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Chapter 1216 The Unlucky Pirate 2
"This is good news, I'll tell them right away!" Hearing the word Bahamas, Francisco grinned and strode away.

"Wait, give me the telescope, right now!" But Mather grabbed his arm and his voice became stern.

"Damn, it's a sail, there are at least two ships! I'll ring the bell, you launch the small boat quickly and go to the big ship to raise the sail." After watching for only a few seconds, Mather suddenly became furious, shouting at the top of his lungs, throwing down the telescope and running towards the woods at the end of the beach.

"Oh my God... where did they come from? William, William... Go back to the sea and raise the sails on the big ship. The Spaniards are coming!"

Francisco was so confused that he did not obey the order immediately, but raised his telescope and looked in the direction he had just been in. A few seconds later, he also ran and shouted like a possessed person, but he did not run inland, but to the people who were pulling the boat onto the beach.

There are rumors that it takes several hours to start a warship cold because the boiler needs to be preheated to generate pressure to drive the machinery. This is true, especially for warships during World War I and World War II, most of which used coal-fired boilers and heavy oil boilers. After extinguishing the fire, the restart process is very time-consuming.

Are sailing ships much faster and more convenient? The answer is yes. If a large-tonnage sailing ship is at anchor, it will take more than half a day to sail against the wind and waves.

Because there was no mechanical assistance at this time, the heavy stone anchor or iron anchor had to be pulled up little by little by the sailors who were divided into several groups to push the winch. The whole process took several hours, and this was on the premise that the anchor was not stuck by the reefs on the seabed.

Can't we just cut the cable? If there is an emergency, it is possible. But there is a prerequisite, the anchorage must be far away from the coast. Otherwise, once the anchor rope is cut and the sail is not raised in time, the hull will be pushed to the shore by the waves and run aground.

Now Mather and Francisco encountered this problem. No matter how anxious they were, the sailors who had already landed had to push the boats from the beach into the sea and row to the ship. Moreover, some sailors were going deep inland to cut wood and could not be notified at all.

However, the faint shadows of sails in the telescope were as fast as lightning. As the sailors pushed the boats along the beach, they became clearer and closer.

It was clear to the naked eye that these were two three-masted sailing ships, but their thin shapes, odd sails, and overly tall masts all pointed to an obvious problem: they were not Spanish ships, nor did they look like British, French, or Dutch ships.

"Abandon ship, abandon ship, go ashore to the woods. Hurry, it's too late!" Just as the last boat was pushed into the sea and the sailors were scrambling to climb up, Mather, who was standing on the beach holding a telescope, gave new orders.

In addition to the two three-masted sailing ships whose origins he could not identify, he saw a two-masted sailing ship through the telescope. The speed of the ship was very fast and it was visibly approaching his two sailing ships.

At this speed, the sailors rowing the small boats were definitely not as fast as the other party. And the small boats really couldn't compete with the two-masted sailing boats on the sea. Even if they were small, they were still two-masted sailing boats. Now they could only retreat inland and hide to wait and see what would happen.

Before the sun went down, the pirates hid in the woods and watched the two sailboats being captured. They were extremely depressed. If they didn't take the sailboats back, even if the other side did nothing, they would be trapped and die on this deserted island far away from the route.

So in the second half of the night, Mercer organized thirty of the bravest and most capable pirate sailors, and rowed two small boats to quietly approach the sailboat, intending to use the cover of darkness to sneak onto the deck and take the ship back.

As long as they got the ship, they could run away if they couldn't win. No one knew this sea area better than the pirates, and the principle of keeping the green mountains is not afraid of running out of firewood is also a universal truth. At the beginning, the ship theft operation went very smoothly. The two sailboats were quietly anchored in place, and there was no damage to the appearance. To be on the safe side, Mercer first sent several sailors who were very good at swimming to swim close and climb up the deck along the ropes to test the situation.

After confirming that there was no one on board, they all went up to the deck, tiptoed to prepare to set sail, and sent the small boat back to pick up more people.

But soon his throbbing heart was poured with a bucket of cold water. The sailboat was not intact. It had been tampered with in two of the most inconspicuous yet most fatal places. The main sail halyard and the rigging connecting the rudder were both damaged.

It's not that it can't be repaired, there are spare ropes in the cabin. But it's undoubtedly a pipe dream to repair it before dawn. The shortest time it will take is a day and a half.

"Mather, this was found in the cockpit. What's written on it?"

Just as the pirates were arguing about whether they should stay on the ship or return to the island, Francisco made a new discovery: a piece of parchment-like paper covered with words, but unfortunately he could not recognize many of them.

"It seems to be Latin... Bring the candle closer... We are in big trouble. The ships we saw during the day were not Spanish, but the navy of a country called Ming. Damn it, who can tell me where Ming is? Why did they come here to attack our ships?"

Mather read it carefully by candlelight and found that it was written in Latin. Although he didn't know some of the words, he could still guess the meaning by considering the context. However, the more he read, the more confused he became, and finally he couldn't help but curse.

"Raw silk, raw silk from the Ming Dynasty!" The pirates looked at each other, and were also unfamiliar with the name. Only Francisco suddenly shouted, and while speaking he took out a square silk handkerchief from his pocket.

"Yes, yes, it's raw silk! I remember that every year there would be one or two ships loaded with boxes of silver coins that set out from Acapulco to Manila. When they came back, the cabins were filled with raw silk, tea, and porcelain. Later, Manila was occupied by another country. Does anyone know what that country was called?"

When Francisco mentioned this, Mather also recalled an event from a long time ago. At that time, the price of raw silk in the Viceroyalty of New Spain skyrocketed, causing many silk workshops to close down. By the way, it also gave rise to a new industry, smuggling raw silk.

Some captains who were familiar with the routes secretly recruited sailors to drive ships to Japanese ports to buy raw silk at high prices. The profits were indeed very high in the first few years. But later, the Japanese had no raw silk, and the smuggling business was gradually forgotten.

"William, William's ship has been to a Japanese port. When he was drunk, he often mentioned that the delicate skin of Japanese women was like peeled eggs!"

At this time, another sailor came to the rescue. Pirates were not a fixed group. They were all European immigrants who could not survive in the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The guy called William escaped from the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

(End of this chapter)