Yes

“I suppose I am,” Michaels reply sounded slightly confused, as though he needed a moment to try and recall if he had already been hired by someone else. Still, as long as he was merely eccentric and not genuinely crazy, Brenan supposed that the grey-haired gunnery officer would have to do.

“I’m Brenan Kilgore, the captain of a ship in need of a gunnery officer,” Brenan introduced himself, “my offer is that you join me and my crew in return for a share of the profits.”

“Ah,” Michaels broke out into a thin smile and slowly brought up a blank page in the book in front of him, “and how many cannons are there aboard?”

“Two.”

“Just two?”

“It’s a merchant vessel, not a ship of war. The general idea is to try and use its speed to try and outrun anything that might come after us.”

“Two guns can still be lethal, I’d imagine,” Michaels said, and Brenan imagined it very likely that he would, “how much freedom would I have in improving the ship’s defences?”

“Well, as long as you don’t start tearing bits of it, I’m fairly supportive of any ideas,” Brenan found it strange to talk to a man who managed to be extremely enthusiastic about cannons and gunpowder without coming across as bloodthirsty. It was almost as though Michaels lived in a world where the whole business of using cannons to shoot at ships and kill people was a side-effect of them and not their purpose.

“And what are their specifications?”

Brenan provided Michaels with the figures concerning the barrel length and calibre of the cannons and the weight of their projectiles.

“Yes, they should be able to reach quite far,” Michaels noted as he scribbled something into the book, “are they mounted on separate sides or on the same?”

“The same side.”

“Well, we shall have to take care of that,” Michaels decided, “now let me see, something like this, yes… Incidentally, what sort of resources can I expect to get my hands on? I’ve never had so few cannons to work with and would like to know how adamant you are about maximizing their potential.”

“Not too much to start with, but I suppose we can put some of our earnings into improving the ship’s defences.”

“Alright, well, the most pressing modifications shouldn’t cost more than a few crowns and should be easy enough to get a hold of, it’s just wood, ropes, scrap metal and such things,” Michaels was now beginning to sound interested in modifying the pair of guns that Brenan was beginning to suspect that he might actually offer to pay for them for now at least, though no such offer materialized itself as Michaels scribbled some more before looking up at Brenan again, a faint smile on his face as though he just realized that his behaviour might be perceived as rude, “Sorry captain, one more question… would there be possible to erect a rack mounted on a swivelling tripod somewhere up on deck, away from anything particularly flammable?”

“Flammable?” Brenan’s voice was flat.

“Sails and such like,” there was no indication that Michaels was attempting to make a joke, unless he was the greatest deadpan comedian ever to visit the islands.

“We might find a spot,” Brenan finally managed to get out, not wanting to know too much about what Michaels had planned, at least not yet.

“Good, good,” Michaels nodded again and scribbled some more, “Now on to a different matter; those long guns won’t do you too much good if whosever’s after us gets too close, so perhaps something like this might come in handy on those occasions…”

Brenan glanced down at the book that Michaels had pushed towards him, and found himself looking at a drawing of an unusually short and stubby cannon, less than half as long but more than twice as thick as the long, smooth twelve pounders already aboard the schooner.

“You’re supposed to load it up with things like nails and other small pieces of metal, I think,” Michaels explained as Brenan continued to stare down at the drawing.

“You think?” Brenan finally looked back up.

“Yes, well,” Michaels almost appeared embarrassed, “I haven’t built it yet, you see.”

“Michaels,” Brenan cut the older man off, “you’re hired,”

“Yes captain!”