JASERACK

JASERACK

Chapter 3

TREASURE

Jack once more began,
In a low laborious tone,
His story of the seas
And strange mysteries
On his first voyage from home.

"Well, where was I? Oh yeah!"
And there was the glacier.
A product of nature
Like the great white cliffs of Dover.
Here sense creation
By God's invitation
For such as we to gaze over.

A white frozen world,
The color of pearl
On the oceans fresh smell of rain.
Set in white caps and blue,
Seen by none but a few,
The song in Neptune's refrain.

We sailed down the line
To a fjord of a kind
Carved out of ice by the ages.
Slowly our ship
Made the hazardous trip
Known only to the Captain and sages.

Flanked by pillars of ice
Like a great gaping vise
An ice field opened ahead.
There not far from the edge,
A ship like a wedge,
Was frozen with spirits of dread.

The Captain looked shaken
And the first mate was raving
And I and the crew breathed again.
The sea anchor rigged,
We broke out the gig
And rowed in with sailors ten.

The Captain wore a scowl
On the Jaserack bow
And watched the gig make it's way
To fortune and glory.
But there's more to the story
And I'll continue now, if I may.

There stood the first mate
On the ice field that date,
Just a thousand yards to our goal.
All our hearts pounding
And all the hands sounding
Like rich men of humor quite droll.

"Hello there, Jives,
Throw away those old fives.
You know how they clutter my purse."
"Hold the door for me, then."
"Fill my bath with good gin,"
"For my sniffles, I'll have a nurse."

"I'll buy me a brothel,"
"Won’t your wife think that awful?"
"She will, but think of the gain.
My best patron I'll be.
She'll be happy, you'll see.
I'll never stay out late again,"

All that hurt and pain
Of the yardarms and chain
And even their frost-bitten nerve
Was eased at the thought
Of riches long sought

And all the dreams it might serve.

I stood on our ship
While the hands made that trip
From the gig on ice to the treasure
And once on board,
Our hopes all soared
And we thanked God for good measure.

They disappeared down the hold
Of that sail ship of old,
Minutes passed like days.
With the Captain’s eyes glued
On the hold like the crew
And It all seemed froze in a daze.

Again minutes passed
And then, there at last
A shout from the treasure ship.
"It's here! It's found!
In the ship. All around.
There's tons and it’s ours, every bit!

Our mates made the trip
On the ice from the ship
And loaded the gig to the hilt.
Then they rowed back
To their queen Jaserack
With not an ounce of gold spilt.

"It will take one more boat
To load and to float
The rest of the treasure back here.
Send the others in crew.
Let them load it too,"
So said the first mate with cheer.

So the rest of the crew
And yes, this boy too,
Took the gig for another load.
And to some degree, fretting,
About the loot we were getting
We doubled the pace that we rowed.

At the derelict ship,
At the end of our trip
We stood on the deck and stared
At our ship Jaserack
Were amazed in the fact
That on this voyage we'd been spared.

The captain still stood
On the bow as he should
Watching our mission proceed,
When a shot rang sharp...
Sent lead through the heart
Of the man at the head of our deed,

The captain raised an arm
In silent alarm
Then slumped forward across the staff.
The first mate there
Walked up with an air
And finished his task with a laugh.

The anchor was raised
As our shore party gazed
At shipmates, sailors and friends.
Could they leave us on ice
Like a roll of the dice?
Leave us here to suffer our ends?

McCain's lip curled
As the sails unfurled
And she slowly got underway.
It was the first mate
Who deserved all our hate
As he was the one who betrayed.

Once again broke the silence

With more first mate violence
As the cannon roared that day.
Our gig turned to ashes
And debris that matches
And covered those left with spray.

Again cannon roared
And cannonballs gored
The ice between us and the ship
But this time they sang
And another roar rang
From the columns of ice in the grip.

An avalanche death
Like heaven's last breath
Covered the ship and her crew,
As hell in a fury
Mixed them all in a slurry,

The ice and the waves they grew.

Turned on her back
The good ship Jaserack
Heaved in her death throes.
Her fame and her story
Had tarnished her glory
In the manner that her first mate chose.

A great huge wave
Turned the ice to a grave
As we watched its power prevail.
We ran for the wreck
Which in retrospect
Was surely in no shape to sail.

I was the first
To reach that ship cursed
And crawl to the cabins in fear
Of the ice that broke
and then froze to choke
My shipmates with all of their gear.

The ghost ship held fast
As I was first and last
To reach her fragile support.
Under waves to the sky
My shipmates did die
Without a complaint or retort.

"Oh me, Oh my.
I'm that kind of guy.
I can go without sleep for days.
But rum is a question
I've honed to perfection
Whenever I see the sun's rays."

All the drinkers were there
With attention and glare,
"For what this time are you hoping?
"Eggs and bacon!" said Jack
As the inn keeper looked back,
"It is getting near time to open."

"Where's the end of this tale?
It's that or no sale!"
Said one of his most ardent fans.
"I was coming to that,
Keeper, put on the fat,"
Then he leaned back rubbing his hands.

Robert E Browne

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