CAPTAIN HATHAWAY

Fernando Martínez Periset

Dedicado a mi familia.

Índice

Chapter one: THE CAPTAIN OF “THE DOOMED” ........ 9

Chapter two: THE “SOUL KEEPER” ATTACKS ................ 13

Chapter three: THE NEW CAPTAIN .............................. 17

Chapter four: THE SPANISH SHIP .................................. 21

Chapter five: VIKING ATTACK ........................................ 25

Chapter six: THE TEMPEST .......................................... 29

Chapter seven: CAIMAN ISLANDS ................................ 33

Chapter eight: THE DEATH IN DISGUISE ...................... 37

Chapter nine: THE REVENGE OF THE VIKINGS ............ 41

Chapter ten: THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS ............ 45

Chapter eleven: TURKISH SHIPS .................................... 49

Chapter twelve: THE PHANTOM SHIP .......................... 53

Chapter thirteen: “THE SOUL KEEPER” RETURNS ........ 55

Chapter fourteen: “THE SOUL KEEPER”, KING OF

THE SEAS ...................................................................... 59

Chapter fifteen: THE MAP OF THE THREE BONES ........ 61

Chapter sixteen: MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS .................. 63

Chapter seventeen: THE ISLAND OF THE THREE BONES .. 69

Chapter eighteen: THE STORY OF THE KNIFE OF THE

ANCESTORS .................................................................. 73

Chapter nineteen: ADVENTURES AT THE ISLE OF THE

THREE BONES .............................................................. 77

Chapter twenty: LORD JAMES´S DEFEAT ...................... 83

Chapter twenty one: LOOKING FOR THE GOLD OF SAN

PEDRO .......................................................................... 85

Chapter twenty two: THE RETURN OF LORD JAMES .... 87

Chapter twenty three: THE GOLD OF SAN PEDRO ........ 91

Chapter twenty four: SIR BILL´S PLAN .......................... 93

Chapter twenty five: BATTLE AGAINST “THE SOUL

KEEPER” ........................................................................ 97

Chapter twenty six: DECISIONS ....................................103

Chapter twenty seven: LETHAL AGREEMENT ..............107

Chapter twenty eight: THE FINAL BATTLE ....................109

Chapter twenty nine: THE CONFESSION ......................123

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................127

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Chapter one: THE CAPTAIN OF “THE DOOMED”

‘There was once an important battle ship called “TheDoomed”. “The Doomed” had hundreds of cannons. It wasthe terror of the Caribbean.

“The Doomed” moved around the Caribbean Sea, it wasthe most powerful pirate ship in those waters. But what isa good ship with a bad captain? That question can be easilyanswered. For a successful pirate ship like “The Doomed”you need a great captain, like John Hathaway.

During the 16th century, when the Great Spanish Em‐pire was ruled by Charles I and Philip II, “The Doomed”already owned the Caribbean waters. All the people andthe viceroys of the islands who lived in the Caribbean,feared those pirates and tried to make them happy. Buttime passed and great Captain John was getting old and ill(he was fifty five), so he told his daughter Anne Hathaway,who was twenty six, to be prepared to take over as Captainwhen he died.

Nevertheless, John Hathaway was very ambitious, so hedecided to sail from his headquarters in Jamaica and explorenew seas to conquer and terrify. Obviously, he left some ofhis most trustful members of the crew in Jamaica to controlthe island and the conquered waters of the Caribbean.

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John Hathaway and his crew crossed some unexploredwaters of the Atlantic.

It was a long trip with very bad weather. Luckily, “TheDoomed” did not sink.

Meanwhile, in the Caribbean, with time the people we‐re less afraid, because, although the members of the crewwho stayed in Jamaica were very powerful, most of thepirates, including the captain and his daughter, had gone,so the viceroys of many islands began to plan a dreadfulplot to defy Captain Hathaway´s control of the Caribbean.

The plot was simple: enter Hathaway´s headquarters inJamaica with lances, swords, guns, catapults, big stonesand torches and burn the fortress with Hathaway´s fo‐llowers inside. To be sure that “The Doomed” couldn´tcome back to the Caribbean waters again, the plottersdecided to post a letter to Hathaway´s worst enemy, theterrible Lord James captain of the “Soul Keeper”, askinghim to blow up “The Doomed”.

Finally, the viceroys would build a wall to protect Ja‐maica with the money that Hathaway had buried on theisland. That way, the island of Jamaica would becomestronger and the viceroys could conquer some new terri‐tories.

