It had been a long couple of months but finally the Ship Sebastion Cliffton had commissioned was built, The Half Moon, A large trading vessel complete with living quarters and a Captain's bunk. As he inspected the ship he though about how he'd gotten here.

One little secret lead to him becoming one of the more successful traders in the New World, discounting the last month when he turned back from the pirate ridden seas. He'd gotten the Fulbright from Lord Pennington to keep quiet and never speak his darkest secret to anyone. Sebastion agreed but quickly renamed the Fulbright to Saucy Jack in honor of the secret, nobody would be able to figure it out but he thought it was funny. Since then the name seemed to catch on others using the name Saucy in weird ways that probably didn't mean anything. It irked him but he couldn't force anyone to not name their ship after his, besides it probably made Pennington more mad, though part of the deal was Pennington couldn't come after him there was nothing about anyone else.

As he continued making his rounds before setting sail he remembered he had to assign a man to captain the Saucy Jack, he picked Randall Kelsworth, a man he'd met as a beggar on the street on Port Raleigh. Randall was pan handling when Sebastion gave him the offer to join his crew, he quickly proved invaluable his knowledge of the streets almost ensured the best deals since he'd know what was in short supply at the port before any haggling was done. Sebastion owed a lot of his success to this man, and he made sure to show his appreciation. The time had come to move to a new ship, and Kelsworth had been with the crew since near the beginning it seemed only right that he be put in charge of the secondary ship.

cropped by Paul Vogel, on Flickr

The Half Moon was only the beginning Sebastion had plans to expand his holdings, Maybe buy a tavern in Port Raleigh which had become his base of operations, The town had been growing but the newer settlements farther East would require him to leave for extended periods, He'd need his own protection as the pirate menace got more severe and the Crown sponsored patrols spread thin. While he supported hunting down the pirates he felt his country gained the least from it, Their convoys were always the best protected and usually even captured more ships than they lost, If the crown felt inclined why not give traders that lost their vessel one of the captured ones to try to get if back instead of performing actions that help our enemies more than us. It was all very political and he didn't really care as long as his men were paid, and he could eat.

DSC_2993 by Paul Vogel, on Flickr

DSC_2988 by Paul Vogel, on Flickr

The Cabin

Nice ship, I really like the cabin