"See that whiteness over the horizon?" asked Captain Langschwert "We're coming upon the White Cape."

He carefully collapsed his expensive spyglass.

"Begging your pardon, Captain," said Chauncy, the first mate "But I think you'll find those are clouds."

"Nonsense," said Captain Langschwert "That's the whiteness of the White Cape. Steady on, Mr. Chauncy. We maintain course and we'll be sipping mint flavored cocktails in Zerzura by morning. What do they call those mint cocktails Mr. Chauncy?"

"I'm not certain the ones you mean, Captain," said Chauncy "I would still reccomend you take another look at those clouds."

"My spyglass is collapsed, Mr. Chauncy," said the Captain "If I took a second look I would appear weak in front of my men. Those motherless dogs don't trust me yet, Mr. Chauncy, they act I don't know what I'm doing."

The crew did, in fact, think that Captain Langschwert didn't know what he was doing. This was owing to the fact that he didn't. Peyton Langschwert had never so much as set foot in a large creek prior to his mother purchasing The Silver Tongued Maid and appointing him captain. This information didn't become known until long after the three year voyage was underway and it had a deleterious effect on morale.

Gradually, the grumblings became so loud that they even penetrated Langschwert's bubble of obliviousness, and he was keen to prove himself. This rendered him completely immune to good advice.

Every sign began to point to The Silver Tongued Maid having entered shallow waters, but Captain Langshwert stalwartly ignored them all and thereby maintained his sense of dignity in front of his men.

Chauncy finally cracked when the navigator reported that depth soundings indicated that the water was less than 20 fathoms deep.

"Captain," he said "The navigator reports that we've entered dangerously shallow waters. The, uh, men are clearly in over there heads here, it's time you take control and, uh, lead us out of these shallows."

"You know something, Mr. Chauncy?" said the Captain "You're right. This is my golden opportunity."

Captain Langschwert started yelling confusing orders, but it was too late and the Silver Tongued Maid ran aground.

* * *

The Silver Tongued Maid was still 50 leagues or so from the shore, half sunk at the bottom of the relatively shallow waters.

"We could jettison some of the cargo," suggested Chauncy, while all around him men bailed water "If we lighten our load we might be able to refloat the ship."

"Suggest that again, Mr. Chauncy, " said the Captain "And I'll shoot you myself for mutiny."

"The ship will start breaking apart before long, Captain," Chauncy explained "When that happens we lose the cargo no matter what we do. We don't even have enough life boats for the entire crew. If we can't refloat the Maid we're all dead men."

"We must begin construction of a raft," said the Captain.

"That might actually work," said Chauncy "We could load the remaining men on it and tug it to the shore with the ship's boats."

"The raft isn't for those useless bilge rats, who wrecked my lovely ship, it's for the cargo," said the Captain "Mark my words, Mr. Chauncy, I swear to all the pagan gods of the sea that I will no lose a single barrel of this ship's cargo, if I have to sacrifice every sailor under my command to do it!"

After some shouting the men went to work on the raft. They tore down masts, cut rigging, used anything that could float or be tied. The raft was a vile thing, hastily lashed together from the dismembered corpse of The Silver Tongued Maid. The beautiful ship had to die to birth to this rough beast, half-submerged in water..

The ship's cargo, mostly barrels of tea-leaves from Cathay, were loaded onto the raft first. Then the chests containing the personal effects of Captain Langschwert, then the men who hadn't been lucky enough to get on the boats.

On one of the boats, of which there were four, was Captain Langschwert, of course. The rest of the command crew were spread among the others except Chauncy, who had been given the honor of commanding the raft. The strongest rowers rounded out the crews of the boats. They would need to be; towing the raft would be no small task.

Once the raft was loaded and the men in place, Captain Langschwert gave the signal and all the ropes connecting the boats were cut. The ship's four boats began to row towards land as fast as they could.

It was a tough decision, Captain Langschwert decided, but a fair one. He couldn't risk them swarming the boats and potentially endangering his escape.

"Protect the tea with your lives!" he yelled back at them, as his boat slowly disappeared.

* * *

If one didn't count tea leaves or fancy clothes, there were no provisions on the raft, not even fresh water. What the raft lacked in fresh water, however, it made up for in salt water. It was submerged so deep that the water reached the men's waists in places. The center of the raft was the closest to the surface, making it the most valuable real estate.

