Part 7 - 'King of the Nutless'

By the end of the week hidden on one of the islands off the north coast of Cuba, we have repaired the ship. We have also rebuilt and disguised it somewhat, and given it s new coat of paint, red paint. As such, and given the size of the ship, we have renamed it the 'Red Corvette'.

Captain Raven is keeping the head in her cabin, on its pike. She notices that various of the ship's vermin - rats, roaches, weevils and so on, as well as the ship's cat - seem to be gathering around the head. In fact, they seem to be worshipping it.

Considering this a bad thing, she kills the vermin, and the cat, and has the head put into the canvas bag and hung from a yardarm. This seems to stop the whole vermin-worship problem...

And we sail off to Havana. En route, we make a map of another island off the north of Cuba, then stop there and bury the barrel containing 'Johnny's' torso there. On the map we mark the spot with 'Here Be Chest', then put it in a bottle and throw it over the side. Just for fun. And technically, the map is not even a lie...

We discuss how to kidnap the daughter of the Governor of Havana. From the letters we found in Captain de Alvarez's cabin, her name is Donna Josepha Isabella Maria de Toledo; her father is Alfonso de Toledo. There is a go-between named Consuela who carried letters and so on back and forth. A rendezvous point is also mentioned in them - the Church of St Boniface. This is not one of the churches we investigated in Havana. Phew.

Diego agrees to help with our plan, in return for his freedom. He claims not to know what Donna Josepha looks like, being only a lowly boatman, but does know where the Governor's residence is.

Mr Vaughn, assessing Diego, things he will not betray us - he just wants out.

After a days sailing, we moor the Red Corvette in the same inlet that we moored in before and take to the boats to go ashore.

Captain Raven is concerned that the authorities in Havana may know some of us. In particular, she thinks that Finbar and Mr Vaughn should keep a low profile.

Everyone who is going ashore takes new clothes and disguises from the stocks we have built up.

We arrange a rendezvous at the inn where we found Diego. We will meet up there after scouting out the place, in order to make a plan. Bert will stay behind in charge of the ship.

We also need to buy more black powder. This should not be too much trouble, as everyone needs it, but it will be recorded. Mr Vaughn suggests hiring another ship as a middleman to buy it for us. This is something we have done before.

Finbar points out that we will need something in which to smuggle Donna Josepha out of Havana. He suggests a sedan chair of some kind. And perhaps one large enough to allow Consuela to be smuggled out too.

A jollyboat will be sent into Havana harbour too, in case of need. In fact, we will all go in in two boats, one of them ours, one of the Diego's. Mr Vaughn, Finbar and six sailors, including one of the Spanish-speaking Englishmen from the Juliana, will go in in the jollyboat to buy gunpowder and other supplies. Captain Raven, Spike and six others will go in in Diego's boat and gather information.

Captain Raven wonders whether there is a church of St Bruno in Havana.

We do not know.

She suggests we look, just in case. Fair point...

We threaten Diego, just to ensure his loyalty.

We board the two boats, and row off along the coast, timing things so each boat arrives separately. The guards on the walls of the harbour forts watch as we row in, but do not object to our doing so.

It is Sunday.

There are quite a lot of ships in Havana harbour, but nothing particularly out of the ordinary. Most of the ships are Spanish, and most of them are freighters, plus a few warships. There are no galleons present. There are a few foreign ships in port, including two French, one English, one Dutch and one Swedish vessel.

Deigo's boat arrives first, and Captain Raven and the others go ashore. She and the other Spanish speakers ask around for directions to the Church of St Boniface.

It takes some time, but eventually they find that it lies in the upper-class area of the city, on the Plaza Santa Maria near the Governor's Residence.

That being so, they go there.

The area is indeed a posh one, with big houses, many of them in their own walled gardens. Quite a lot of servants are about in the streets. They quickly find the Plaza Santa Maria, and on it, the church of St Boniface. This is a small, old, well-kept building in its own graveyard. There are no mausoleums in the graveyard.

The Governor's mansion is two hundred yards away, a large building on a hill, in its own walled gardens.

Captain Raven, not looking too dissimilar to the servants and so on who are about, loiters near the church waiting for the next service. She wants to see if the Governor attends, and, hopefully, his daughter too.

