Charles
Baker stepped down off the gangplank warily and looked for his brother Edward
in the crowd. He was back in the mother
land but did not intend on staying long.
After jumping ship in Jamaica he managed to make his way back to England
on a trading vessel. He needed to keep
his head down as he was still wanted for desertion. He knew it was wrong to desert but being
forced into the Navy at 15 and spending the past five years there he had had
enough.
Charles
found Edward and made his way through the crowd. They hugged and headed toward the Hogshead
Tavern nearby.
“Charlie,
are you mad! You’ll get more than 5
years in the Navy if they find you!”
“I know but
I couldn’t hack it any more Ed, I’ve found us passage to Australia! The ship I came here on, the Durham, is
heading there and I got us work as crew.
Come with me Ed, please!”
Edward shook
his head and laughed. Charlie had always
been a risk taker and loved an adventure.
He pondered his proposal for a minute too.
“Why the
heck not! What have I got keeping me
here?”
Two days
later the men were aboard the Durham for Australia. They arrived in March, a new beginning for
both men.[1] Charles disembarked, he was not known as a
deserter in this place so it was a rebirth almost. They wandered around the
port taking in the sounds and sights and the heat. Charles was optimistic that this was the best
decision he had ever made.
Reflection
I think
writing about new events would be the easiest topics for me. I tried to be descriptive in this text but
not let it take over, same with dialogue but I wanted to convey that there was
ending and beginning but the adventure of a new world was the main topic.
[1]
Historic Shipping, ‘Durham’, http://www.historic-shipping.co.uk/monwigram/durham%2074.html,
Accessed 10 August 2018.
