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Updated: May 21, 2025
His own questions were mostly about Blackbeard's fighting quality. Would he make a stand against disciplined tars who were accustomed to close in, hammer-and-tongs? Joe Hawkridge answered to this: "I ne'er saw him in action against a king's ship, and all his wild nonsense is apt to delude ye into thinkin' him a drunken play-actor.
The few men of the watch drowsed at their stations or wistfully gazed at the fires ashore and the mob of pirates who moved in the red glare. Jack Cockrell and Joe Hawkridge felt no desire for sleep. As the ship swung with the turn of the tide, they went to the side and leaned on the tall bulwark where they might catch the first glimpse of the shore with the break of day.
She was running within sight of the scattering barrier of low islands when Captain Wellsby summoned Joe Hawkridge and informed him: "You will act as pilot, Joe, once we fetch sounding on the Twelve Fathom Bank. The chart is faulty, as ye know, and me and my mates are in strange waters with a'mighty little elbow-room. You know the marks, I take it." "Aye, sir, I do that," answered Joe.
I thought you passed out just now." "You see I did not. Why do you make such a remark?" "Some one went out," was the amazing declaration. Monteith Sterry was astounded by the declaration of Dick Hawkridge that some one had passed through the rear door while he was talking with Capt. Asbury. "Who was it?" demanded he. "I told you we thought it was you," replied his friend.
While some rods away he recognized the captain and saluted him. A little nearer approach and he identified Sterry, who was astonished beyond measure to discover that he was his old friend, Dick Hawkridge, toward whose ranch he had ridden on the preceding evening. "You're out early, Dick," was the salutation of Sterry, as his old friend reined up beside him and extended his hand.
He could see Blackbeard charge aft to rally his men and then whirl back to lunge into the mêlée where towered Colonel Stuart's tall figure. The powder smoke from pistols and muskets drifted in a thin blue haze. Joe Hawkridge was fairly shaking with nervousness as he said to the skipper: "There'll be no clearing the decks 'less they down that monster of a Cap'n Teach.
While he shaded his eyes with his hand against the glare of the morning sun, one of the sloops hoisted a string of bright signal flags and fired two guns. The other sloop was seen to lower her topsail and wait for the King George to come up. Joe Hawkridge climbed higher and found a perch where he could discern the spars of a vessel etched almost as fine as threads against the azure horizon.
The rustlers are in an uglier mood than before wrathful because they have been kept idle so long. They can claim that they have given you ample notice, and if you refuse to come out they cannot be held blamable for the consequences." This would never do, and Hawkridge interposed: "If the attack cannot be prevented, Fred, it must be delayed." "On what grounds?"
Here was a noteworthy sensation, to be served by an obsequious pirate with innocent blue eyes who had sailed the Spanish Main. A few days and it was evident that William Saxby, late of London, would conduct a thriving trade. He was fairly enraptured with his good fortune and congenial occupation and took it most amiably when Jack Cockrell or Joe Hawkridge sauntered in to tease him.
Ned Rackham's men were moving forward, cut and thrust, while the sailors grappled with them bare-handed and battled grimly like mastiffs. "The next time she rolls!" panted Joe Hawkridge as the hawser ripped the skin from his palms. "Aye, make ready to cut," muttered Jack. The ship heaved herself high and then listed far down to starboard.
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