William Brand

"Thank you, Mister Flint. I will do what I can for your imprisoned man. You are dismissed. When you are through in the surgery you are welcome to join those asleep below. I may call for you later if I should have need of you in regards to Henry." "Thank you, sar." William waited for him to go before addressing the Master-at-Arms. "Mister Pew, please inform Mister Badger and Mister Youngblood that Bill Flint will be staying on. Tell Mister Youngblood that I shall have Bill tested tomorrow at one of the great guns after we have left port. I should like to confirm his training in that matter. Also, see that they have adequate for their needs in regards to hammocks, footlockers and the like. We'll not be here soon enough again for any special goods." "Aye, sah." "Mister Lasseter, you may invite in the waiting gentleman."

Dagger shears. Developed by the Ottoman turks. Here is a nice pair out of England.

The oldest confirmation I have ever found on the subject is the Revolutionary War. The French revolution also has literature that speaks of "scabbard canes" which came into use as the popularity of wearing swords in public diminished. Most historians hint at earlier weapons of this kind, but I have yet to find an actual archived remark on the subject.

This one is good as a replica tall ship reference page. It loads very slowly. http://www.timedesign.de/ship/ship.html

"You fear you've put us in danger." William repeated as he refreshed Bill's glass. "Us in danger..." Dorian and William exchanged their second knowing look of the evening. "It might surprise you then to know that we suspect that we have some here aboard the Watch Dog that may be wanted for acts of pyracy." William watched Bill Flint's face for some reaction and found some surprise there, but not a great deal of it. Bill might have surmised this for himself already and with good cause. After all, the Watch Dog was a crew of many mixed descents, living under the favor of the French and Spanish in Caribbean waters. There were many such crews afloat these days, but William wanted to bring this into the light. albeit partially, in order to see what Bill would say. When he said nothing and only just sipped his drink again, William continued. "I do not feel betrayed by any mistake on your part, and believe me sir, I have seen treachery first hand and in recent weeks. As for Mister Bly...he is in the most capable hands imaginable and I believe if one can recover, then he will recover. I have seen our good doctor raise all but the dead. Your friend's chances are improved just by being in her presence." "I am glad of it, sar." Bill managed. "As for you, Mister Flint. You and you alone must decide if you will hang a hammock here. I have given you a day's work for which you will be paid. A day's work draws a day's pay and I will feed you while you remain. I had need of the laborers today. If the morning should come and you decide you will remain, than we will speak no more of the afternoon's incidents, provided you make yourself to understand those tasks required of you. If you choose to seek another berth, then that money earned and a days rations will be put into your pockets and you will be sent out again with your weapons and dunnage. Mister Bly may remain as long as the Doctor sees fit to administer to him. Once a man, injured or ill crosses her threshold, then she and only she may dismiss him again. If you reguire time to decide, you may make a place for yourself at the fo'c'sle. I only ask that you confine your movements for the evening. Do we have an understanding, Mister Flint?"

I feel better.

William stood behind the table opposite Bill with his hands behind him. He was still wearing his baldric and sword and his face was an utter blank. It held none of the smiles it had before. It was a painting given life only by blinking. The last of the days light coming through the windows behind the wheelhouse and the flickering lamps of the room made William look strange. He looked at Bill for a very long time before speaking. "I've borne trouble, Mister Flint. I have borne a great deal of it of late. I'm vexed with it at times...and I am weary of it. So do tell me, why I should endure more of it now?" Bill didn't seem to know what to do with this question. "Sar...? Tommy was..." William was already shaking his head. "Let me explain a few very important facts. Facts I believe you should understand before we continue any arrangement. I am not English. I am not Irish. I have no country. None whatsoever. I have lived in a dozen or more places throughout the greater globe and I can call no place home but here. My loyalties are to four dozen men and women who also call this place...this nation unto itself...home. I am privileged to call citizens of many nations my friends. There are no outside wars within my small borders, except those individual prejudices and bigotry which may exist privately among some members of this crew." William poured a small glass of dark liquor and slid it across the table in front of Mister Flint. "Prime the pump, sir, and tell me what you will."

William raised a single eyebrow. "A French...spy...was aboard this ship and now he's gone to Fournier." William wasn't sure what to do with this knowledge. The idea that a French spy would rush off to Fournier so soon after having been aboard the Watch Dog was laughable. If they were allied with any country at all, it was the French. William and Dorian exchanged a look and William almost smiled, but he didn't. He couldn't help wondering what was happening to Tommy Halsey at this moment. Tommy might be in the midst of a very strange reception indeed. "Is Nathan Bly in the surgery?" "Aye, sah." "Then please confine Mister McCormick at the foremast under guard and bring Mister Flint to the ward room." William turned and disappeared through the aft doorway.

