Escape From Africa

[Lorelei O'Flaherty]

Lorelei gazed half-blind up into the masts of her ship to see if the last of her crew had climbed down the rigging. The ropes were tight with tension as the strong winds pulled the masts apart. A hand touched Lorelei's shoulder and she jumped.
"What are ye goin' to do, Cap'ain?" Fergus asked. looking in conern at the waves washing over the deck. Rain dripping from his eyelashes.
"There is nothin' we can do except ride the bloody storm out. Danny, go below with the rest of the lads. I'll take the helm."
"Aye, Cap'ain." He waited till her hands firmly gripped the wheel before making his leave.
The wheel felt alove under her hands as it tried to chose its own course. Rain stung her face, stabbing at her skin like needles.
Somewhere in the roaring wind a voice screamed, "WAVE!!"
"Larboard side! Larboard side!"
Lorelei looked to the left. An eight foot swell had risen from the water and raced towards the Tempest. "Brace yeselves!"
The wave burst across the side of the Tempest, heaving her to her starboard side. Timber graoned loudly as the ship tilted even further on her side till her railing almost touched the water.
Lorelei lost her footing and was swept across the deck. Her hands found purchase to halt her descent, but her ears caught the fading screams of bodies splashing into the churning sea.
"Don't go on me now, " Lorelei whispered to her ship.

[Gabrielle]

She grabbed the lamp as it skittered down the table, putting it out and securing it. "'Go below!' he says." She mutters as the deck heaves and she finds herself walking backward a few steps. She reached for the door to steady herself as the ship changed direction and she was propelled forward again. "'Hide in the hold' he says. Any time things start to get interesting..." She paused in her muttering to make sure the bottle of ink was firmly stoppered before returning it to the writing desk and closing it firmly. "I have to go below." She glared up through the wood. The storm wasn't that bad, really, she'd seen worse...

And then the ship seemed to turn itself sideways, the open door was where the floor should be, and she heard herself saying something very unlady like as she was propelled out into the passage way, her brain acknowledging that she was about to be in quite a bit of pain unless something happened...

[tompullings]

The fact that his wife was sulking annoyed him enormously. What the bloody blazes did she expect? Him to let her just wander around the bloody deck during a hurricane? Granted, he'd been wise enough to send her below before it got too bad, but truly...these were the days when he was determined, next time he saw land, he was going to set her upon it, get her a house with a garden, and carry on this marriage like a proper one, rather than worrying constantly over his wife.

"Man that top sheet!" he bellowed with more volume than needed. See? This was why wives weren't allowed on board. They distracted a man, they did, he should have seen that sail coming free well before this.

He was feeding his anger, and he knew it, because being angry was better than giving into the fear that threatened to make his heart thump painfully. This was a bad one...one of the worst storms he'd ever seen. He grabbed the rail as the ship heaved up, up, up until the bow sprit stabbed the skies. They had to hope the hatches where battened down properly, for as long as the hatches held, if they were tipped over they had hope. He knew captains who'd sailed their ship upright, he could do that...

[N. V. B.]

Babbington ran over the deck with a bunch of papers in his hands, but when the ship took a dive in the water, he lost his balance and had fallen if he hadn't grabbed a loose rope from one of the sails. "Phew.." he mumbled, and shivered, when a wave crawled over the deck, and into his left boot. "I should have sewn that many days ago.." he reminded himself, and smiled a bright smile. But when he looked around, his smile disappered.
The papers flew all over the deck, and trying not to let them fly all their way back to England, he ran around like a mouse.
It wasn't something the crew appreciated very much. In his quest to get them all, the young mid jumped over barrels, which was pushed around in the powerful storm, took a bite of the hull every second he jumped and didn't get both his legs over the barrels. His fellow midshipmen tried to catch the barrels, which contained the ships supplies, but it didn't help that Mr. Neville Babbington kicked them away and out in the dark, black sea.
"This is.. An impossible quest!" he scolded himself for being so uncareful and scratching his fine uniform when he for the 6th time again was ended on the hull. Now he should use another Sunday with sewing the old dress together again. He was wet all over and looked like a drowned ghost on sea, and his face was white of all the water he swallowed when he didn't jumped correctly.
But he got all the papers caught. "Gotcha!" he smiling yelled, but his yelling was the only thing he heard, when the ship reared like a horse. He safely stopped his papers in his pockets, but was so concerned about securing them, that he forgot to secure himself. The barrels ended up in the water, and Babbington ended there, too. He groaned. "I hate when Surprise is in a bad mood." he mumbled. Water was something he liked the best, but not when it was cold and he had important papers to protect!
He wondered why the wind was so strong, and swimmed over to the rope, someone had thrown out. He climbed it with a smile. He knew all about climbing a rope as a real sailor.
"May I tie that loose rope to the mast, Sir, or shall I take her sails down?" he asked, and showed the loose rope, which playfully tried to catch the crew.
"And by the way, the carpenter sent me with some of these drawings, which looks like a house on fire." he said, and hoped that the person which needed those drawings would take them, before they got destroyed of the water.

