"I am suggesting that we help each other by an alliance of pirates and slaves, bring down Nassau, maybe bring it all down." "My name is Woodes Rogers, and I am the next governor of New Providence Island." "Spain... what did you have to promise them?" "That I would secure the remains of the Urca de Lima's gold and return it to Havana." " You set aside some of the gold?" " She did." " How much?" " Mm." "A cache of gems." "Spain is willing to burn Nassau to the ground." "The only way Rogers can prevent this is to find the cache and return it, which means if we were to find it first, we could dictate what happens next." "Where's Vane?" "The militia arrived before he could get away." "We had no choice but to run." "You cannot stay." "The war is going to follow that chest." "I'll go back and address the situation." "We're creating the appearance of a man out of nothing that the resistance against the English feels compelled to rally around." "When he's ready, he'll step into the role we've created for him." "Does he have any idea you're using his name?" "Long John Silver." "It's a hard thing to look your successor in the eye." "But as far as successors go, your mother could do far worse." "Charles is dead." "Governor in Nassau hung him in the square." "The resistance in Nassau is now underway." "I think you and I both know who it was that fashioned that noose." "I know this enemy." "He took that cache with the express purpose of compelling us to commit your force to a battlefield of his choosing." "If you allow him to dictate the terms of battle, you court a disastrous outcome." "Tell your governor!" "You tell him I'm coming!" ""And the Lord said unto Rebecca," ""two nations are in thy womb." ""Two peoples within you who shall be divided." ""One shall be stronger than the other." ""And the older shall serve the younger."" "Twins... as close as two things can get to being the same one, and what's the first thing they do to each other?" "Fight over who gets to be the first one to see the light of day." "And here I sit at the head of an army of men, each of whom, present company included, has probably at some point considered killing the man he now fights alongside, each of whom, present company included," "has certainly considered killing me." "If it makes you feel any better," "I haven't considered killing you in months." "A little bit." "We're so close." "So very close." "If we can just hold this alliance together just a little longer, if we can just... will it forward just a little more..." "And nothing will ever be the same for anyone ever again." "You and I have willed our men through unthinkable things to get this far." "Why not one more?" "To call Nassau home again." "Two flags on the starboard bow!" "There's no sign of the alarm being raised." "Is it possible they trust our false colors?" "Well, anything's possible, but I wouldn't count on it." "Maintain our current approach, present heading." "Prepare to take courses." "Aye, Captain." "Maintain course." "All hands, stand by to change course." "Lookout reports had five two-masted vessels in the harbor while you were below." "That's what Billy's information suggested we should expect." "I want more men in the yard." "With the governor's naval consort gone and the fort lightly armed, if at all, they won't be able to prevent us from making our landing today." "Hmm." "Keep the course." "Stay with the land." "You still don't trust him, do you?" "I understand why you do." "I don't believe that's what I asked." "I don't believe you want me to answer what you've asked." "We are in sight of the end of this journey, and he's still worried this alliance all falls apart before we get there." "Please don't give him any more reason to indulge that feeling." "Gun crews, prepare the starboard batteries, double shot!" "Sharpen up the yards now." "And clew our courses as we approach the harbor." "Helm, once we've cleared the reefs, head up two points so that we might begin our run." "Aye, sir." "One of us should probably say something." "About what?" "I don't know, the moment?" "Remind the men in whose name this fight is to be fought?" "You think they've forgotten?" "No, but we are emotional beings, after all, and rhetoric is the fuel that feeds the fire." "For 10,000 years, a man anticipating conquest" " has stood before his army..." " Do it." "Friends, a word before it all begins." "It's no wonder you don't say much." "If you please." "Lads, hey, listen up." "Thank you." "All of us have given some part of ourselves to reach this moment." "Today, we reclaim what is ours." "And we seek retribution for what was taken from us." "Today there will be vengeance for the death of Charles Vane." "What is it?" "The governor's sloops aren't moving." "Well, what would you have them doing?" "Outgunned as they are, maybe nothing." "Maybe something." "What the hell does that mean?" "The Revenge is almost in range of the fort." "No guns." "It's just as Billy said." "Standby the anchor!" "And signal the Eagle to offer her larboard batteries to hold those sloops at bay." "What the fuck is the Defiant doing?" "Why is she cutting across our bow?" "The Defiant's altering course!" "Helm!" "Hard to starboard!" "Hard over!" "Trim in all the sails!" "Brace up sharp!" "Take the larboard bow!" "Move ahead!" " Let the sheets fly!" " Let the sheets fly!" "Let the sheets fly!" "Let go of the line!" "Watch out for the cannons!" "Look