Well-dressed upper-class people begin to stroll up and drift into the church. After a while a carriage rolls up, and a footman climbs down and opens the door. A portly, middle-aged man gets down, and hands down a portly, middle-aged woman, clearly his wife, and a beautiful young woman with a haughty attitude - Donna Josepha? After the young woman comes a tall, thin, formidable-looking woman in her forties, with a steely gaze and a take-no-shit attitude, who has the look of a governess and/or chaperone. Consuela, perhaps?

They all go into the church.

More upper-class people drift into the church, then sounds of a church service in progress begin to drift out from inside.

Captain Raven wanders over and notes the times of the other services. She also looks all around the church, and finds that in addition to the main entrance, there is a side gate into the churchyard, and a side door into the church.

Meanwhile, Spike goes off and looks for a Church of St Bruno, asking in other churches. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be such a church in Havana...

Down in the harbour, the other boat arrives, and everyone climbs ashore.

Mr Vaughn goes off and quickly finds a ships chandlers which sells gunpowder. The sales of gunpowder are recorded, but as most ships are armed and buy powder, this is not really a problem.

Using the pseudonym of 'Vander Morrison' (which is an alias he has used before) of the Red Corvette, Mr Vaughn buys powder for the ship. He tells the chandler that the Red Corvette is on its way, but is currently being careened.

He then goes to several other ships chandlers on the waterfront, and buys various other things the ship needs, mainly food and rope, along with some posh food for the governors daughter. Should we get her. And a new ships cat.

While Mr Vaughn does this, Finbar takes one of the Spanish-speakers and goes looking for a sedan chair to discretely carry our prisoner back to the boats.

The first place he tries, a carters, has no sedan chairs, though it does have a covered buggy in the yard which might do at a push. Beyond that, they can only direct Finbar to 'Espinoza's instead.

Finbar goes there and finds that Espinoza's is a much higher-class establishment, with a number of sedan chairs in stock, including some two-seater ones. This is exactly what we are looking for, in case we have to take Consuela along too, so Finbar begins to haggle.

The gift of the Blarney seems to be with him today, and he is able to convince the owner of Espinoza's to sell him the chair at a fraction of its original price.

Pleased with this, Finbar has the chair carried off to the inn where we found Diego, and pays the innkeeper to store it for us for now. The innkeeper gladly accepts the money.

Finbar then begins to plan the modifications to the sedan chair that he thinks we will require. These include locks on the outside, shackles on the inside, and as much soundproofing as is practical. However, we intend to mainly keep Donna Josepha quiet by the use of threats...

Down on the dockside, Mr Vaughn has the supplies loaded into our jollyboat and shipped off to the Red Corvette.

Back in the Plaza Santa Maria, Spike and Captain Raven rendezvous and exchange information.

They both suspect that the formidable-looking woman is Consuela, and devise a plan to test this.

She goes off to one side of the Plaza, and as the Governor and his entourage emerge, Spike shouts "Consuela!" across, and Captain Raven runs over to join him. However, the formidable-looking woman also glances over when the name is shouted, from which we conclude that she is indeed Consuela.

Back in the harbour, Mr Vaughn buys a number of crucifixes for the ship and crew - not surprisingly there is something of a religious revival going on among them at present!

Finbar buys some sets of normal clothes for the kidnap-victims-to-be, as well as a couple of bags to cover their heads.

He also arranges for the sedan chair to be taken in an out of the city a lot, to accustom the guards to its going in and out, and the crew members who have to carry it to doing so at speed and across country.

Several routes to the pick up points are also scouted out.

The letter and gift are prepared, and we decide how they are to be delivered. Spike and Captain Raven disqualify themselves due to having been loitering the in the Plaza for a while. And they do not really trust any of the sailors from the Juliana, even the Spanish-speaking Englishmen. But in the end there is no choice but to use of the latter, a man named Adams.

Thus, on Thursday, four days after we arrived in Havana, Adams is briefed, given the letter and gift, and goes and loiters by the Governors Residence.

After a while, Consuela emerges, and is approached by Adams.

