How The Pirate Got His Crew

'Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty Blackbirds
Baked in a pie...'

Little Bobby, the cabin boy, sang out amongst the pipe smoke in the dim light of a Bristol tavern. His audience was a gang of out of work, cut-throat sailors. They sat sipping and swaying at their tables.

''Here, what's that lad warbling on about? You should shut 'im up, Henry." A scruffy, young sailor addressed the ruddy faced barman.

"Shh," his companion nudged him and whispered. "If you know whats good fer yer, you'll be watching this young lad carefully, now."

"What ever for?"

"Listen to that!" said the interested sailor. Straining his ears to follow the young lads singing rhyme. "Oh, yes! I think I'll have a little bit of that..."

He stood up and after carefully looking around the other customers, he stealthily joined the gang of men (who were trying desperately to not look like a gang of men) following Little Bobby's singsong along to the next public house.

Someone watched them go. Someone who had faded out of the background instead of into it. Someone with His Majesty's Service uniform not on show but etched into the evil looking scar that ran along his jaw line.

"Pirates," he muttered, throwing a coin at the barman and skulking off into the mist.

"Pirates?" queried the now lonely, scruffy sailor.

"Aye." Henry the barman leaned in conspiritorially. "Blackbeard's on the looky for some crew, by the sounds of it."

The scruffy sailor still looked confused so, taking pity on him, Henry put the pint pot that he had been cleaning down on the bar and sat down next to him and repeated the rhyme that had sounded so harmless only minutes before:

"Sing a song of sixpence,
a pocket full of rye..."

"That's good wages he's paying, and whisky to boot.

"Four and twenty Blackbirds
Baked in a pie..."

"Twenty four men he's after to play hide and go seek on his ship and then when another little shippy comes alongside to see why she's empty the crew will jump out and loot her and King Pirate Blackbird will be served a treat:

"When the pie was open
the birds began to sing
Now wasn't that a dainty dish
to place before the King

"The King was in his counting house
Counting out his money
The Queen was in the parlour
Eating bread and honey

"Well that just goes to show you he's got his eyes on a costly prize already set sail. And his ship, the good old 'Queen Anne'? Well, it sounds to me that she's already stocked and ready to set sail."

The barman ended his quiet explanation to an enraptured audience of drinkers who proceeded to pretend they had overheard nothing, before making their excuses and hurrying away to the docks.

Henry looked around the quiet bar and sighed. There was always another ship to come in bearing sailors with money to spend and memories to drink away. He knew the scar-faced Navy Captain would be one of them because Blackbeard wasn't that daft a catch.

In the distance he could have sworn he heard the gentle music of Little Bobby's tune floating on the breeze.

(546 wds)

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