out!" "Brace yourselves!" "Can we get free?" "Get to the guns!" "Get the shots!" "Looks like the barricade held, sir." "Your orders?" "Open fire." "Eastern battery, open fire." " Fire!" " Fire!" "Take cover!" " Fire!" " Fire!" "Brace ahead!" "Signal the sloops to engage." "Engage the sloops!" "Signal to pursue!" "I'm giving the order!" "Not yet." "If we don't get these men off the ship, they're dead." "If we don't find a way to harass those guns, everyone's dead." "Harass them with what?" "The starboard guns can't elevate enough to get anywhere near that fort." "All hands!" "Reset the topsails and t'gallants!" "Now!" "Ready top sails!" "Ready those guns!" "T'gallants!" " Pull!" "Pull!" " Put your backs into it!" "Pull those lines!" "Pull!" "Pull!" "Top sails in the corner." "Top sails!" "Reload with chain shot and target their canvas." " Reload with chain shot!" " Go!" "Fire!" "Gun crews!" "On my mark!" "Fire!" "Ah!" "Abandon ship!" "All hands!" "Abandon ship!" "Get the ladders over!" "Get on the longboats." "What are you doing?" "I'll be the slowest one." "Get on the ladder!" "It's all right." "Go." "Go!" "Why aren't we moving in closer?" "We cannot fire the great guns into that mess." "We'll kill as many of our own men as theirs." "But if we run with the one ship that still presents a threat to the governor, he may very well chase and give the survivors their best chance of escaping to the fallback position on the eastern shore." "And if they don't chase?" "Come on!" "Get in the longboat!" "I got ya!" "Fall, sir!" "We're not gonna make it!" "Return fire!" "In the wind!" "Shall we pursue the man-of-war, my Lord?" "It'd be the cost of rounding up those longboats." "Are you certain your men can capture her?" "Teach is a formidable opponent, but his ship is weakened, and my men can attack from three directions with greater numbers with greater discipline." "Tactically, he's greatly disadvantaged." "Between tactics and passion, I'll take the latter." "If our information's correct and he seeks revenge over the death of Charles Vane, he will fight with passion today." "Revenge is a powerful motivator, undoubtedly." "Fortunately, my men would like a little of it for themselves as well." "Do it." "Signal to pursue!" "Inform the council I'll return once the street is secure." "And please have someone retrieve my wife." "Of course, my Lord." "Oh, fuck." "It has been quiet for some time." "Is that bad for us or bad for them?" "Hard to say." "If it were bad for us, I assume we would know by now." "For whose benefit is that?" "I'm told that once mastered, it's actually quite soothing." "At this moment, I'm finding that hard to believe." "But if I am to play the role," "I ought to make some effort to look the part." "It bothers me that this does not bother you." "What's that?" "This." "That." "All of it." "The world is changing so rapidly and we with it." "I fear the day will soon come when we will no longer recognize either." "We are who we are." "Nothing so important changes so quickly." "Mrs. Rogers?" "The governor requests your presence." "Two ships grounded and only one escaped the barricade." "Three ships grounded." "Teach is still loose." "All things considered, we are very lucky." "I'm sorry you weren't there to see it." "I know it cannot be comfortable to be so removed." "I don't know." "I got to make this." "I am sure there were others that found themselves more uncomfortable today than I." "Company at the ready!" "Company!" "And I told you before we ever set foot on this island" "I will do whatever necessary to ensure your success here." "If the street understands us better when I sit among your men's wives rather than your men, if the world makes more sense to them that way and your authority grows because of it, as uncomfortable as it may be," "then that is a compromise I am willing to make." "Governor?" "I'll send for you as soon as I'm satisfied the street is secure." "Captain." "That's the last one." "According to the men who just landed, that is the last longboat." "I heard the same." "I'm told they saw an injured man pulled aboard from out of the water, almost drowned." "I heard the same." "Here I must be careful." "I have well over 200 men unaccounted for." "Those who remain, it will be very hard to explain to them why, with all I have to attend to, I choose to stand here hanging onto the fate of just one of them." "I know that you and he had been working closely together of late, become friends even." "I don't know what I'm trying to say." "Perhaps just that... he is my friend, too." " They obstructed the harbor!" " I know." "Two ships they sunk!" "It must have taken them days to arrange!" " I know, I..." " Then why the fuck didn't you warn us?" "!" "I did warn you!" "There were three ships, not two." "He bought them cheap out of Abaco." "He scuttled them six days ago." "The moment I learned of it, I sent word to Mr. Featherstone." "He was supposed to send word to you not to enter the harbor." "Then Mr. Featherstone has fucked us all." "Yes, I know that, too." "Is this all that's left?" "Teach and the Revenge are unaccounted for." "I saw them sailing north away from the harbor under pursuit." "The rest... are presumed dead or captured." "And Silver?" "Which is he?" "There'll be debts to repay after today." "And there'll be plenty of time to do it." "But right now, we need to get off the sand." "Where are you?" "What?" "We sail