One of the common sailors, Olifer, had a knife and so he was able to hold a place at the center easily. With so many other unarmed targets around him Olifer was left alone. Lawkin the ship's carpenter/surgeon/barber and Huggins the chef teamed up and took the place next to Olifer but still out of range of his knife arm, pushing Chauncy out of the way.

"What do you think you're doing?" Chauncy barked "Captain Langschwert left me in charge!"

"This a road you want to go down?" asked Olifer "Because if we have to mutiny that will involve cutting your throat."

"I respectfully withdraw my claim," said Chauncy.

Chauncy couldn't get back his old spot, by working together Lawkin and Huggins had become the dominant power bloc on the raft, but he nudged the cabin boy Thim back a few paces and took a slightly less submerged position beside the two.

A general melee broke out among the "crew" of the raft as everyone jostled for position. The strongest members were able to secure positions in the relative safety of the center of the raft, while the weakest had to cling to the edges.

The six strongest, who stood at the center of the raft, were Olifer, Lawkin, Huggins, and Chauncy, plus Gavin the blacksmith and a common sailor called Richard Parker. The group settled in somewhat, and began eating tea leaves and staring daggers at each other.

The tea leaves only served to make everyone thirstier, and there was no fresh water to be found. As the heat of the first day dragged on many took to gargling sea water.

Night fell, and the six men in the center of the raft began to tire.

"They'll come for us when we sleep," Huggins whispered "They'll throw us overboard to take our places. They're jealous. They're just waiting for us to let our guards down for even a moment."

"Don't you think I know that?" hissed Lawkin.

"We have to throw them off first, while we still have our strength," Huggins continued "It's self-defense. They've already made up their minds to kill us."

"It's the only way," agreed Olifer.

"Hold on a moment," whispered Chauncy "What you're talking about is murder."

"Whose side are you on, Chauncy?" asked Lawkin.

"It's only murder if they can't swim to shore, that's on them," said Huggins "They started this with their dark thoughts in the first place. They sealed their own fates. You can either help us take out the people plotting to kill you, or we can throw you overboard with the rest of them."

And that's how Chauncy joined the conspiracy to dump the others overboard.

The conspirators enjoyed the element of surprise, as well as superior strength and coordination. It was no trouble to throw the weaker members off the raft. A few tried to climb back on, but it was easy enough to kick them back into the water. All in all they were pleased with their success.

* * *

On the third day Gavin managed to catch a sea turtle, but it fell overboard while the group was fighting over it. This was also the day they started drinking their own urine.

It was on the fourth day that the subject of cannibalism arose.

"I know what everyone is thinking," said Lawkin "We have no fresh water. We're all dying of thirst. It's time we kill someone and drink their blood."

"It's a sound plan," agreed Huggins "Whose blood do we drink?"

"We should have saved one of the weak people," said Richard Parker "To eat."

"Well we didn't!" Lawkin snapped "We were reckless fools and now somebody has to die for that oversight!"

"Gavin, Olifer," said Chauncy "If the three of us team up then Lawkin and Huggins can't kill us."

"Oh, so they get to eat me?" yelled Richard Parker, before turning to Lawkin "I'm joining you then. I say we eat Chauncy's group!"

"Not if we eat you first!" yelled Olifer, brandishing his knife.

Richard Parker rushed Olifer, but only succeeded in impaling himself on the end of the knife. He staggered backwards and Olifer continued to wave the weapon around, accidentally cutting himself twice. Richard Parker backed into Gavin and the two fell overboard.

Chauncy attempted to grab the knife from Olifer, but Huggins hugged him from behind. Olifer waved his knife as Chauncy but ended up cutting Huggins' face in three places. He screamed and released Chauncy. Chaunchy grabbed for Olifer's knife again but Lawkin jumped into the fray and the three tumbled off the raft, each getting stabbed several times in the process.

This left Huggins, alone on the raft, bleeding profusely from his face. He would be lucky if they could save one of his eyes enough for him to see, he thought to himself.

That's when the sharks arrived.

* * *

On the sixth day the raft was found by the Carpathian Merchantman Primo Atractivo. There was nothing aboard save for a few blood-soaked barrels of tea leaves and some chests containing the personal effects of Captain Peyton Langschwert. These were eventually returned to their owner.