She does not look pleased to be approached in the street by a lower-class individual, especially one not a Spaniard, and gives Adams a very hard time as he tries to explain why he is there. However, she does eventually accept the letter and gift.

Some hours later, she returns and gives Adams a letter in reply to ours.

It seems to be from Donna Josepha, and agrees to a rendezvous in the Church of St Boniface on Saturday at eight o'clock in the evening, after Mass.

That being so, we begin to make arrangements for the kidnapping.

A ransom note is composed. It demands the Cross of St Benedict and an exorcist in return for Donna Josepha. After some discussion as to how it is to be done, we decide that the Governor is to signal us when this has been done by flying a certain flag over his Residence. We will then contact him and arrange the exchange. Thinking about this further, for when we need it, we decide that the Cross is to be placed on a small ship with a certain specific flag, which is to sail to a given position and which we will intercept for the exchange to take place.

The note and a lock of Donna Josepha's hair are to be left in the church for the authorities to find.

And on Saturday, after Mass, we all move into position.

four of the crew is put on watch on the route from the Governor's Residence to the church. Four more are ready with the now-modified sedan chair. The rest lurk around the outside of the Church of St Boniface to prevent any escape.

With the church sealed off, Spike sneaks inside. He finds an aged priest putting away his vestments from Mass, and carefully knocks him out. The priest slumps, still healthy, but now unconscious. Spike ties him up and gags him, then disguises himself as Captain de Alvarez by putting on a Spanish officer's uniform. That being done, he goes and kneels in front of the altar, as if praying, hoping the dim light will prevent Donna Josepha noticing the deception until it is too late.

And we wait...

As eight o'clock approaches, one of the sailors lurking on the route from the Governor's Residence runs quietly up and tell us that someone is coming. As they approach, those of us lurking outside notice two female figures skulking closer. As they come closer we recognise them as Donna Josepha and Consuela.

Neither of them seem to notice the lurking pirates, and sneak past us into the church, Consuela carefully shutting the door after them.

Captain Raven gives the signal, and our assembled pirates move in.

The door into the church opens to reveal a quite surprised-looking Consuela. She attempts to draw a small pistol from the sleeve of her dress, but is grabbed and disarmed before she can do so.

Donna Josepha is approaching the altar when this occurs, and Spike leaps up from his kneeling position and grabs her. Unfortunately, although he has her in his grip, he does not have her restrained at all, and cannot stop her drawing her pistol and shooting Spike in the groin. Ouch! He falls over, bleeding quite a lot from the crotch.

Donna Josepha draws a rapier from a scabbard hidden in the folds of her dress and backs against the wall, ready to defend herself.

Unfortunately for her, however, she is outnumbered seven to one, and despite her clear skill with the rapier, is not so good with it as to be able to stop herself being mobbed and captured with only minimal extra wounds being inflicted on our side.

When she is secured, she is disarmed, shackled, and dressed in plain lower-class clothes. Most of the crew watch appreciatively as the undressing and re-dressing takes place.

A lock of Donna Josepha's hair is cut off, and left on the altar with the ransom note.

Then she, Consuela and Spike are carried out and put into the sedan chair, the curtains drawn, and the (minimal) soundproofing applied. She could still make a noise by banging on the inside of the sedan chair, but Finbar threatens to cut her nose off if she makes a sound. This seems to work, and not a peep is heard from inside.

And the sedan chair is carried off into the night...

The guards on the gate out of Havana are used to the sedan chair going back and forth now, and let us through without incident.

And we make our way to the rendezvous point, and from there to where the boats are waiting. The prisoners, and Spike, are loaded aboard, and are rowed off back to the Red Corvette.

The sedan chair is carried back to the inn as normal, as a cover, and left there, then those who went with it also row back to the ship.

Diego sees the back of us with a sigh of relief.

Overall, we get away without incident.

Back on the Red Corvette, the prisoners are secured in the small cabin made ready for them.

That being done, Mr Vaughn treats Spikes wounds. They are not life-threatening, the bullet having missed the bone and the femoral arteries, just very painful. Mr Vaughn reckons he'll be all right in the end, and able to have children. Spike will just have a limp for bit. In more ways than one...

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