for Nassau soon." "There are many other places I could be in this moment to prepare." "I choose to be here." "Where have you just chosen to go?" "We received word today from Nassau that Billy's resistance movement has proclaimed its fealty to a pirate king," "a man who would one day return to Nassau from his exile, expel the English, and punish those who betrayed the cause." "You left my bed for that?" "Now, the pirate king's name... is Long John Silver." "Long John Silver?" "Yeah." "Who is Long John Silver?" "Well, that's a very good question." "I assume he saw value in the tall tales told about me after that night in the tavern." "Saw mystery in it, perhaps." "Use my name upon which to build his story." "And this bothers you why?" "We've come this far because when Flint and I are of the same mind, there's no obstacle yet encountered that we cannot surmount." "I don't know why that is." "He doesn't know why it is." "But it is." "To elevate one of us over the other, even as a fiction, seems to me to be tempting fate in a most dangerous way." "And..." "And it upsets you because you believe he is your friend?" "Yes, it upsets me." "And I know that Billy's been looking for a way to remove Flint from our lives for months now." "I'm sure that's somewhere at the root of this." "And I don't like having him conscripting me into his cause without me even having a say." "I'm sorry." "Because I believe he is my friend?" "Are you questioning whether I'm qualified to have an opinion on that subject?" "Did you not once tell me of your worry about the fate of those whom Captain Flint has called friends before you?" "A lot has changed since then." "A lot has changed since then, but what has not changed is that when a man first needs you and thereafter calls you a friend, a little suspicion is a healthy thing." "That'd make a lot more sense if I didn't need him just as badly as he needs me." "I don't believe you do." "Whatever he is to you, whatever you are to him..." "I don't believe you need him to be the man you are." "I think you would be a very good king." "If I were a no-good pirate," "I would follow you wherever you led." "Take the courses." "Brace the main and mizzen aback." "Haul in the guns." "Close all the gun ports." "You're letting up?" "With the damage done to the rig," "I can't maneuver our broadside around fast enough to be of any effect." "The sloops are too nimble." "But hauling in the guns?" "They'll board us easily." "I was always told that you were the one without fear." "Was I misinformed?" "It ain't fear to want to do a hard thing smart." "He wants this fight." "Let him have it." "Prepare to be boarded!" "Prepare to be boarded!" "My Lord, the squad is returning from the outer beaches." "All told, the captives number 75." "Well, there are more out there." "There must be." "With our numbers, our ability to search outside Nassau town is limited." "Without any sense of where to look..." "And what about informants?" "Informants?" "Well, there must be someone in town who knows where the pirates would go to hide." "I understand they might be hesitant to come forward yesterday, with the outcome in doubt, but today?" "Are you telling me that literally no one has offered assistance?" "Oh, of course they haven't." "Why would they when it is so much easier to do nothing at all?" "Somewhere on the other side of the world," "Spain and England are fighting yet another war over what king will sit upon what throne." "Meanwhile we fight an enemy here determined to see all of civilization collapse." "The only thing standing between them and their goal is you and I, and no one else seems willing to lift a finger to help." "I hope at some point someone will explain to me what sort of sense any of that makes." "Don't look at me!" "Keep moving." "You heard, move." "How many others?" "On your knees!" "Captured nine more just east of the fence line." "We think this one's Flint's ship's master." "You are part of Flint's inner circle?" "If you have information about Captain Flint's contingency plans, it may argue in favor of leniency." "Go fuck yourself." "Pull him up." "You don't remember me, do you?" "I was there that day in the forest, when your trap was sprung." "I saw what your people did to my men." "I was told that after the fact, the children of the camp... were encouraged to remove the ears from men I called friends." "Trophies to mark the victory." "We that remain do so in violation of our orders to return home, a breach of our duty to His Majesty's Army." "Someday, if we see England again," "I imagine we'll have to answer for it." "Hold him." "But some things are more important than duty." "No, n-no!" "I doubt they'll turn on their own kind, my Lord." "This isn't that sort of a war anymore." "I want the trials started as soon as possible." "I want this behind us." "Of course." "After you defeated his forces, the naval commander notified the governor he was quitting Nassau, took his fleet right to London." "One subordinate, Captain Berringer, he led a mutiny of a few hundred men determined to stay and avenge their defeat." "Swore a loyalty oath to Rogers personally, and then began a purge in town of anyone even suspected of having a connection to our cause." "What kind of purge?" "Well, hangings, torture." "Eventually the street was more afraid of him than of us, and the black spots had ceased having any effect." "So we challenged him directly, tried