The Skull (eBook)

A Cape pirate adventure, Book 19

Gerrie Radlof, Pieter Haasbroek (Autoren)

Pieter Haasbroek (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
84 Seiten
Pieter Haasbroek (Verlag)
9780000727510 (ISBN)

Infos

In the Golden Age of Sail, one man's past returns to destroy everything he loves.

Plunge into the Golden Age of Piracy (1690-1720), where the treacherous waters of the Cape of Good Hope are just the beginning of a worldwide adventure.

Oloff van Wagenaar left the brutal life of a sea pirate to build a new world of peace, and marry the woman he adores. But when the ruthless marauder known only as The Skull of Caracas razes his settlement and massacres his people, Oloff is dragged back into the blood-soaked world he tried to escape.

Haunted by vengeance and betrayal, Oloff sets sail across the Atlantic to hunt his enemy. Alongside him is Jandien, a cunning pirate's daughter whose true loyalties are as dangerous as the seas themselves. Can Oloff trust her, or is she leading him into a trap that will cost him everything?

As the Skull's dark plan unfolds, Oloff uncovers a plot more sinister than revenge. One that could ignite a war across the Caribbean and beyond. To stop it, he must face a deadly choice that will blur the line forever between captain and pirate.

A swashbuckling tale of revenge, betrayal, and high-seas adventure, this gripping historical pirate thriller is perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brian, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Dive into book nineteen of the Oloff the Sea Pirate Saga, an unforgettable voyage full of action, intrigue, and the relentless pursuit of justice on the high seas.

Textauszug

Chapter 2

It is a particularly sunny morning in Rotterdam. Between the cheerful activity on the harbor quay, two young men walk in neat officer’s attire of the Dutch navy. Merchant ships of the mighty Dutch East India Company are scattered throughout the harbors. Trade with the East is flourishing like never before.

To the right of the two officers, the one in captain’s uniform, are numerous inns and taverns along the cobblestone streets. Cheerful sailors who can stay on the mainland again for a while, or who must depart again within hours or days on a months-long voyage, swarm in and out of the places of entertainment like ants. Back and forth, good-natured and teasing remarks are exchanged with the crews and laborers who unload the heavily laden ships of their cargo or fill the holds of others.

“Hopefully there is also a period of rest ahead of us, Henning,” remarks the captain with the blue eyes and flaming red hair. His unpowdered hair is neatly fastened with a ribbon behind his neck. Many eyes turn after him. The three-quarter jacket stretches tightly across his broad shoulders that stand powerfully above his narrow, supple hips and strong legs. His gestures and his gait are relaxed, but they have a resilience that attracts attention. His strong facial features relax into a smile of satisfaction.

“That will be welcome, Oloff,” answers Henning Roux. He is tall and slender compared to Oloff van Wagenaar and a few years older, somewhere in his thirties. He wears the uniform of a helmsman of the Dutch navy.

“Welcome?” Oloff laughs. “We can barely sit still for a week before all of you become restless.”

“I’m talking about the week of sitting still. We don’t even get that.”

“The bunch down there at Wagenaarsrust must be all upset.” Oloff smiles as he thinks of the settlement that he founded there far in the south. There, crews of his ships can make a home for themselves and lead a normal life like the ordinary citizens of the country. But he knows that the salt of the sea has burned too deeply into their hearts to allow them to remain on solid ground for too long.

“They’ll be impatient,” Henning admits. “I’d like to see Freek and the others again.” The look he gives Oloff testifies to years of friendship. When there is talk about a safe, peaceful existence, Oloff always thinks first of the men who have followed him through thick and thin, he always puts their longing before his own. And yet it is he who has suffered the most, and done the most for them.

“You just have to keep the Seewraak ready!” Oloff remarks now cheerfully when they see the beautiful sister ship of the Jansje Meer lying a short distance ahead of them on the still water. “I’m returning to Paris immediately. As soon as the wedding has taken place, we’ll sail south. I will spend my honeymoon days there...”

He stops talking, and Henning follows his gaze.

From the quay at the end of which the Seewraak is at anchor, a few men come running quickly towards them. It is clear that they have just seen Sias and Henning and that they are carrying urgent news.

“But who’s with Sias?” says Oloff suddenly anxiously. “That’s Freek Verwey.”

“It is. What on earth is he doing here?” Henning steps out in front of Oloff with long strides. “Something is wrong, Oloff,” he remarks calmly, but Oloff can hear the unease in his voice.

“Oloff,” shouts Sias Myburgh, the helmsman of the Seewraak, from a distance already. “Wagenaarsrust has been destroyed!”

Slowly, as if it is only their momentum that is still making them move, Oloff and Henning come to a standstill. Then they stand dismayed. Wagenaarsrust, the town on which all their dreams of well-deserved rest after the turbulent existence at sea were built.

“What happened, Freek?” asks Oloff then, and despite his stern face, his voice is calm and quietly wistful.

“It was night, Oloff,” answers Freek. “There were five ships. They suddenly opened fire on us. We...”

