“Dear God,” Captain Thomas Buck gasped as he wiped rain from his eyes and pushed his wet hair back from his face. He peered through the storm-ravaged sea toward the looming mass of a galleon caught upon the rocks near a reef. It was a beautiful prize, with towering decks and gilded woodwork at the stern of the ship. Lightning cut across the sky, flashing over the ship in distress.
“Cap’n?” A young Scotsman named Joseph McBride joined him at the railing of Thomas’s own ship, the Sea Serpent. At twenty-five he was young for a captain, but his short life had given him plenty of experience on taking command. Every man aboard his ship knew he would sacrifice himself to save them if it came to that.
Sea SerpentThe Serpent was the fastest sloop in the West Indies, and her crew was proud to plun
