Crossbones Demise

Of men and might are stories told,

Of swords and strength and silver and gold.

Our hearts delight and our spirits hold,

The stories for young and stories for old.

“All’s clear!” said the seaman,

With a shaky voice at that.

“It best be true.” said the captain brashly.

Pipe smoke bellowing from where he sat.

Captain Pike was he, a bearded pirate,

Whose hat, its former captain would not need

After the successful raid and pilfered ship

As was done, according to Pirate’s Creed. 

A crusty gent with a sideways walk

And what seemed a permanent sneer.

With bushy brow and wrinkled nose,

They say even a sea monster would fear.

A ship ready to sink is how it looked,

But a larger lie could not be told.

The pirate’s ship named Crossbones

With its captain Pike, heartless and cold.

The Endeavor, one of Britain’s finest

Now lies on the ocean floor.

Captain Handley and crew, all deceased

By Crossbones strike, like a lion’s roar.

“Give that to me.” The captain shouted

To his fearful crewman named Clem.

A  gold tooth extracted from an Endeavor seaman

Who would no longer need the precious gem.

A modest take is what they got

Compared to other raids

But the rush to battle is what they liked 

Killing, cutting, slashing with their blades.

To delight in victory and pilfer the ship

Is what’s in the pirate’s blood.

For Pike and Clem and Dregs and Tinster,

And the famous cook named Private Mudd.

The Pirate’s song is sung at night,

After a successful raid in cheer.

Rousting and jousting and dancing and drinking

All whiskey, wine, and beer.

All the while, a pigeon flies

With a message attached to foot

And lands miles away on the Concord’s deck

And picked up and on a table put.

The writing ragged, almost unreadable

But decipher it, Captain Sherman could,

With eyes filled with tears and a sunken head,

He read it aloud to his crew and said “It’s not good.”

“Saved we won’t be, rescue is too late,

We know our fate has been written.

I write this as a warning to all other ships

Avoid 90 by 30 or by Crossbones be smitten.”

“Pirates at the bow, Pirates at the stern

And on both the sides they keep climbing over

Our fate is sealed, it won’t be long now

For the crew of the famous ship Endeavor.”

With angered looks and determined mind,

Up to the stern Sherman walked like a bull.

“Turn the Concord south by southwest” he said.

“Ninety by thirty and all ahead full.”

Three hours gone by and then three hours more

The Concord sliced through choppy sea.

A crew that was ready, a crew that was itching

To go to battle for the sake of captain Handley

Seaman Anders looked out over the ocean,

Then called out to captain Sherman

The spec they could see, kept growing larger

“That’s Crossbones. Let’s go get that vermin.”

In the dead of night the Endeavor was attacked

Catching its entire crew off guard

But this time would be different the captain knew

As his crew readied and anxious they sparred.

As the first shots were fired

It was Pike’s pirates, this time surprised.

“Turn 40 degrees starboard” Yelled Pike

“We’ll crush them straight on” he surmised.

But it was too late as a second shot hit its mark

Caused a hole through the prate ship’s side

Then a third cannon ball hit Crossbones square on

Prates, they screamed and pirates, they cried.

Overboard went Tinster and then over went Clem,

Followed by Dregs, and the one called McStud,

And then even captain Pike could not hold on

He fell to his death right behind him old private Mudd.     

From the deck, the Concord’s crew watched

Without one expression of surprise. 

The Pirate ship sank to a watery grave

Thus was the fate of Crossbone’s demise.

Of men and might are stories told,

Of swords and strength and silver and gold.

Our hearts delight and our spirits hold,

The stories for young and stories for old.

By Kenny Lancisi