“Wait,” Oloff stops him. “Come, we’ll talk on board the Seewraak. You can tell us everything from the beginning there.”

It almost feels as if he wants to wait a while longer before he hears the reality. As he walks up the gangplank, he sees on the faces of his men expressions of hatred, sadness, and fear. And it tells him the whole story before he has even heard it from Verwey. Hatred for the murderers who destroyed Wagenaarsrust, sadness for loved ones and relatives who were murdered, and fear because they don’t know if their loved ones are still alive. And suddenly Oloff feels like laughing at the bitter irony of fate.

A few years ago, his father, a senior merchant at the Cape of Good Hope, was killed by pirates. Oloff pursued them. He freed slaves from the clutches of the pirates and rescued drowning people after their ships were sent to the depths by privateers. He succeeded in taking back from them the two magnificent ships, from the newest additions to the Dutch East India Company, which were seized by pirates. And with crews who owe their lives to him, and whose loyalty he has won through his sincere friendship, he made it his goal not to rest until the trade routes to the East are free of the evil of the pirates.

For a long time, he moved among the pirates and lived like one of them in Deelen Bay, on the coast of Madagascar. Over time, he became known as the most feared of all, Oloff the Pirate. But it is because survivors of ships that the pirates had sunk saw the Seewraak and the Jansje Meer on the scene where they had arrived too late to prevent the crime. And constantly, Oloff and his men lived just a step away from death. Not only when they attacked and defeated privateer fleets, but also the daily fear that their gamble might be discovered.

Eventually, with the help of the Dutch admiral Rynhardt te Hoogen, Oloff destroyed Deelen Bay, and the pirate force in the Indian Ocean was virtually wiped out. Oloff met Rynhardt when he was still engaged to his sister Anna. He was appointed captain of the Dutch Navy through Rynhardt’s influence. Although he holds the rank, he has never really held the office.

He felt that he had to find a home for his crews. He achieved his goal, the trade routes to the East are safe.

Against the slopes of the hills that form a large half-moon in the middle of which the Kars River flows into the sea, they erected neat wooden huts. The sailors went inland, and many returned with women. A missionary who Oloff had rescued from a sinking ship, married the couples in the little church with the stone tower in the middle of their village, which they had named Wagenaarsrust.

It has now all been crushed by cannonballs and consumed by fire!

The rest they longed for has been taken away from them. And Oloff blames himself for being so far away from them when the blow struck them.

Shortly after building the settlement, he came to France with the Seewraak to marry Rynette du Bois. During his pirate existence, after saying farewell to Anna te Hoogen because he could not ask her to share it with him, he met Rynette. She is from the French aristocracy, but she ended up in the hands of pirates and was rescued by Oloff.

On the eve of their wedding, he believed that a peaceful, rosy future was now waiting for him and his men, because they lacked nothing in earthly things. But then he had to postpone the wedding to go and look for the blue ruby, which was necessary for the coronation ceremony of the French king, on the north coast of South America. He managed to get it back from the pirates who had seized it in a sneaky way. He is hardly back in Paris when his wedding plans are interrupted again because he is kidnapped to the coast of Barbary. There he places two pirate strongholds under peaceful management. With Anna te Hoogen, whom he found as a slave in a sultan’s palace, he returned to Holland a few days ago. He learned that Rynhardt was with his fleet in The Hague and brought Anna here.

Finally, it seemed as if nothing would thwart his wedding plans anymore, so that he could then join his people at Wagenaarsrust with the crew of the Seewraak. All that bothered him slightly was the feelings that Anna te Hoogen had stirred up in him. On the return trip from the coast of Barbary, he had repeatedly doubted whether he was doing the right thing by marrying Rynette. But he decided that he could not now tell her that he doubted his love. She is a personal friend of the King of France. She is a high-ranking aristocrat. All of France knows of the intended marriage.

This morning he had come with Henning to see if the Seewraak was ready for departure. After that, he would have gone to greet Anna and Rynhardt, and they would sail out at high tide.

In the large reception cabin, Oloff anxiously turns to Freek Verwey. He asks the young helmsman to take a seat.

“Freek has just arrived,” begins Sias Myburgh, as one who would like to be the first to break the news. He sits next to Henning Roux under the porthole in front of the stern. Opposite him, the bearded gunner, Heem Beyers, leans against the bulkhead.

“Let Freek tell it,” Oloff interrupts. “How did you know we were here? Or wait, tell it from the beginning.”

Freek does not hesitate. It is clear that he has already retold the story a few times. He describes the scenes of devastation after Johan came to warn him there in the wine house. Almost apologetically, he talks about the Jansje Meer and how a few of them chopped holes in the hold to prevent it from being seized by the attackers.

“As you know, it’s not too deep there, Oloff,” he explains. “The gunwales are even still visible after...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.8.2025
• Übersetzer: Pieter Haasbroek, Ai
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Fantasy
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror
• ISBN-13: 9780000727510 / 9780000727510