Viceroy Martínez of Jamaica told the rulers of theCaribbean Islands his plan of the mutiny. They all wantedto be free from Hathaway, so they all agreed. Haiti was thelast one to agree, but they finally did because they fearedthe Jamaicans and their leader, the powerful ViceroyMartínez. If they didn´t, they´d be rivals and the Jamaicanswouldn´t hesitate to kill them as soon as they got thepower.

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Some days later, Viceroy Martínez of Jamaica received aletter from the evil Dark Lord James, captain of the “SoulKeeper”; saying that his ship would soon reach “TheDoomed” and destroy it, then he´d return to Jamaica toget his reward.

Now, it was the time to engage in a mutiny againstHathaway´s headquarters.

Viceroy Martínez was about to leave his palace, when agroup of Hathaway´s pirates arrested him for plottingagainst John Hathaway. Viceroy Martínez was sure thatthe Viceroy of Haiti had warned the pirates about his plan.But the leader of the viceroys was soon free from jailbecause there was no evidence of a plot.

The next day, the Jamaican Viceroy contacted the otherplotters and finally decided to attack Hathaway´s head‐quarters before being discovered.

That very night, the fortress burned and the HaitianViceroy who had betrayed the Viceroy Martínez left theisland on a raft whilst he was looking at the smoke and theashes of Hathaway´s headquarters. He could see peoplebeing burnt and a red light coming from the fortress. Oneof the plotters saw that he was rowing and leaving, so heshot an arrow and deadly injured the Haitian Viceroy. Theviceroy did not die immediately, he rowed a bit more untilthe arrow in his stomach killed him. The raft drifted a bitmore, going nowhere and directed by the wind whichcarried the dead body until it sunk in the Bermuda Triangle.

John Hathaway´s influence in the Caribbean had fini‐shed, now the Caribbean Islands were free from the piratecontrol.

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Meanwhile, in other waters what John did not knowwas that he was been followed by a terrible shipsurrounded by a mist, it was the mist of evil. Legends saythat if a mist surrounds a ship it means that a catastropheis going to happen.

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Chapter two:THE “SOUL KEEPER” ATTACKS

The day after the destruction of John´s headquarters inthe Caribbean, “The Doomed” saw a ship, it was anotherpirate ship and it looked mysterious.

As soon as the lookout saw the strange ship, he climbeddown from the mast towards the captain´s cabin and said:

‘Lord Captain, I´ve just seen another pirate ship. May Itell the crew to get the cannons ready?’

‘Yes, you may, we´ll attack it and steal all their riches’ordered Captain Hathaway.

The lookout abandoned the cabin and told the crew toget the cannons ready.

“The Doomed” got near the pirate ship, but, it wasempty, there was no one on the ship´s deck or up themast. The crew had gone, but, when the pirates wereputting down their weapons, something happened:

The other pirate ship shot its cannons!The pirates of “The Doomed” were confused, and then,

the other ship´s crew appeared with guns, swords andaxes. It had been a trick.

Then, John Hathaway read the name of the ship; it wasthe “Soul Keeper”, the demon of the seas.

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Captain Hathaway ordered the helmsman to turnaround but it was too late.

‘Shoot your guns and cannons and leave the attack!!’Hathaway screamed. In his voice you could sense a mix‐ture of fear and terror. Somehow “The Soul Keeper”frightened him, something had happened between “TheDoomed” and “The Soul Keeper” a long time ago.

Anne Hathaway got a gun and a bow and arrow andbegan shooting “The Soul Keeper´s” crew.

The Lord of the Seas continued shooting its cannonsand guns very violently.

As the battle continued, it became clear that “The SoulKeeper” was winning.

One member of the crew of “The Doomed” threw aknife and killed an enemy.

The boatswain told John that the naval battle was lostand that the surprise attack of the “Soul Keeper” haddamaged the ship´s hull. Having said that, he abandonedthe captain´s cabin and returned to battle.

John left his cabin and called his boatswain, whosename was Hans. He ordered Hans to bail out the water,then, Hathaway returned to his cabin after killing a rivalwith his sword.

The battle continued even more violently and the “SoulKeeper” shot, once more, one of its cannons. The bulletdestroyed the glass of the captain´s cabin. The impactthrew John against the opposite wall.

Seeing the damage to the cabin, Anne Hathaway rantowards her father´s cabin. There, she saw her father´sbody injured by a piece of wood. John Hathaway was

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about to die so he caressed his daughter´s hair and kissedher cheek.

