Chapter 171 - The Carrack (1/2)

After sailing for 21 days, Zhang Heng could feel that they were getting closer and closer to their target. A few days ago, a pirate ship attempted to plunder the Goddess’ Spear. Unfortunately, the pirates were defeated, and the Goddess’ Spear managed to seize all their weapons. It was going to be hard for the Jackdaw to loot their ship since they were now more robust. After a short exchange of fire, both parties sustained some damage on their boat. In the end, the pirate ship was forced to flee the Goddess’ Spear when their secondary mast was destroyed. Once again, the Goddess’ Spear managed to survive yet another battle against pirates.

After that, the Jackdaw crossed paths with the pirate ship that fought the Goddess’ Spear. Billy knew their helmsman, so, they were willing to tell the Jackdaw what they knew about the Goddess’ Spear.

There were about 50 sailors on Goddess’ Spear. Their ship was equipped with 17 cannons. 9 of them were acquired from the pirate ship that they defeated earlier. Otherwise, they had keen sailors who knew how to fight well. The only drawback about the whaling ship was their speed. Having a hold filled with blubber and wax, they could go no faster than a humble 5 knots.

If everything went well, the Jackdaw was set to catch up with Goddess’ Spear in about half a day. Unfortunately, the weather on that day changed all of a sudden. They could see menacing dark clouds billowing above the Jackdaw. Immediately, Merck, the person that in charge of maneuvering mainsail, instructed his people to climb to the top of the mast to tuck away the mainsail as the wind grew stronger. Some pirates started praying to the goddess Thetis to keep them safe.

As for Zhang Heng, he stayed within the captain’s quarters and studied the nautical charts, not forgetting his promise to Laeli. Whenever he passed an inhabited island, he would put a mark on the chart. First, he would eliminate the islands that were too small. Islands that lacked essential resources and islands that were too exposed were also crossed off the list. He also made sure to exclude islands that were too close to the busy shipping lanes.

In the end, there were three islands left for Zhang Heng to pick. He planned to pay them a visit after plundering the Goddess’ Spear. As he put away the charts, the ship suddenly shook violently.

When he first entered this world, he would stumble around whenever the ship encountered a great storm. As of now, he became a lot more steady, as long as the storm wasn’t too severe. This was the result of his continuous fencing practice on the ship. To prevent himself from falling, all he needed to do was to adjust his center of gravity according to the way the ship moved in the storm.

Zhang Heng opened the door of the rocky ship and walked to the gunwale. Large raindrops, coupled with salty mists, hit his face with a fury. On the deck, Billy was talking to the watchers.

“Is everything okay?” asked Zhang Heng.

“I was about to look for you. Everything is fine so far, except for a small problem to our northeast.

“The Goddess’ Spear?”

“I’m not too sure as well. I’ve been watching them for a while now. It seems like they have stopped moving. I think we’ll find out soon enough. We should be able to catch up to her in about thirty minutes.

“Be careful. We need to avoid pulling up to its side. After knowing what the Pelican had to go through, they might use the same trick to defeat us. They would deliberately make their ship look deserted to bait us. Technically, we shouldn’t cross paths with them this early. Again, something might just happen to them in this period. After all, Goddess’ Spear isn’t the only threat around here.”

“Hold on. I will bring a team of scouts,” said Anne.

At that, Zhang Heng simply nodded his head. All he could do right now was wait. At the same time, the entire Jackdaw prepared itself to go into full combat mode. Unfortunately, due to strong headwinds, they spent 40 minutes before they could catch up with the ship in front of them. Before they pulled up to it, Zhang Heng used his binoculars to check on it.