TREAD CAREFULLY ON THE SEA
FIRST BOOK BY DAVID K. BRYANT
SOLSTICE PUBLISHING
Step up the gangplank
to an adventure tale set in the 18th Century, when the world made its money
from conquest and slavery, pirates were the muggers of the sea lanes and life
was fragile – with violence and disease never far away.
Tread Carefully on the Sea is the first novel by
retired journalist David K. Bryant. Packed with historical atmosphere, it will
take you on a voyage from Jamaica to the “New World” of the American colonies.
The action comes as rapidly as the horrors in a ghost train, starting with the
kidnapping of an aristocratic young woman on the
night of her 21st birthday party by Captain Flint’s crew.
Amidst
conspiracy, murder, cannonades, bare-knuckle boxing, disease and a devastating
storm, there is the chance for all the main characters to reveal the better or
worse sides of their natures. This is a swashbuckle, yes, but it’s also a story
about the strengths and weaknesses of believable human beings.
“I’ve written an
escapist yarn in the tradition of high adventure but in much more user-friendly
language than the old classics,” says David K. Bryant. “It’s exciting, involving, a bit tear-jerking
and is pure adventure and romance.”
The main characters:
Captain Flint is a lonely man. His education, intelligence
and wit leave him isolated amongst the pirate crew who sail with him. He feels
more affinity with the hostages who are brought aboard his ship but he becomes
trapped by the need to escape the consequences of the kidnap and the challenge
to his leadership from one of his officers. Flint kills and schemes his way out
of several dangers but there are two threats from which he cannot escape. The
first is the failing health that he refuses to accept. The second is the scale
of his own success as a criminal. He will never be left in peace to enjoy the
proceeds of his piracy. In this story we learn what finally happens to him.
Captain Michael Townsend is the model of a
disciplined and dutiful Navy officer. He is also a man haunted by something in
his past; something that could ruin his future. The decisions forced upon
Townsend by the kidnapping help him to resolve his inner conflicts but
jeopardize the survival of those he wishes to protect. Townsend’s instincts are
to put duty first but will duty deny him happiness?
Jessica Trelawny is the spirited niece of the Governor of
Jamaica. She hates the conformity of 18th century society. Soon after she is
snatched away from her home she puts her rebellious nature to work against the
pirates. Captain Flint learns to admire her — and to regret that she ever came
aboard his ship.
Jessica’s maid Libby becomes a prisoner simply because
she is with her mistress at the time of the kidnap. She plays a major role in
the fight-back against the pirates. Does she bring into use special talents
inherited from her African origin — or is she simply a very clever woman?
Patrick O’Hara began life in the squalor of the Irish famine
and by a fluke became an officer in the Royal Navy. He is thrust into a vicious
bare-knuckle fight aboard the pirate ship. Whether or not O’Hara wins, the
legacy of the fight is a power struggle threatening the survival of Captain
Flint himself.
The Walrus is the huge black galleon stolen by Flint
from a Spanish captain. It has a pivotal role in the narrative and a
heart-rending demise when Captain Flint’s voyage of crime comes to an end.
DAVID K. BRYANT –
BIOGRAPHY
I started writing fiction after retiring from journalism
and public relations. I suppose the books waited their turn during all the
years I wrote articles, features, speeches and promotional material for other
people. My career included running a district office for a
daily newspaper, helping to introduce professional PR into the British
police service and promoting a major parliamentary Bill for Margaret Thatcher’s
government.
I live in Somerset, one of the nicest counties in England, and
am blessed with a wonderful family. My wife Stephanie and I have been married
for forty years. We are proud of our two children Matthew and Melanie, grandson
Henry, son-in-law Jamie and daughter-in-law Fleur.
Tread
Carefully on the Sea – the background
I was
seven years old or thereabouts and I walked round the garden reading Treasure Island. When I got to
the bit about the musket and cutlass battle I was so engrossed I walked into a tree.
I was proud of my bleeding nose – I imagined I got it in a fight with a pirate.
What
intrigued me most about that classic book by Robert Louis Stevenson were all
the references to Captain Flint, a pirate king who was brutal, intimidating and
quite likely an alcoholic – yet obviously very clever.
Without
Flint there would have been no Treasure
Island for he was the man who
had buried the Treasure on the Island.
Yet in that book we hear about Flint only in reminiscences from some of the
protagonists because Flint is dead by the time the story begins.
Stevenson’s
narrative tells us Flint took six men ashore with him to stash the loot. But,
having apparently murdered the others, only Flint came back to the ship, giving
him the security of being the only man who knew where the cache was.
There had
to be a story around that. For me, Flint deserved a biography of his own.
What’s more, it should answer all those other questions posed by Treasure Island. If, as
Stevenson tells us, Long John Silver had lost his leg in the same broadside as
Old Pew lost his ‘deadlights’, what were the circumstances of that broadside?
And how come that Billy Bones, the first mate, came into possession of Flint’s
map where X marked the spot of the buried loot?
It’s taken me a long time but now I have supplied my own
answers. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you identify with the experiences of
the other characters I’ve created when you read Tread Carefully on the Sea.
EXTRACTS
**
As the shirt was
removed, her eyes came level with a huge tattoo of an eagle on his chest.
Ridiculously, that gave her renewed terror, as though the tattoo was worse than
the man. There was certainly menace from the eagle. It stared at her, its
talons outstretched and its wings spread wide. It looked prepared to pounce
right out of his chest and claw at her face.
**
The cry that would
have brought forth a dozen soldiers was about to leave the governor’s tongue – but
remained unleashed as the pirate warned: “I wouldn’t do that, Governor, for the
sake of your niece’s health.”
**
“Did you get the name
of the ship?” demanded the governor.
“It was
the Walrus, Sir,” the messenger replied.
“Captain Flint,” said
Trelawny, and for the moment that was all he did say.
**
One of the stories
that had evoked within the Royal Navy a sneaking admiration for the pirate
chieftain was that he had captured a big Spanish galleon and made it his own.
Now Townsend could see in front of him the confirmation of that audacity. The
big ship sat on the ocean like she owned it.
**
“Britain came to this
part of the world to find riches. It was very successful in doing so but it had
a major problem. It was shipping around so many slaves and so much merchandise
that it didn’t have sufficient military resources to protect its new-found wealth.
So what did it do about the policing of its trade routes and the protection of
places like Jamaica? It found it convenient to encourage the people you would
call pirates…You had better hope that the King never turns against the Royal
Navy in the same way that he turned against the privateers.
**
Reeling and with blood
dripping down his face, O’Hara got up on one knee, then the other. By the time
he was on his feet, Hugh was charging forward like a stag in the rutting
season. Another head butt was imminent.
**
Flint bent his knees
and placed his hands on them so that his face came level with Townsend’s.
“That’s it, then” barked the pirate captain. “You don’t agree to my proposal. I
don’t agree to yours. Our fates are intertwined.”
**
She didn’t close her eyes
and her brain pitifully tried to distract her from reality by registering that
the gunman was left-handed. His finger was going back with the trigger.
Spontaneously, she said a few words of her native Ashanti. The phrase had been
taught to her by Queen Nanny: “Do not fear death any more than you fear life.”
If Libby was going to die, she wanted those to be the last words she said.
Tread Carefully on the
Sea by David K. Bryant
Solstice Publishing
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