Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom

exhilarated. This would be the Wench’s first serious storm under his
command. He’d drilled his crew; they were ready. He hoped. “We’ll
have time,” he said, sounding confident. “Don’t worry, Robby. She’s a
good, weatherly ship.” Then, more formally, he added, “Summon all
hands, please, Mr. Greene. Instruct them to make storm canvas.”
“Aye, Captain,” Robby cupped his hands around his mouth. “All
hands on deck!” he shouted. “Step lively now! All hands!” Moments
later the clanging of the ship’s bell reinforced his command.
Immediately, men began pouring onto the weather deck, some,
who had been napping, blinking blearily in the reddish light. “Lads,
we’ve got a gale coming!” Robby yelled. He pointed up. “All topmen!
Shorten to storm canvas! Furl t’gallants! One reef in tops’ls and
courses! Smartly, now, lads!”
Chamba was already halfway up the foremast. The other topmen
scurried after the youth. The storm was moving fast; the Wench’s
fifteen topmen would have their work cut out to get the canvas on all
three masts reefed before it struck. There weren’t enough topmen to
tackle more than one mast at a time, so these specialized hands had
to move quickly, with no mistakes.
Jack, Robby, and Connery divided up the job of supervising the
crew in order to make sure the Wench was as ready as possible to
ride out the gale. Connery headed up to the quarterdeck to confer with
the helmsman, assign a burly lee helmsman to assist with the wheel,
and make sure the binnacle lantern was lit. After seeing that the
topmen were working quickly and efficiently, Robby turned his attention
to overseeing the men still on deck who were working with the lines to
furl the jibs.
For his part, Jack strode around the weather deck, verifying that
all hatches and equipment were being properly battened down. When
he was satisfied that they were being attended to, the captain located
the ship’s cook, his carpenter, and the new seaman, Newton. They had
no assigned tasks, and were standing on the weather deck watching
the frenzied activity aloft, when the captain braced them. “You three,
head down to the main deck, and check that all the guns and gun
carriages are securely fastened. We don’t want one breaking free,
savvy, lads?”