The secrets of the Esperanza (a story about pirates)

The secrets of Esperanza

1. They say it’s bad luck for a ship to sail with a woman aboard.
2. But my father has always indulged me, and so when I begged to join him aboard his
   merchant
   ship as a twelfth birthday gift, I knew he’d give in. He silenced the crew’s protests by reminding them that my first word had been “rigging” and that
   superstitions
   were for fools and cowards.
3. And so, on the 14th day of August, year 1728, I joined Esperanza as she set out from Valencia on a trading voyage to Venice.
4. Esperanza was a strange ship that the

   eccentric

   previous owner had carved throughout with elaborate, unsettling scenes of sirens and sea monsters. But those scenes held a secret: their lines concealed almost-invisible doors to hidden passages and rooms throughout the ship. I’d spent years learning Esperanza’s secrets whenever she was docked.

5. It was on our third day at sea that another ship appeared on the horizon. Everyone knew the dangers that sailed the Mediterranean, so we turned Esperanza to starboard, giving the other ship a wide berth.
6. The other ship adjusted its course, clearly aiming to intercept us.
7. “All hands on deck!” shouted my father. “Prepare for battle!”
8. I raced to him. “Papá, I can help.”

9. He put a hand on my shoulder. “No, Isabella. I need you to hide. If we’re taken, sneak away when they dock.” He shoved one of his swords into my hand, feeble protection against pirates if I were to be discovered.

10. And so I lay helplessly in the hidden sanctuary under the foredeck, watching through a knothole as my father, his crew, and his ship were captured by pirates.
11. I won’t recount the battle—it’s something I prefer not to remember. All I’ll say is that, at the end, the men were herded into the brig, one pirate commenting that they’d fetch a good price at the market.
12. Fifteen pirates stayed aboard Esperanza, while the rest returned to their original ship.
13. It wasn’t until deep into the night that hunger finally got the better of me. I waited til there remained only one exhausted sentry on deck and scurried to a trap door in the main deck that opened into a passage to the galley.
14. I grabbed some

    hardtack

    before I was startled by a sound in the mess outside. As I leapt back into passage, I dropped the hardtack in my hurry to secure the hidden door.

15. It wasn’t long before a great clamor arose on deck.
16. “A ghost!” declared the man. “Someone invisible has been stealing food.”
17. “Why would a ghost steal food?” argued another. “It was probably just Lorenzo—he’s got an appetite like a whale.” The others laughed, except one I took to be Lorenzo.
18. “You don’t understand!” said the leader. “I heard someone in the galley, but when I opened the door, no one was there. Completely empty, but hardtack scattered everywhere.”
19. The rest of the pirates

    jeered

    . But I knew the superstitious nature of sailors, and so an idea began to blossom.

20. I spent the following nights banging through secret passages and using those same passages to enter locked rooms and throw them into disarray, leaving only a locked door behind me. By the third day, all the pirates were muttering about ghosts.
21. So, I decided the time was right for my riskiest

    ploy

    yet. Hidden in the navigation room above the captain’s quarters was a strange hidden porthole. Tying twine around the sword my father had given me, I opened the porthole hatch and carefully lowered the sword to dangle outside the captain’s porthole. Once it was in place, I began to move it against the window with great slashes and cuts. Outlined by moonlight, I can only imagine how terrifying it appeared to the captain, already shaken by the ghostly happenings aboard this strange ship.
22. When I heard his scream, I knew I’d succeeded. I released the twine and raced into the navigation room’s secret passage. There, I waited, watching through a crack in the foredeck.
23. “We’re haunted, and the ghost wants us off its ship! It just threatened me with a sword! Swung it right at my head, it did!”
24. Not exactly, I thought.
25. Cries to abandon ship rose amongst the crew. In less than an hour, they had returned to their original ship. I waited another hour before releasing my father and his men.
26. Not a single member of Esperanza’s crew ever again complained about women on board.