Ding! Ding! Ding! I heard it clear along with someone shouting “Spaniards port side!”  I ran up from the lower deck. I was just a simple deck hand on a pirate ship, a middle age man who dreamt of something more. My name is Davey Hooks, a regular pirate with a bandana on my head. This hat was the hat I wore during the Spanish and English war, I wouldn't trade my bandana for anything even a captains hat, for I would never want to be captain though since there was a curse on all captains. I never knew what the curse was but have heard that all captains carry the curse and everyone felt uneasy talking about it. The curse was an old legend though, and no captain alive believed in it. The ship swayed side to side, it was comforting, like when your mom used to rock you to sleep. I lifted the cannon ball and put it in the cannon with little effort. The lookout who was a young boy in his teens. He loved the seas. He then said “hold for we are just outside firing range”. He said it with such glee and enthusiasm. The kid was eager to get into action and make money so his mom could afford the care she needs. The ship was running, knowing we were going to pillage their goods. The ships was nothing compared to ours. We were on a little ship not much in for weapons, but enough to sink low end military ships and merchant ships. Enough where a pirate was comfortable and glad to call it his ship. The ship we were chasing ran, for it was a Spaniard merchant ship and had no weapons. These ships were made for moving supplies and trading with other nations and would often carry goods that fetched a fine price. It is a small ship but an advantage was it could sail fast. The ship was using that advantage, but, that would only delay its doom. We then heard an old, deep voice give us a command to go after it and I looked at who gave the order. It was our captain, he was a quiet man, not much in height but he knew how to be a good captain. His name was a secret and he was a nice guy. he needed a job much like I, after the Spanish war. Many sailors were like us left with no jobs and had plenty of sailing experience. He was a leader of fleets but turned to piracy to meet his daily needs. He was a strong burly man and loved the adrenaline in the heat of battle. He also has a soft heart for his crew, He cared about each one of us, specially kids. I climbed up to the lookout and ask how long you think until we catch them. He said “in hours and they are slowing down.” “Why are they slowing down.” I asked. He just gave the simple reply that “maybe they just don't want to die and accept defeat.” “Hmmm highly unlikely i'm going to take your position and you go have lunch and rest.” I replied. He was the new pirate and too young to know that it's not normal for a ship to simply “slow down”. He happily agreed and ran to get some rum. I grabbed the scope and aimed it at the merchant ship, my skills were better than most, but, I was also more educated than these deckhands. I went to college for astronomy and was a cabin boy for the Spaniards during the war. I saw the little merchant ship was heading for a small canal between two jungles. “What's there?”. I wondered. The captain occasionally would come to me ask if there was a change and laughed at me because he believed there was nothing to be worried about. He wouldn’t sway from just leaving the ship alone since oil is  pretty popular this time of year and fetched a good price. I looked  at him with a stern face then turned my attention back to the ship. An hour past and the crew was having dinner. I was looking through the scope and everything seemed normal until we reached the canal. I watched the merchant ship closely and just before they disappeared out of view I saw something. I sat in wonderment since I saw was the colors: blue and red, but it was not on the flag, but on the people who sat in the lower deck. Just then I realized it was the Military and I panicked. I ran to the captain but right when I reached the doors, the loud crack of cannon fire emitted from behind us. The captain burst open the door breathing heavily. He asked me what was happening and I said ”Military!” and I peered behind him, and saw the most frightening thing a pirate can see. This was our death, the bane of pirates. I stood with my mouth open unable to speak, but when I found my voice I pointed and shouted on the top of my lungs “MAN O’ WAR, rear of the ship”. The cannon fire hit us at our sails. They ripped through like a child opening a present. “We can't move and we are sitting ducks now, get up and fix them” yelled the captain who then drew his sword. Two deck hands were going up to patch the holes, but the ship was too close, it was a fruitless effort. The captain yelled “cannons starboard, get ready to fire”. I loaded my cannon on the starboard sides and shot. My shot hit, but the armor was great. It hit just slightly below a cannon and it took it out. The Man o’ Wars were built for war and carried 124 weapons on it, 60 cannons on each side, 2 in front and 2 in back. It had a double layer of wood on the outside that acted like armor. The Spanish flag hung fluttering in the breeze. Just then another crack of cannons, this was the most devastating blow yet. It smashed through the bottoms of the ship. The last of the deck hands that were able, had to go down and patch holes that would sink our ship, if not tended too. I grabbed the cannon, reloaded, and we fired again. I hit the back of their captains room, which took out the windows and a couple of blue coat guys. The military ship the fired a single cannon which blew up our gunpowder and there was an explosion. The explosion hit next to me, but in a daze I looked around where the smell of gunpowder and death stayed. What I saw was devastating. A guy clutching his brothers wound shouting for a doctor. There was people who were lying on the ground, cold, who a moment before had been so lively. A group of people running into doctor's office and screams of friends.The warmth of blood ran down my face and It was mine but it was mixed with another. I looked to my left side to see a dismembered body, the face was barely recognizable. It was the looked out, and I looked away and the feeling of disgust, pain and lost took over. He was just a boy. I put my hand on my face. I had shrapnel that was stuck in my face, but there was no time to get the doctor. I got up and walked over to the plank and sat waiting for our impending doom. I did what no pirate has ever done, I started to cry. The military then fired a couple of flintlock rifles. It hit my captain in the leg and he let out a roar for this is what he enjoyed, the carnage, but He stopped and looked at the dismembered body, He just stared at it in disbelief. I finally got why it's called the captains curse. The captains made a choice and that choice was the wrong one. His decision got his crew killed and his favorite friend is now dead. His one small choice killed people, who had families and other important people in their lives. “The crew won’t last too many dead and too low of moral.” I whispered to myself. Our ship shifted, starting to sink and grappling