‘Now you are the captain. I´m sure that you´ll be a farbetter captain than me, you´ll be the Captain… Hathaway’he said and, afterwards, died.

Anne Hathaway began to cry and shouted:‘Father! Father! I´ll take revenge of these people who

have killed you, I promise’. There were tears in Anne´s eyeswhile she held her father´s inert body.

Hearing Anne´s scream, Hans went upstairs to theship´s deck and entered the captain´s cabin, there he sawthe image of Anne Hathaway holding her father´s deadbody and crying among the broken pieces of glass andwood.

‘What did he tell you?’ asked Hans, who was about tocry as well.

‘He appointed me captain’ said Anne looking at theinjured Hans, and they embraced each other.

Lord James, seeing that “The Doomed” was gravelydamaged, decided to sail to Jamaica and get his reward.

Just then, after the death of John Hathaway, the mistthat surrounded “The Soul Keeper” disappeared.

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Chapter three:THE NEW CAPTAIN

Soon, the terrible shadow of “The Soul Keeper” haddisappeared over the horizon and had gone to Jamaica toget the reward.

The first order that Anne Hathaway gave to her crewwas to get wood and reconstruct the damaged hull. Sothat, as the Caribbean waters were not the Hathawayfamily´s property anymore, they decided to stop at thenearest coast; it was the current territory of Venezuela.The crew stopped there to reconstruct the ship from thebattle.

But when they had tied up and reconstructed the boat´shull, they found a surprise: Spanish guard.

The Spanish did not like pirates to be in their territoryso they began shooting Hathaway´s crew.

Two of the pirates died during the shooting and one ofthe Spaniards was gravely injured.

Another of Anne´s men was killed and Hans was shotbut he was not severely injured.

Anne ordered the rest of the crew to get the ship readyand abandon the beach.

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While the pirates were leaving, four members of AnneHathaway´s crew were caught and arrested by theSpaniards for entering Spanish territory, injuring a Spanishsoldier and for being pirates.

Two days later the members of the crew who had beencaught were sentenced to death and beheaded.

“The Doomed” sailed from Venezuela looking for newlands, or that´s the excuse that Anne said, really she waslooking for her father´s murderers. But no one can controltheir own feelings, neither Anne, who was falling in lovewith the boatswain, Hans. It was a dangerous love.

The first days that Anne was captain, were hard, veryhard, but the following ones were much better for the crew.

It took time for the crew to get used to Anne´s way ofruling and to John Hathaway´s death, who had beenburied when the ship had stopped in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, in Jamaica, Viceroy Martínez had receiveda letter from Lord James saying that “The Doomed” hadbeen destroyed and that he´d be back in Jamaica in a fewdays. Although this was good news, he was afraid, the planwas not going as he had expected. He couldn´t findHathaway´s gold anywhere, and Lord James would beangry if he didn´t receive his reward.

Seeing those circumstances, the Viceroy of Jamaicaordered his workers to look for Hathaway´s gold all aroundthe island. How could he imagine that it was buried underhis own palace?!

Time passed and “The Soul Keeper” was getting nearJamaica.

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The Jamaican Viceroy was more nervous every minuteuntil a servant entered his palace and said to the fat andbald Viceroy Martínez:

‘My lord, a ship is waiting for you at the port’It was night when “The Soul Keeper” tied up in Jamaica.Soon, a group of pirates entered the viceroy´s palace,

one of them was strange, because his face was completelycovered with a black hood and his body with a big blacktunic.

‘Lord James, I suppose’ said Viceroy Martínez shakinghands with him.

‘Yeah, Mr. Viceroy Martínez’ said the mysterious man,whose hand was cold and pale.

‘Where is my gold?’ asked the man with his grave,strong, cold, mechanical voice.

‘It is funny, I did not find your gold’ said the fat JamaicanViceroy laughing.

Lord James sat down on a sofa. He soon stood up,embraced Viceroy Martínez and got from his sleeve, aknife. He stabbed the viceroy and pushed the knife downright into his neck. Just with one stab the viceroy kneltdown, dying slowly, almost crying and begging Lord Jamesnot to kill him. A river of red dark blood quickly extendedover the marble floor. Very soon the room became silentlike a graveyard.

Jamaica was ruled by pirates again, like the rest of the seas.The viceroy´s plan to be rid of John Hathaway had

backfired, they didn´t realize that they were in an evenbigger danger than before, because with the death of theJamaican Viceroy, the Caribbean Sea was property of “The

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Soul Keeper”. Lord James had got his reward anyway, beingthe ruler of the Caribbean.