to force our way into town, but... his men are fanatical, and the fighting was most bloody." "At its worst, Berringer tried to reach out from town into our camp, turned two of our men against us, help finish us off for good." "Fortunately we were able to discover the plot in time." "The lines are settled now." "He controls the town but little else." "My people have free reign over most of the rest of the island." "Your people?" "The scouts are returning." "I'll meet you inside." "Is it over?" "Is what over?" "You looked into my mother's eyes and you said a great war lay ahead of us," "one in which pirates and slaves would stand together and strike a blow that might shake the very foundation of the British Empire." "Now our ships are gone, our army is fractured, battered, and beaten." "And the only man among you I trusted is dead." "I'm asking you... if this war died with him." "Come down!" "Open this door!" "Get over here!" "It is the opinion of this court that the evidence brought to bear against this particular defendant is both abundant and incontrovertible." "Having afforded him ample opportunity to speak in his own defense... 121 prisoners we took today." "Had our enemies 121 prisoners of ours," "I imagine their deaths would be swift and cruel." "For us, it means 121 prisoners to be housed and guarded, 121 mouths to feed," "121 trials to process." "Never let it be said that civilization came to anyone easily here." "And these trials, they will all be taking place here?" "It would please me if you would accommodate it, yes." "Judge Adams and his... court, we have all seen in recent weeks since their arrival that their appetites are significant." "Shall I expect to be reimbursed for the costs of this?" "You stood in my office and said you wished us to be friends." "As my friend, I would think you would be eager to do your part to see our common enterprise survive its current crisis." "I beg your pardon, my Lord, but have I not proved to you my friendship?" "At great personal risk to myself and my interests," "I made enemies of the pirates in order to ensure your success." "Made enemies of them?" "They've been my enemies for some time now." "Are you saying that they haven't been yours?" " May I suggest..." " I thank you for your aid today." "It is, I believe, to be expected, today, tomorrow, every day till the war is won." "That is the burden that we all ought to share." "I serve you best, my Lord, when I am seen by the street as having some independence from you, as your silent partner, I am able..." "There are no silent partners anymore." "I will have no more of them." "This is now an island of true friends and mortal enemies and nothing in between." "Now, in this moment, I still believe you are among the former." "Should I have any reason to believe otherwise?" "Of course not, my Lord." "Thank you." "Give us the room." "I don't have exact numbers, but it sounds as though there's already been a significant number of prisoners captured from the harbor." "I assume they'll push to start the hangings right away, which doesn't leave us much time." "Now, even with your men here, we don't have sufficient numbers to move on Nassau directly and be assured victory." "But if we could dramatically increase those numbers..." "Increase them how?" "The Underhill plantation." "It's the largest and richest of the interior estates, and it's home to well over 200 slaves." "It's well-defended." "Until now, I haven't had the manpower to take it." "But now, with the men we have here, I think it's possible, and if we could convince even half of those slaves to join our fight, we might then actually be in a position to take back..." "Too long." "What you're suggesting, we don't have time for that." " Well, it'll take a few days..." " The governor may be on his heels, but he won't stay that way for long." "It will be days, hours maybe, before he finds a way to set his feet beneath him and retrench." "We need to strike quickly, directly at Nassau with as many forces as we can muster and today." " Hang on..." " We are two battered fighters at the end of a long fight." "The next blow struck may be a decisive one, and we have to be the one that strikes." "Stop." "I prepared these men to follow Long John Silver upon his return." "Now, if you assume that in his absence, that role now reverts to you... then you assume wrong." "See, my men know your name, but you weren't the one who recruited them into this." "You weren't the one who led them in those midnight raids in the western plantations." "You weren't the one who has lived with them and drank with them and bled with them." "So in the absence of Long John Silver, the men will look to me, not you, for answers to what happens next, and I will be the one to give them those answers, not you." "I have become so easily set aside, have I?" "Do you have value to me?" "Yes." "Would your skill in a fight aid us in our efforts?" "Of course." "But do we need you here?" "No." "We do not." "You're forgetting one thing." "Somewhere on an island a few days' journey from here is a chest filled with treasure buried in a secret place, and of the three men who know of that place," "I may be the last one alive after today." "Are you threatening to withhold the location of the chest that every man here is counting upon to provide for Nassau's treasury once we secure it" "solely so you can maintain your own status here?" "There