They
departed from Gasparilla Island under a blood red sky. Gaspar feared no omen. The brothers, however, taking their maiden
voyage onboard the Floriblanca, knew
at once that their grand adventure with the pirate king was doomed from the
start, and not entirely due to their own intended treachery.
***
“Let cannon
fly like thunder!” Jose Gaspar bellowed
command after command, the urgency of the moment driving him to greater lengths
of shipboard tyranny than his crew, many of whom had sailed with him for more
than a decade, had yet experienced. It
was enough to give even the sturdiest of these hardened men chills. It had been a torpid day in January 1821, and
the Floriblanca had at last been
found in the sights of the infamous U.S.S.
Enterprise, known as the destroyer of pirates. These were men who had participated in and
experienced all manner of depravity and violence, and had seen Gaspar flaunt
his authority with impunity, losing many a companion to his mercurial
whims. The romance of serving under the
pirate king had lost its appeal many years ago, except in the lyrics of sea shanties
many of them still sang.
None of them
knew the exact circumstances that brought the brothers Gomez into their
ranks. Nico and Zachary Gomez arrived
under a cloud of obscurity. No one had
served with them before, whether in legitimate circles or otherwise. The most popular rumor was that they weren’t
even Spanish citizens, but American. Any
of this would have made them instantly unpopular and subject to even rougher
living than the norm, but Gaspar himself had taken them under his wing, and his
decisions were respected, because the alternative was grim.
What the
brothers Gomez became privy to, and what they had never themselves expected,
was the discovery that Gaspar’s private cabin held a startling secret, the
existence of his daughter Roxanne.
Women, in
naval, merchant, and pirate circles, were unheard of aboard ships at sea. Far too much trouble, for all
considered. This was the most obvious
reason why Roxanne’s presence remained unknown, except for those Gaspar
trusted. What treasures the brothers
Gomez had promised him would remain a mystery for the ages, since this was to
be the final tale of Jose Gaspar, and all those who sailed with him.
***
On the
morning they set out, the crew held no expectation but what Gaspar allowed
them. Nico felt himself banished in the
eagle’s nest, even if it was the rare agreement with his brother that had led
him there, a part of the plot. From his
perch he could see the activities on deck and at sea, but he couldn’t find
Zachary anywhere. Nico was the younger
of the two, and assumed that he had more to give Roxanne, but he imagined
Zachary making a different case in the darkness below.
“Beautiful
day,” he said to the boy unlucky enough to count himself among the crew, and
stuck in the nest beside him. Nico didn’t
even know his name, but felt guilty that such a youth was in the trap he and
his brother had set.
“I suppose,”
the boy replied. “Captain Gaspar expects
something great from the day. I’m
anxious to see what it is.”
“Tell me,
boy,” Nico said, “Do you know much of what happens aboard Floriblanca?”
“Tolerably
much,” the boy said. “More than
most. No one cares what the boy
hears. No one will listen to him anyway,
much less believe him.”
Nico felt a
stab of guilt. “What have you heard
about my brother and I?”
“That you
fought in the war,” the boy said, “recently fought between America and Britain,
that you were pirates who joined the American fleet. But no one believes that’s true. The captain would never have allowed your
kind aboard. Pirate principle or
something of the kind. The crew doesn’t
respect those that betrayed the life.
And you know what that means.”
“That I am
alive to talk about it with you,” Nico said.
“As you say,”
the boy replied.
“Do you know
much about the captain?”
“A little,”
the boy said. “I know what no one is
supposed to. I have access none is
granted. I go where I please, you might
say.”
“So you
know,” Nico said.
“I suppose,”
the boy said.
“And you can
guess the reasons for my current trepidation,” Nico said.
“As concerns
the whereabouts of your brother,” the boy said, “among other things.”
“Among other
things,” Nico said.
“That ship,
on the horizon,” the boy said. “Looks to
be a British merchant ship.”
“That is
what we will tell the captain,” Nico said.
“But that’s
not what it is,” the boy said.
“No, it is
not,” Nico said.
***
As it
happened, Zachary was indeed courting Roxanne that moment, but as part of the
plot. The brothers had been
careful. They didn’t want Gaspar to
catch either of them in the act. Such an
event would spoil everything.
“Milady,” he
whispered in Roxanne’s ear.
“Don’t do
that,” Roxanne replied. “I hate that.”
“You hate
what?”
“A man’s
breath in my ear,” Roxanne said.
“Sorry,”
Zachary said.
“And don’t
apologize,” Roxanne said. “I like that
even less.”
Roxanne had
been born in Barbados. Her bronze
complexion kept her hidden from Zachary’s sight, which was a
disappointment. “The Gomez charm does
not work on me,” she added.
“So you have
heard of it,” Zachary said.
“It is less
than suggested,” Roxanne said. “But I
have heard of it, and my father warned me.
Naturally I intend to ignore him.”
“You
intrigue me,” Zachary said.
“If it
becomes relevant,” Roxanne said.
***
Nico was
climbing down as the merchant ship changed its colors to reveal the American
standard, as Gaspar began to charge the crew.
Zachary joined Nico, and the two nodded at each other. All was going to plan. Gaspar was a hard man, but also a handsome
one. It was sometimes difficult to
understand why he’d made the choice to operate outside the law, when he might
have succeeded at court with little effort.
Perhaps the rumors that he had been compelled to seek alternate fortunes
for choosing the wrong lady were true.
That was part of why the brothers Gomez didn’t feel guilty about using
Roxanne in the plot, if not some remorse on her part. They weren’t monsters. The monster was captain of this ship.
The cannons
indeed flew, and wood shattered all around them. When the ships were close enough, boarding
parties entered the fray, and it was the Floriblanca
that was visited first. That was how
Nico and Zachary had envisioned it.
For a cruel
moment, however, they had cause to regret their decisions. Roxanne emerged from below deck. She locked eyes not with Zachary or Nico, but
her father, Jose Gaspar, and in that moment, they saw Gaspar not as a monster
but a man, whose eyes were filled with love, and horror.
He
unsheathed his saber, and swore to defend his daughter. No one said a word about it.
Nico and
Zachary drew their blades as well. Each
wanted the honor of felling the pirate king, and so attacked him together, once
more united despite themselves. Gaspar
understood immediately, even before they turned against him, what was
happening.
“Gaspar dies
by his own hand, not his enemy’s!”
And he
plunged overboard, before either brother could intervene. The ship was burning, and Roxanne let loose a
terrible scream.
***
History
records that the Enterprise was lost,
finally, two years later, but the records of John Gomez, youngest of the
brothers, swear that the crew of the Floriblanca
took it down with them. He is silent
about the fates of Nico and Zachary, and Roxanne. Legend has it that he was aboard the Floriblanca that day, that he was the
boy in the eagle’s nest with Nico, unknown to his own brother, just another
detail lost at sea, in the great tumult in the years before Florida left
Spanish hands and entered America’s.
John Gomez
was called many things, later, a liar chief among them. He settled into life all the same, on land,
in Tampa on the shores of Hillsborough Bay.
He never paid the epitaphs much mind.
And he was always drunk.
Sometimes he could be persuaded to recapitulate the events of that day,
but never when sober.
He cried
every time.