[Jean Claude]

He hated water. So much. It was only good for just mearly dusting the feathers, not being drenched. His usual perch, which was a piece of rope that hung near the ship's wheel, was missing, no doubt in use for some task that his small brain didn't really care to understand. He held tight with his little claws, praying that the water didn't sweep him away.

He would have gone below, but there was no way for him to do so in all the chaos. His wings were useless because of the water, and scurrying across the deck was too dangerous. So, he held fast, fluffing up the best he could to attempt to keep warm in the whistling wind.

Jean Claude looked down finally, to see what was standing below him. He was high up, to keep away from the large swells that could easily wash him away. His head turned to the side and looked down.

Ohh, that's the nice one of the lot. He thought. It wasn't far, and there was no wave coming for the time it would take. So he spread his rather pathetic looking wings and jumped down, landing on Captain Loreleli's shoulder with a bit of a thud.

"'allo, mon capitan," he spoke, his french accent as thick as ever. He sunk his claws deep into the fabric of her shirt, knowing full well that he would find himself in the drink if he did so to her skin. His small body leaned against her neck, trying to find a little bit of dry as well as support.

[Chrystalline]

Chrystalline was in her cabin writing when the storm began. She exited her cabin as she heard lots of noises coming from above. As she exited the ship titled and she saw Gabby get flung into the passageway and Chrystalline was tossed with her

"Gabby! Are you alright?"
she asked

[Easton]

Easton appeared in the corridor, drenched to the skin. He looked at the two women, one of them on a tumbled heap on the floor. He looked as she jumped up, hoping to see a stray bit of ankle that he could leer at simply to put her out of sorts, but Gabrielle managed to rise with more decorum than possible in such an instance. "Women. What are you doing, discussing your sewing? Retire to your quarters or I shall be forced to escort you."

He brushed past Chrystalline, even though there was enough room to pass, and continued on to the hold, where Carpenter Lamb was measuring the depth of water.

[Mowett]

William looked at Babbington. He grabbed the papers, glancing at them before shoving them in his jacket. "Come with me."

He inspected the battening, looking to see if the covers were taught over the gratings and hatches. "You, this is shoddy work, do you want us to drawn?" he barked at one fo the sailors, who jumped to the task, using a hammer to pound in the wooden pieces that held the tarps down. Another swell almost unbalanced him, but he was used to it enough to catch himself. He grabbed the rail, pulling himself to it one handed, then opened his glass. "Lad, what do you see?" He thrust it at Babbington, his heart sinking. It looked like another ship was caught in the storm, but not fairing half so well as the Surprise. It was a tiny ship, unknown to him.

[Williamson]

Williamson was knocked off his feet suddenly, his hat traveling in the midst of the sea. He was trying his best to keep the sails from faultering and to keep himself from being thrown overboard.

"Hold to your ropes lads! Hold!" He yelled, another wave crashed the deck. One of the ropes came flying past his head, almost knocking him down again. He grabbed it, trying to tie it back up.

[Chrystalline]

"Wretched excuse for a man"
Chrystalline said under her breath
She pushed herself up and held her hand out for Gabrielle
"If he were a gentleman he would have helped us up. He is not though. Never has been one and he never will be"
she said and looked towards the direction he went
"I hope he hears me too!"
she said loudly
Easton had never been her favourite

[Lorelei O'Flaherty]

Tempest groaned loudly under the pull of its weight. Lorelei whispered a prayer as she clutched to whatever piece of wood it was that kept her from slipping over the side of the ship. She looked at Jean Claude on her shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "I don't think now is a perfect time for a chat."

Water shifted sullenly under the ship and as if her prayers were answered Tempest began to slowly right itself. Lorelei let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. She felt a firm hand grab her arm and haul her to her feet. Fergus's rain drenched face peered at her from underneath dark grey eyebrows." It seems the sea gods saved us this time."

Lorelei shrugged over his clenching hand. "Aye, that or mere luck." She reached up a hand and petted Jean's wet wing. "Now don't just stand there ye scurvy dog. Seem someone below to check on the lads."

"Aye, Cap'ain." Fergus replied as he made his way across the lurching deck.

A dark shape in the distance caught her eye. Something solid in the stormy seas. It was a black shadowy horizon that dipped and climbed jagged across the sky. "What is that?"

[tompullings]

Tom grabbed Williamson under the arm and helped him up, then transferred his grip to the rope. "You heard him, men, heave!"