hooks shot out from the man o’ war. We were being boarded. They then surrounded us and we just gave up for we wanted no more death. They started tying us in binds, we couldn’t even stir up a little trouble when they were tying the crew up. The military was better prepared for us. When they reached me, I did the only thing I could do to try to survive. I ran and jumped into the ocean. I hit the water fast and the oceans cold grip wrapped around me. We were in a canal so shore was not to far away. I thought to myself “Why us?” and started for the shore. The sting of my wound in the salt water was almost unbearable. The ship didn't bother to get me. They had too much on their hands to try. The last thing I saw was the captain on the man o’ war being beaten near death. The screams pierced the sky. When I hit the shore there was a small fishing village. I laid on the shore for a while and I don't really remember much about what I did there. A nurse has found me and took me in, she cleaned my wound and I just woke up to her singing a toon. I thanked her for the stay and asked her where could I find the ship that has just been shot down in the canal. She said that “Those pirates would be taken to spain and be hanged.” I asked her “Do you have anyway back” and she simply replayed  “Yes but the ship she hires to take her goods in won't be in for the next month and I would have to pay him well to take me.” she also gave me a job and that she would pay me very well to find medicine that was rare on the island. I had very few gold on my but enough to keep my stay here for the next month so everything I made was pure profit. I lived there and also got another job as a bartender as the guy who ran the tavern would often go away on long trips, until I had enough money to pay my fare to get back to spain. I hired guy she referred me to, but she said he smuggles the medicine into spain for her. He agreed but only if I don't touch his goods. I paid him the gold to smuggle me in and he warned me not to breath as much as possible. I asked “why?” and he shrugged it off. I didn't want to push him since he was smuggling me in illegally. He smuggled me in with the plants I would find for the nurse. I started to feel funny but I don't know why, all I knew about the plants is that they were tobacco mixed in with something else. When I reached spain I asked him what was in the crate and he said it was the nurses special blend. I looked at the box and the label said “Nurses special bland :420 Blaze it.” I laughed and went to the tavern and had a mighty feast and when my hunger satisfied, I asked the bartender “where I could find the pirates that were brought in about a month ago?”. He pointed me over to the prison that was a short distance away. I saw wanted posters of me and I ripped them apart as I walked by. “Anyone who is a pirate would be hanged it.” read before I ripped it down. Everyone knows to never snitch on a pirate for we would kill you, but they will not help you either because if you do you will be hanged by the government. We pirates look out for one another and I will honor that code. I later that day visited the captain who was sentenced to death later in the week. I had to climb up to his window so that the guard didn't catch me. He asked me “If i could go to the dew island and dig by the foot of the palm tree”. I ask why and he said “that's where his booty be and to give it to his family.” I stole a fisherman's boat late at night and sailed to dew island, and found the chest. The chest was large with a big insignia on it. When I opened it, there was so much gold and I immediately was like “Nope, Sorry captain but a booty this big is staying with me”. ‘There’s a joke in there somewhere I thought to myself”. I was astatic, I could finally live without have to be a pirate, but it was short lived for when I went back in time to see his execution he pleaded to me to avenge him and his crew. They brought him up to the gallows. His dread followed him wherever he went and they put the rope around his neck and asked any last words. He gave a speech about how the spaniards killed his men and that he will get his revenge. They caused chaos when my ship had order. Luring us out with a ship was a coward's way and he asked for anyone who saw the carnage to step up and get revenge for all the pirates who had to put up with death. His last shout “Here my cry for the devils will reach for me--”  The snap of his neck was heard and I looked away. “Anyone who was a pirate will be sentenced to death unless they turn himself in” said the guard as he walked down the gallows stairs. I left and years past. The images of the attack still haunt my dreams and as davey always says best to attack your dream head on. I am now determined kill that warship, then maybe the captain and that ship will stop haunting me. I then bought a ship, a warship from the English. They offered that if I don't raid their ships, and destroy Spanish merchant ships to disrupt their income, I could live in their country with no consequence with what I do with the Spaniards. The Spanish and the English hated each other and they would do anything to interrupt their trade. There wars costed them both a lot but I liked the English because they were chill.  I agreed and then named my ship The Dark Jewel. I was surprised because I have the most powerful ship of all the pirates but I still really hated being captain, most likely because I never wanted to be captain, but I must follow my code and destroy my nightmares. We never caught scent of that war ship and the crew is looking more,and more bleak. The life was great, but drear always loomed, for the captains curse is always there lying in wait, but the words of my code and my captain who haunts me, is who I followed, for after I killed the Man O’ War. I will never be captain again. What I saw the day it attacked haunted my dreams. The screams of people couldn't get out of my head. I often drowned my sorrows in rum and was nicknamed the Poisoned Captain because the amount I drank should kill a man. I couldn’t sleep because every time I closed my eye, I remember that day. I was feared now and had a lot of money from the raids I have done, but was always careful at who I chased down. The captains curse got to me though, the stress that if I found that war ship or picked the wrong ship to chase, will cost my crew their lives. When the crew was sleeping and in the middle of the night, I sat in the captain's quarters alone. The stress of being a captain was great and I couldn’t handle it. Every time I closed my eyes, the images seemed glued to the back of my eyelids. I reached for the flintlock pistol that sat in the holster on my chest and pressed it against my head. No more worrying about friends lives. Not more misery, for I can finally free of the captains curse. I won't have to worry about friends dying or peoples family being in despair. I closed my eyes one last time, the image of a family sitting at a table with an empty chair, all depressed, missing their son. Then a bright flash appeared, then everything went black and the loud crack of the gun rang out in the night.