I was just about home free with the tasty wench the lads had brought on board for me from Kingston when the attack started. After some mouth play, she hadn't objected in the least when I'd unlaced her bodice and started giving her ripe melons the attention they deserved. We were entwined together in the window seat of my vessel's fantail, and, forward lass t...
The harbor at Algiers seemed almost to disappear altogether as the pirate ships moved into the deep-water port right up to the dock and then, when there was no more room at the docks, right up against the ship between them and the dock—and so on until the whole surface of the space between the two headlands encasing the harbor was just one continuous deck wi...
It was difficult to tell that they were even engaging in clouds and rain. The rice merchant was perhaps Xiu's most refined client. He was a connoisseur of the tea ceremony, and anyone passing by the chamber would have thought that this was all the merchant Fu Yang and the young jinan—male prostitute—were doing: drinking tea and having an intimate moment. An...
Uncle Charles proved to be as dense about identifying men who wanted men in choosing a vessel captain to entrust with his recalcitrant nephew, not to mention one of his precious merchant ships, as he had been about Billy's behavior—and, more pointedly about the Reverend Andrew Apsley he fawned over. Billy's uncle never did seem to latch on to what the good c...
I don't know how it started. I don't know when it started. I only know when I realized that I wasn't like all the other boys. This is the true story of my first sexual encounter. Before the budget cuts, my high school used to stage an elaborate outdoor theatrical production each spring. A professional set designer would be hired and long nights and weekends...
Chapter I: Over A Barrel The fight was fast and desperate; in the momentary illumination a vicious leering face shone before Huw, and his hungry axe licked out, splitting it to the chin spraying gore and brains over the doughty Celt. In the numbing blackness that followed the flash, an unseen stroke swept Huw's helmet from his head and he struck back blindl...
When Tony Samuels asked me to go on a boating holiday with him, I was delighted; we had been friends, and sometimes lovers, for a long time. We drove from London to Norwich, took over our motor cruiser, and sailed down the River Yare towards Breydon Water. That evening we moored up at Reedham where we intended to spend the night, and went to one of the river...
The merchant in Tyrins said that I would need some protection if I planned on taking my goods to the island of Cythera. There had been reports of pirates around the south and western islands, sea folk showing off their power at sea. Tantalos was an old friend, and though I was reluctant to incur any more costs for my journey I knew he was reliable and that h...
The passage of the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean two days following the visit of the second of Billy's night lovers was the occasion of much celebration on board. In keeping with naval tradition, Captain Bainbridge declared a half work day, double rum rations, and a festive meal for officers and sailors alike. It was also the opportunity to ha...
Billy had not been pirated again. Instead a somewhat confused American naval man from the USS Philadelphia rowed him directly back to his own ship, where he was handed a pair of trousers, rowed back to the Elizabeth, and kept under guard and separated from anyone else while the naval officers of the Philadelphia, under the command of William Bainbridge, work...