William came on the gundeck so quietly that no one noticed him a moment. He had been in the lower companionway when the armed men had rushed up again with arms against the commotion above. Now William stood with his hands behind his back waiting for an explanation.

How did you get the layers so even while drunk?

"Well..." William said slowly. "The Spanish like a good tailor." She smiled a little at this. "Yes...yes they do." William looked at Simon, who was standing hard by. " I suppose that you'll be taking leave of us as well then?" Mister Powell only managed a nod. William nodded too. "Well, to be quite frank, I thought the rumors were in regards to other crew members, but of course, you have my leave. You should be able to find work ashore or perhaps transportation. Captain Fournier may be persuaded to deliver you elsewhere if it isn't your desire to stay on La Margarita. I'll see that letters of passage can be provided, and of course, you'll take what pay is coming to you both."

"Bonne fortune, Capitaine." William said as Fournier went over the rail. "...et vents justes". (Fourth Bell - First Watch Begins aboard the Watch Dog) The three good men disappeared into the evening throng and William gave the deck over to Mister Lasseter. He went below to search out the Ship's Sailmaker, lest he forget her request for an audience. He wound his way into steerage, passing through a throng of men storing and securing those goods brought on by daylight. Soon the first bell of First Watch would sound and true night would settle in. It would be their last night on La Margarita and William was anxious to be gone again from land for a time. During the passing day he had heard rumors of departures among the crew. It was not uncommon for sailors to seek other berths and adventures while in new ports and surroundings. He expected by morning that some would draw their pay and bid their farewells. It was after all a part of sea life to watch the ebb and flow of crews aboard any ship. Even William himself had done his share of wandering from berth to berth in his early years, so he was not too surprised by the gossip. He had expected that some transitions would follow recent events on and off the Watch Dog. Still, he was surprised to find Kendra sitting on her luggage.

'Yes.' William thought, but he contradicted his own thoughts with parting farewells to each of them. The conversation continued, but on light matters as the small procession made its way forward into the waning light of the day. Here they found the crew loading the last of the stores that would see them through the coming months. Most of the men were at the windlass or capstan, busy with the exchange of guns.

"Aye..." William said, growing weary as a host at the many interruptions. He looked at Mister Flint, then his ward room crowded with guests, then back to Mister Flint. "...but if you recall, Mister Flint, I said I would send for you." Bill Flint flushed with embarrassment and it made William's embarrassment a little easier. "Sar...I..." "That will do Mister Flint. See to your friends and I will send for you shortly." "Aye, sar." He went out again and William refreshed the glasses of those present. "I'm an innkeeper in my own cabin." he said with a small chuckle.

The place is choc full of cooks and bartenders these days. I'll take lasagna!

As William came out of the galley he almost knocked down a dusty youth. "Hello." he said, surprised to find someone he didn't know in the companionway. "How did you happen to come aboard?" Callie made to speak three and four times, and then as if all of her attempts had caught up to her at once, they came spilling out together. Her speech was so fast and confused that William couldn't make sense of it, so he simply placed a hand on one spindly shoulder and said, "Steady." "A Ms...Smith, she brought me aboard...and..." William nodded and was about to speak again when Simon arrived, filling the doorway leading forward to the gundeck. "Begging your pardon, Cap'n, but Miss Kendra would like a word." he said almost apologetically, then added. "If it's no trouble...?" William looked back toward the Ward Room a moment. "Mister Powell, please see that our guest here is introduced to Mister Gage, post haste." he said with a smile. "I believe he is on the gundeck." "Aye, sah. Just passed 'im." "Very good, Mister Powell. And ask Miss Kendra to wait, unless the matter is pressing..." "I don't believe so, Cap'n." "Thank you, Mister Powell." Simon led Callie out into the fading evening light. "Are there no healthy hands to be had ashore?" Tempest asked from the galley doorway as she watched Callie follow after in Simon's wide shadow. "I may hang a notice on the docks that says 'No more strays.' or else I'll have a ship full of scarecrows." he said as he turned again to the Ward Room.

