Aye Maties
or
Thas no ship, ya garfy.
The NAXOF
The ship lurched out of the fogbank, coming into view only temporarily. The voices of the crew could be heard ringing out over the quiet sea. She was a sleek looking black cutter but her colors were not flying. The ship seemed sound but a closer look revealed the barnacles under the waterline which would keep her knots down. She had a variety of heavy armarment, the most notable being several large cannons. Her cloth seemed good, but again, closeup it seemed she was likely to suffer tears under a heavy wind. The crew was worried, a few shots had been heard and some balls whirred past through the heavy fog, but nobody knew where they came from. A crewman shouted out that he saw a ship, loudly the voice of the First Mate replied, "Thas no ship, ya garfy".
The NAXOF was on an extended voyage of many years now, under the auspices of the A.L.chemist. It had been determined that a most profitable course could be steered through the Controver Sea, it was decided that the surest way to handle the dangers of the sea would be to blindfold the helmsman and the lookout, so this was done. During this voyage guns emplaced on headlands had been only narrowly avoided, the seas around such emplacements were now considered hostile by the NAXOF, but plenty of rich catches could still be found. The trip, with some minor setbacks had been going pretty much as planned. Many fine places had been seen and some rather nasty ones as well.
The ship was not left alone to proceed at will, a flotilla of small boats harried her course making landings a hard experience. Ineffectual small guns blasted a few balls out her way but she had been built to handle much larger bores and the small shot didn't do her much damage. Her crew and captain were well seasoned and knew there way through the charted waters by sight. The blinding of the helm and lookout had proved providential, by seemingly being oblivious to major dangers she managed to avoid them all. Very few ships of the line were to be found out this far and rarely would they have enough canvas to catch a sleek boat like the NAXOF. Her home bay far offshore was unassailable.
Several skirmishes had left the NAXOF with battle experience. Her heavy timbers were soon going to be braced with a patented "ironcladding" making her just about impossible to take out with cannon shot. Her current armarment was also going to be upgraded. "Mad" Jimmy John was the captain of the NAXOF and he ruled with an oak cudgel about 200,000,000 feet long. Lett-ing it go whenever he felt it was needed. A diverse crew knew just about every trick there was to know about sailing. She was well provisioned and her crew could be called a "doughty band".
She looked like a fine ship to be the owner of, and a fine ship to be a member of the crew on, right now her only concern was the fog...
You people may be surprised when NAXOF doesn't go to $1000.00 share or some other planetnineian number, I will not be.
Backgound reading, a reply to Denis LaPlante's question
"Who Are You ?"
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