"It's useless...we're going to have to take in another sheet. Send the men aloft, or we'll loose the mizzen mast for sure." He yelled over the noise. He was trying to balance. Sometimes having no sail out at all was almost as dangerous as having a few sheets still filling, but the roughness of the wind was such that he felt he had no choice.

[Gabrielle]

"He is contemptable," but considering that they knew Easton's main desire in life was to make Tom's miserable, that was not news to either woman. She held out an arm to Chrystalline and grabbed the door way again, hauling herself up and lending her friend support. "He might be right about going to our quaters. Do you think Dr. Maturin has need of us? Have you seen many people being brought down with injuries?"

[Williamson]

"You heard the Captain! Get up there you scurvy lot, secure those lines and get that canvas situated. We're in for the long haul gentlemen." One young lad looked at him in a funny way, he glared at the younger kid "Do it!" He barked "Let's go men."

[Jean Claude]

The little bird cocked his head to the side, praying that his hat would stay put in the gale. It took him ages to find a hat that was just his size. True, it was intended for a doll, but he didn't care. He wanted to be the most dashing parrot on the seven seas.

"It seems to be a big black mass, capitan," he said, turning his head to one side to look, and then to the other, hoping his other eye could see better. "I'd offer to go look for you, but zee feathers are a bit...useless."

Jean Claude shivered his tail about, flinging water everywhere, but it was no use. He just got more water all over himself.

[N. V. B.]

"Let's see.." he said, happy about getting this tremendous honour.
He turned his head to see what the captain and one of his lieutenants tried to get into a young boy's mind. What ever it was, the people hurried up in the mast.
He placed the spyglass in front of his left eye, and focused on the same horizon as his superior had looked at.
Babbington dried some water away from it after a wave had made it unclear. The second time he looked, there was much more to look at.
It was a shadow, which seemed to be quite tall, but far away from the Surprise. This shadow seemed to move like a ship, which convinced Babbington. But he wasn't sure, because then it was a very unlucky ship, which was trapped in the center of the madness which had taken place.
"I would say it is a ship, Sir. I am unable to see it's name, it is too far away.
It's certainly not one of the ships from the King and The English Royal Navy. The shadow is not that big, and the King would have informed us that another of his ships was trapped and we needed to rescue them, wouldn't he?" he said, and used all of his knowledge about the ships who sailed the waters of the world.
"But there's still a possibility, it could be one of those heavy, slowly and hard-to-crack ships from the Company, which is trapped, because of it's lack of crewmen and slowly moving?" he suggested.
He was still looking out of the spyglass. He would say it was a ship. But then you have to ignore the fact, that it would be a very slow and dark ship. He did know that a storm could do anything to a ship, and it didn't care if you were a privateer or a Ship of the Line. "It's a very fine glass, Sir." he said after a minute of thought.

[Chrystalline]

Chrystalline shook her head
"I haven't seen any actually. I've been in my cabin writing and just came out to see what the commotion above was"
she said and looked at her friend
"Should we go and check to see if we are needed? or shall we stay in our quarters?"
she asked, knowing Gabrielle was much wiser than she. Chrystalline would have loved to go above into the storm to see what it was like

[Mowett]

"The Admiralty does not keep as good a track of it's ships as you might think, and certainly could not tell us so quickly that the ship was in trouble," he reminded as gently as he could despite the fact he had to bellow to be heard. He looked up at the Mizzen, where they were taking in more sail, and took the glass back to look at the other ship. He looked carefully, and to his left, he thought he could see another dark shape, higher and much more dangerous looking. He cursed, then went towards the quarter deck. "Sir!" He bellowed. "There's land off the starboard bow, and a sloop that's backing in the wind. Your orders, sir?"

[Lorelei O'Flaherty]

"Land ho!"

"Fergus, take the helm!" Lorelei abandoned her station and manuvered her way to the bow of Tempest. Padraig was looking through a glass at the dark mass in the distance. "Land ye say?"

"Aye." Padraig passed the glass to Lorelei. Jagged lightening streaked through the sky, briefly illuminating the land ahead of them. Lorelei grimaced, she knew that unless they could gain some sort of control on the direction of the ship their night would end in disaster.

"Padraig, bring all hands on deck. We will need them all to help with the sails." She closed her glass with her eyes still watching the unknown land before them.

"Cap'ain, it might not do well to lower the sails in this wind. We will 'ave to fight her..." He quickly fell silent at a glance from Lorelei. "All men on deck then."

[Williamson]

Williamson managed to get over to Mowett before another swell came over "Sir! These sails can't take much more! We'll lose them for sure, I can't keep her ropes down either." His stomach lurged and he felt as though he might vomit at any moment, he never did like being on the Surprise during a storm such as this one.