'YOU do with each evasion', he thought, but he said nothing. William smiled a little and the smile said, 'Fine. keep your secrets.' He went to a false cupboard built into the sparsely decorated cabinetry of the larder. It was rediscovered by a trick of pressing just the right carved rosette and applying pressure to the hinged mechanism that opened the small, but ample compartment. It was a space just high enough for a short, stout bottle. William removed this secreted rum and poured a tiny portion into two mismatched glasses. "Délicieux." Tempest said, having been unaware of the hiding place before. "Oui." William replied. "I've found only one other so far. The carpenter who built the Nubian was a clever man, and predisposed to personal whims of carpentry. I imagine there are few if any other such spaces, since space aboard the Watch Dog is so limited. Though I may employ our own Mister Hawks to create some where none exist. They are advantageous..." "They are indeed." she said as he passed her the chipped cup. "I wonder of Mister Gage has found this one yet." William remarked lifting the rum bottle to examine it closer. "The bottle seems a bit dusty." Then they looked at each other and made a toast only of exchanged nods and silent smiles. Several questions crossed his mind, but he didn't ask her. He downed his drink at once and tucked the bottle away again into the dark compartment. He closed it gently and the sound it made was more of a 'thup' than a metal click, implying a mechanism made entirely of wood. "A very absolute carpenter." "Oui." she returned, and her face was still smiles and surface cordiality, masking everything that went on beneath. "You have patients, Doctor." And he wasn't sure he hadn't meant to say 'patience', but since both were true, he supposed it didn't matter what he had meant. "It's been a pleasure, but I must see to my guests." He kissed her hand and left the room at once, returning to the Ward Room in short order.

It very well might. I'd love that link or info as well.

A Politician. Kidding. It's a good question, but I would only be guessing. I suppose there are a great many who retired early enough to not be hunted later and hanged, but there are probably many more still who's plans to retire were cut short all at once by their unplanned demise. There are a few pirates who made it back into public life by pardon or pure luck.

He drew her into the galley and asked Mister Gage for the room, which he gave up at once, though he there was no mistaking the pause and surprise that proceeded his departure. In all of his years as a cook, no one had ever asked him to leave while they took a conference in the galley. When he was gone and the door was closed, William drew her as close to him as he ever had, apart from dancing. "I believe that I have made an error in judgement. In the wake of the Don's generosity and in an effort to fill the empty hammocks aboard, I have extended shelter to four castaways. And...in doing so...I may have put you in harm's way." While she absorbed this information with a slow nod that implied neither agreement or complete understanding, he stood away from her and looked at Tempest for the first time with an altogether different aspect. "When we first met I kept a great many secrets to myself, careful not to speak too much of those threats that have shadowed me these many years. I have always been too aware that my position as Captain of this ship could cause great harm to anyone found in my company. There are powers both great and small that would hang most of these men and women simply for serving on the same ship. Though some of them would no doubt hang for their very own individual offenses." William shook his head. He was smiling now for many reasons that he couldn't adequately explain to himself, let alone Tempest. She was smiling too, perhaps from a mix of similar thoughts and emotions. "All this time I believed...perhaps arrogantly believed...that I was the greatest threat to this crew if we should fall into certain enemy hands..." Her smile changed just a little. "...and now I am not as certain as I was...that this is true."

William arrived at the surgery even as the question left Bill Flint's lips. A bemused look played over Armand's face at once and he seemed too amused to say anything. Tempest's face changed not at all, except for a solitary eyebrow that went up ever so slightly. William broke the brief silence by addressing Tempest from behind. "Doctor." She turned but a little, already eyeing Nathan with a practiced eye. She had begun a diagnosis of him the moment she had entered. His palor spoke of illness, but it also spoke of other things and Tempest was aware enough to be wary of other things. "A moment if you please." William continued. She turned and looked at him then. Maybe it was something in his tone. He had never asked for a moment of her time in quite that tone. It was strange in a way she couldn't put a finger on, like a bell striking an entirely different note than before. She stepped out of the surgery and William leaned further into the room a moment. "Mister Flint, I will send for you shortly."

Step one. Buy unrefundable plane tickets so you are painted into a corner. Step two. Go to PIP. After Step one it's easy to go.

The Tsunami Kate.... ...bringing the multilingual dining experience to milli....um...dozens of people worldwide.

There are moments in everyone's life when the dawning understanding of an idea can change everything that came before. William experienced this epiphany even as he was nodding his acceptance of the new recruit. It came all at once and he understood much of what he had taken for granted before. It was so clear that William was thunderstruck. He couldn't imagine how he could have missed so much that had been before him. It was at once in everything that Fournier had said and much that he hadn't. It was in a dozen previous conversations shared and secrets kept and for the moment he lost his quiet mask of composure as his mouth formed a long wordless 'Ahhhh.". When he realized he had more than thought the sound, but spoke it aloud it did little to wake him from his sudden state of revelation. Instead, it wrapped him up so completely in his own mind, as he continued placing the pieces of the puzzle he hadn't quite understood before, that he forgot everyone in the room. He wasn't even conscientious of his own distraction or how it might effect those around him. He stood up at once, turning to Mister Lasseter. Then he paused. He had meant to ask Mister Lasseter something but it was lost to him all at once. "Excuse me a moment, Gentlemen." was all he managed as he left the ward room. He left behind the Quartermaster in the awkward position of maintaining the confused gathering.

Someone tape this for me.