from the ship everyone went their seperate ways, so I went to the bar with my new friend Tim. We got a mug of ale and he
said, "So laddie that was yer firs' trip. How 'as it?"

I said, "It made me feel like a man." Tim laughed like he knew something I didn't as he sipped his ale. The drink tasted funny, but I dared not show it to Tim, people like him would think I was weak if I could not handle my ale. After forcing a glass of ale down I asked the waitress, "Ma'am could I get a glass of rum?" The lady laughed at me and walked away.

Five days it lasted, our stay in the port. On the fifth day at noon me and Tim made our way down to board our ship. We walked to where our ship was tied up, but to our sorrow we saw the ship was not there. We began to panic as we looked around for our ship. Tim cried, "Oi! Out yonder!" he pointed off to the horizon and asked a man who worked the port, "What is th' name of tha' ship out thar?"
The man replied, "Ah that be the Queen." My stomach dropped to my toes as I realized we had been abandoned. We had nowhere to go so we went back to the pub to think things over.

Tim said as he sipped at a glass of rum, "What do we do laddie?" His voice was tainted with a sense of true authentic fear.

I replied with shakey voice, "We can live around 'ere fer awhile. Someone is bound t' need a few extra 'ands on deck." He solemnly nodded his head yes and continued his drink. The silence sunk in and I began to think on what we were really to do. We could not just live here for the rest of our lives. We need to get back out to the sea, we need to live our own lives. Then it dawned on me, "Tim! Tim cheer up mate!" He looked at me with watery eyes, "Do ye want to live yer own life mate? Don't ye want to make yer own rules?" He naturally nodded positively. I continued, "We can become pirates! I am sure they come through here and when they do we can just sign up!"
Tim nearly fell out of his seat laughing, "Thank ye fer cheerin me up mate. But ye can't just sign up to be a pirate. They are mean and nasty. You don' volunteer to be a pirate boy! Ah ye don' know what yer sayin'."

I countered, "We can learn! Ah ye don' believe I be nasty enough do ye?" Tim chuckled once more. A man walked by me and bumped into my chair, I shot straight up and grabbed him by his collar, "You bumped into me chair!" The man tried to worm out of my grip. I demanded, "Say yer sorry matey." The surprised man did not reply, so I slammed my forehead into his nose. I felt the bones break and blood came from the bloodied nose of my opponent. He stumbled backwards and cursed. He charged at me and tackled me into a table, smashing the table. I grabbed a bottle lying on the floor and slammed it into his head, knocking him out.

The clapping man slowly stepped forward and as he did people scurried away from him. He said, "Me name be Cap'n Matthias Longbeard... But call me Cap'n Longbeard. I 'ave a ship out in th' docks tha' be need'n some new crew. You look tough 'nuff laddie. Wanna give 'er a shot?"

My throat was dry but I rasped, "I'll join up if me mate Tim 'ere can too."

The Captain said, "Arrgh... If ye prove yourselves worthy then ye can join.... Ye can find me at th' docks."

With that he turned and left the pub, when he left life seemed to restore and people began talking again. I whispered excitedly, "That there was a pirate! Tim this is our chance! Lets join up!"

Tim handed me a mug of rum and said, "We 'ave t' prove ourselves. Ye heard 'em!"

I nodded as I sipped the rum. An idea came to me, "Why don' we steal rum fer him? We can give it t' 'im and he'll let us join."

Tim smiled, "Fer once I believe ye matey..."

The air was thick and heavy with humidity that night. We were waiting at the backdoor of the pub, we were waiting for the place to close. After an hour and a half of waiting the lights went out, that was our que.

I quietly slipped the door open and went inside followed by Tim. I nearly jumped with excitement, "Timothy my God! Look at all th' rum!" I pointed to barrels and barrels stacked to the ceiling that were marked rum.

I saw a cart sitting near the door so I positioned it against the stack of barrels and we began loading them. We got nine barrels on the cart. We threw a tarp over it and pushed it to the docks.

Captain Longbeard was sitting on the docks, staring at the ocean. I approached him, "Cap'n Longbeard we got somethin' fer ye." He rose and I pointed at the cart.

Captain Longbeard said, "I want three mor' shipments and ye both can join me crew!" It sounded easy enough so we agreed to the deal.

We easily got two more shipments but on the third things went sour. Temptation overcame us and Tim suggested, "Why don' we take this rum and drink it!"

I replied, "No Tim we can't do that... Cap'n would notice the missin' rum."

Tim laughed, "No no lad, we drink this rum and take a different load to him!"

Tim said, "Shh man you'll wake up th' neighbors!"

I looked at him and laughed, "We ain't got no neighbors ye fool!"

He stopped and thought about it for a moment, "I spose yer right!"

We were woken the next morning by a startled bartender. He walked back to get some rum and screamed, "Oh my God!" He picked up a broom and began smacking us with it to motivate us. We fumbled out the door and he was still chasing us. Captain Longbeard was waiting outside the door and grabbed the hostile man by his ear.

Longbeard smiled and said, "I don' think ye be wanting to chase these boys." The man began to stutter and Longbeard threw him into the rum room. He put his arms around both of us and said, "Well boys ye done well. Ye proved ye can't do a simple job without get'n drunk 'n ruinin' it... Yes you'll make fine pirates!"

He simply replied, "'Cause he can."

I thought it would be neat out here on the open sea, being able to do what I want when I want... I was wrong we can't do what we want, the Captain does what HE wants when HE wants, and if anybody disagrees they get punished, severely.

"I ain't doin' yer work anymore Longbeard!" spat a particularly brave pirate.

Longbeard emerged from his quarters, quite angry that he had been disturbed, and demanded, "Who dares t' speak out against the great Cap'n Longbeard?" Everybody pointed to the pirate who had indeed spoken out.

Longbeard stomped over to the fool who could not hold his tongue and said to the ship mates, "Ready the keelhaul rope!"

A voice replied, "Aye cap'n!"

After several mintues of bustling around the voice sounded once again, "Ready cap'n start starboard!" The Captain forced the fool to the starboard and he was quickly fastened to the end of the rope there.

What was happening was the prisoner was going to be keelhauled, that means he was fastened to a rope that goes from each side of the ship, underwater of course, it was used to scrape barnacles and what not off the hull.