Something about pirates has always been fascinating to me. Often as a child I would run around my home and pretend to be a pirate. I would make treasure maps and try to find some pocket change that was buried in the dirt by yours truly. Dad wasn’t the biggest fan of me digging up in his lawn but mom loved my imagination so much. I even was a pirate on Halloween one year.
Time went by and I had to grow up. While I didn’t pretend my bed was a ship, or pretend to fight others with a toy sword, I was able to enjoy playing endless hours of Sea of Thieves with my two best friends. Grant and Chad were the best crew I could ask for. I’ve known them my entire life.
My birthday came around and we were playing the game again, Chad told me a surprise after we dropped anchor to turn in the loot.
“Hey Rob, we got a good birthday surprise for you.”
I let out a snicker. “Oh yeah?”
“We paid for a pirate experience.”
“A what?”
“I came across these people who built a pirate ship and basically it’s like a tourist thing. They got a crew and we get to come along and embark on a two day experience ”
“Wow, that sounds amazing. Thank you so much.”
Grant chimed in. “You better enjoy it. It wasn’t cheap at all. But you deserve it Mr. Historian. All that hard work deserves a break.”
We headed out to the area a week later a few hours away from home. The little area was nice and secluded. It looked like a nice little stowaway camp. We made our way into the main entrance.
We were greeted by a beautiful blonde haired woman probably about my age, she told us about the history of this place and told us she was the owners daughter. She made us sign some waivers and went over the rules with us. She instructed us to go sit at the bar while our crew loads up some food and supplies for the journey. She also said the captain would be in soon to come gather us. She told us one of the rules once more.
“They stay in character so don’t try to break it. It’s for your benefit of the experience.”
We sat at the bar and enjoyed some rum and jokes until the door opened and I heard the captain speak.
“Argggg. Alright you land lovers, I trust you packed your bags as well. We are ready to sail and could use your help.”
I turned my head and seen the captain. He was a very burly sized man dressed well for the part. He had on a captain hat and jacket. He had an eye patch and a very rustic and unkept brown beard.
“Come be part of Brown Beards crew.”
We all giggles to ourselves and followed him out. The ship we seen was amazing. The owner took a lot of money and made that ship look so authentic. We took pictures and climbed aboard and ran around like crazy.
“This is me crew.” We seen a handful of guys dressed up as well and almost too busy to talk.
“I’ll check the map. You scallywags are not allowed to look. Now help raise the anchor.
We raised the anchor and some of the crew talked to us about how to work some things. They even let me steer for a brief moment.
It was gonna be a long journey. They definitely tried making the experience as authentic as possible. They had some fresh caught fish that they had us help cook. We drank some rum. I climbed the crows nest a few times to look for islands to stop by or enemy ships. We even sang some sea shanties.
We took pictures when we could but of course had to save our battery though we brought some portable chargers. They rigged a cannon to where we could shoot gun power out basically but no cannon balls.
The sun became orange about the time Captain Brown Beard handed me a compass and spy glass. He told me to climb the crows nest once more. I seen the island he described to us. And I let out a childhood laugh when I yelled “land Ho!” I began ringing the bell.
Captain Brown Beard commanded that the crew take over and be ready to drop anchor.
We got off ship at a well maintained dock. And follows the treasure map that he handed us along with some shovels.
“I’ll be near by if you dogs need any help.”
Finding the treasure was pretty easy. We followed the directions and found some clues. I finally counted to twelve paces and we wasted no time digging in the obvious area.
The chest was heavy and filled with fake gold, a coupon for two frees night at the Airbnbs they had on a tiny island close to the check in area, and some other coupons for percents off sword making, bar tabs, clothes, and other stuff.
“I’m so thankful you guys took me to do this. It definitely beats other weekend plans.”
Grant and Chad wrapped their arms around me and we began jumping once we closed the lid.
We left the island and it was starting to get darker. The way my time guess was, we had about a two hour journey to get back to the tourist island.
“Hmmm. A blood moon it be. That always means someone is gonna die.” Captain let out a chuckle.
We sat around with some of the guys near our quarters and began talking and they would not break character for anything. Captain came down and told us some pirate tales. We asked if he knew any scary ones.
“Some nights we take this beauty back homeland and see some other ghost ships. Some pirates are offended of the way we take ye out. But real pirates care about gold and adventure. Ye best stay down here where it’s nice and cozy until we get back”
We indulged in more rum and Grant was being loud and made some arrogant comments.
“You guys can break character. It’s cool we had a great time. Tell me your real name brown beard.”
“Ah, ye were warned not to insult me nor my crew.”
“Come on now, we paid a lot of money…excuse me, gold to be here. Just be cool.”
“Grant, shut up. Sorry he’s had a bit much captain.” I tried to break it up.
“Ye best listen to your matey there.”
Chad joined in. “Grant, chill dude. Soon we’ll be back at that island and can check out that airbnb. They got a lot to offer. We don’t want to be kicked out.”
“How much do they pay you to be a pirate?”
Captains face became red and he screamed out. “Make him walk the plank.”
“This is absurd. He’s got to be joking” I thought.
Without hesitation his crew began slugging punches on Grant and began to drag him. We tried to interfere but they pulled out swords on us. Captain pulled out his pistol.
We all walked to the deck where he made Grant stand on it, ship still moving.
“Walk the plank.”
Me and Chad looked at each other. I remember reading on the website that they stop the ship at the island and you get an option to jump off it in some water, not that this would happen.
“I’m not walking this.” He turned back around and walked towards them swords drawn.
BANG.
A round ball went into his torso and he fell off. We wanted to run but his crew kept swords on us.
“Throw em in the brig.”
“Dude, what the hell this is messed up.” They began pushing us in the jail cell and lock us in.
I type this out because I don’t truly know what’s going to happen. But I do know I’ll update you all once I can, if I can. I mean we haven’t disrespected these guys, right?
But what’s really weird is I hear music. Not like shanties or music I normally hear. It’s ladies singing. Their voices are like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It’s angelic. I felt the ship turn that way.
I have a scared yet blissful feeling washing over my body. We’re getting closer to this beautiful music. I will update you guys as soon as I can. I hope someone gets this message.