Black Prince Sam sent out a dozen sailors who were the best at swimming to dive into the area where the Spanish treasure ship had entered. Soon enough, they found out where the gold was.
However, they soon encountered another problem.
How were they supposed to fish the gold out from the bottom of the sea?
The boxes of gold had fallen half a nautical mile away from the shoreline. The water was about 20 meters deep, which was about the limit of an ordinary human being. Other than the limited amount of oxygen, a human would have to endure an additional atmosphere of pressure every ten meters. Any deeper and the water pressure would cause symptoms of nitrogen anesthesia, oxygen poisoning, and so on.
Zhang Heng vaguely remembered that without the aid of any equipment, the deepest a human could dive was 40 meters. He had no idea how they managed to do it.
The sailors that Black Prince Sam sent out had grown up by the sea. Most of them were the children of fishermen, and they were excellent swimmers. However, they only dived as far as they could see the boxes. Only one of them managed to reach the bottom of the sea and brought up a stray gold bar.
"It looks like we'll have to stay on this island for a while." Black Prince Sam smiled bitterly.
But no matter what, this joint hunt could be considered a success.
Even if the five thousand pounds of gold were divided among six ships, everyone would still get a large sum of money. Other than that, the ship also carried a batch of tobacco. However, it was too much to salvage after it was submerged in the water.
Even Brook, who suffered the heaviest losses, was in a good mood. After deducting the cost of repairing the ship and compensating the injured, he was still left with an extra half of the loot.
Of course, Zhang Heng and his Jackdaw were even more enviable. He and Brook acted as bait, but in the end, the three Spanish ships chose to attack the Swordfish, which had a weaker defense system.
Other than the first two rounds of bombardment, the Jackdaw did not suffer any other attacks. When the pirates surrounded the Jackdaw, Zhang Heng chose a good point of entry. He waited until all four pirate ships in the bay launched their attacks before joining the fray. By then, the three Spanish ships could no longer care about him.
When he was acting as bait, Zhang Heng's timing was outstanding. Not only did he manage to confuse the enemy, but he also bought the Swordfish an opportunity to retreat. If it weren't for him, Brook and his crew would have been food for the fishes by now.
That was why the captain of the Swordfish was very grateful to Zhang Heng. When he reached the shore, he personally came to thank Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng had never interacted with Brook before, but he was no stranger to his name. Other than the fact that Brook was famous in Nassau, Brook's name was also on Brook's recommendation letter.
To Zhang Heng's surprise, after interacting with Brook, he realized that the latter was not as cold as he appeared to be. In fact, he was quite a talkative person. Previously, when they were discussing the battle plan, Brook was a man of few words, and he spoke less than ten sentences in total. Zhang Heng thought that was just how he was like, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.
"Sorry, I'm not targeting anyone else. I just have a problem with Gunpowder Jarvis," Brook said.
Gunpowder Jarvis was the captain of the other pirate ship, the Warrior. He was also one of the names on the recommendation letter.
Zhang Heng remembered that Black Prince Sam mentioned that he used this incident to resolve the conflict between two friends. It seemed like he was referring to Brook and Jarvis. Zhang Heng didn't expect Black Prince Sam to call them on this mission. "Jarvis and I have been friends for more than ten years.
"Jarvis and I have been friends for more than ten years. My friendship with him is even longer than Sam's. About two months ago, I received a very valuable clue. There was a slave ship departing from Africa, intending to go to Boston. The quality of the goods was very good, and they were all young men between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. They were all healthy and had neat teeth. I brought some men with me and rushed to the route of the ship ahead of time. Just as we were about to succeed, a group of unknown people suddenly appeared. I sent people to negotiate with them, but they didn't care about the rules at all. They killed the people I sent, and then without saying anything, they attacked me. Their ship wasn't as fast as mine, and I managed to escape in the end.
"Now that I think about it, I have a feeling that I was the target of that group of people. So, it wasn't a coincidence. It was a personal grudge." Brook paused for a moment. "But I only told Jarvis about it before I set sail. When I came back, I went to his place and confronted him. He denied it, and he was very angry. He said that I shouldn't have doubted him. At that time, I thought I had wronged him. But when I sent my men to investigate, I found out that he secretly left Nassau the night before I set sail. However, he didn't take his own ship."
"So, you two had a conflict because of this?"
Brook nodded. "I just don't understand why he would do this to me given our previous relationship. Forget it … I'm too lazy to think about it. I promised Sam that I wouldn't do anything to him, but that's all. From now on, we have nothing to do with each other."
Brook and Zhang Heng chatted for a while longer. Suddenly, Eric, the helmsman of the Quidah, walked over.
"Ah, you guys are here. We're in luck. Bauer's men found some wild goats and rabbits on the island. We'll be able to eat them tonight. Coincidentally, there's still a lot of rum on the ship. Sam suggested that we have a bonfire party to celebrate the success of this operation. We're the first group of pirates to successfully rob a Spanish treasure ship."
"Celebrate? Now? Isn't the gold still at the bottom of the sea?" Zhang Heng asked.
"Yeah. But they won't run away anyway. Don't worry, we'll find a way to fish them up." Eric patted Zhang Heng on the shoulder. "Do you have anything edible on your ship? You can donate it to us."
"I can provide 30 barrels of rum and a batch of fresh lemons."
"Great! I'll get some men to fish. Your lemons are perfect for that," Brook said.
On the other side, Brook shrugged. "As you can see, there's nothing on my ship now."
"It's okay. Captain Sam is already solving the problem. Maybe you can thank Jarvis. I heard that he's willing to share a third of his supplies with you."
Brook raised an eyebrow. "Did he do it voluntarily, or did Captain Sam tell him to do it?"
"What's the difference between the two?" The helmsman blinked. "Be magnanimous, Brook. That incident happened a long time ago. Do you still want to dwell on it? Once we get the gold from the bottom of the sea, you'll be able to recoup all your losses. "
Brook snorted coldly but did not say anything else.
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