is an unthinkable victory within our reach, and I will see this through by whatever means I have at my disposal." "This seems like the act of a small man to you." "Were he here, I'm sure," "Mr. Silver would make this all sound more agreeable to you." "But without him, think what you like." "My word will govern." "I know, too." "Three men know the resting place of the chest, and one woman." "He told it to me before we left home." "It would be preferable if there were one voice to govern here tomorrow, but I don't think it's going to be quite so simple." "There will be no pirate king here." "Of that much, I am certain." "Are you through?" "Yes." "Then go." "When was the last time you fought in a vanguard?" "He ain't never gonna see you in that way, Teach." "I know why you want him to, but it ain't never gonna happen." "You think that little of me that I care so much how I'm seen in his eyes," "I'd be willing to lose my life over it?" "Then why did you do it?" "When I was in that carriage with the governor, when your horses first appeared," "I had a chance to end it all." "Had my hands round his neck." "Had I done more in that moment, had I been more in that moment..." "Charles would still be here." "The idea that he might be looking down on me in this moment and find me not doing everything in my power to see his death answered for, that is something I'm willing to put my life at risk over," "how I'm seen in his eyes." "Charles Vane stood by us when no one else would." "Charles Vane risked his life for us." "Charles Vane..." "Oh, fuck Charles Vane." "I know how you felt about him." "I felt the same way, and you know it." "But he's dead." "And I can't see what fucking sense it makes to keep trying to make him happy." "And all it's actually gonna lead to is you joining him." "If it had been me strung up in that square, you'd feel the same way?" "I came here 'cause we all agreed we had a chance to take Nassau back, have a place of our own." "I ain't here to prove anything!" "I ain't here to figure out who I am." "And I sure as shit ain't here to pretend a dead man might think better of me for it." "We are all here towards the end of retaking the island." "In terms of motive, maybe we'll all just have to accept that we're driven by different things." "Yeah?" "And what happens when those motives start demanding their own ends?" "And this thing we're all a part of starts splitting right down the middle?" "That isn't going to happen." "It already is." "What did he do?" "Set a course for Nassau... to send a message when we return... that this can all end... if the governor turns over the one thing he wants." "When I made the choice to see Charles' sentence carried out," "I did not know what the consequences would be." "I knew it was the only way to protect our future here, to protect you, so I did it." "And when the backlash followed, the resentment over my relationship with you, which I knew could only be soothed by my pretending to have no influence at all, I did that, too." "I did all of it, contorted myself into the role, mutilated myself so that it would fit because I believed as long as you believed I was your partner, it didn't matter what anyone else believed." "I've never believed you to be anything less than that." "Good, then can you tell me what the fuck just happened back there?" "I am asking her to bear no more sacrifice than you or I or a dozen others." "You're not asking her to bear anything." "You have saddled her with the cost of those trials." "You might as well have stolen the money to pay for it, but that is not what I am talking about and you know it." "To be my partner in this, there are things that you are better off letting me worry about." "That is not what you said." "No more silent partners." "We all bear the burden of this together." "What is it you are not telling me?" "I don't want to be protected." "I don't want it." "I need to know why you're behaving as if victory is so far away when to me, it seems that it is so close at hand." "When I informed Sarah of my intent to formally end our marriage," "I did not know what the consequences would be." "I didn't imagine they would be significant." "We'd barely spoken in years." "Her reaction... was more significant than I'd anticipated." "What did she do?" "Her family intervened with a few of my larger creditors and persuaded them to accelerate my timetables for repayment." "And if those creditors call the loans, it will force the others to follow suit." "I would default." "The courts would issue the warrant, and I would be a fugitive from the law." "England is at war." "There is no money from them to support our efforts here." "So I have had to assume substantial private debts to do so..." "Debts which grow by the day." "And as it would seem, the only thing more costly than our defeats are our victories." "Debts which will require the swift return of commerce here if they are ever to be repaid, commerce whose return at the moment seems so very far away." "Why didn't you tell me?" "You are not a compromise to me." "I do not regret what I did, no matter the consequences." "And I didn't want you to have any reason to think that I did." "Her family has the ability to do that, to manipulate your creditors so easily?" "Creditors respond to money." "And they respond to influence." "Her family has both." "I understand." "But... so does mine." "Long John Silver." "Welcome home."