Robinsonade

It was the year 1778. I was transporting goods from Santa Domingo to New York, in order to support the american revolutionaries in the war against the english. The ship I was sailing was a large Brig, which is a vessel with two square-rigged masts. It carried sixteen cannons, eight on each side. My crew consisted of fifty men, where thirty of them were american soldiers. Their job was to protect the cargo. When we had just passed the coast of Bahamas we saw a ship in the horizon. Even from the front, it looked like a very large ship. As we came closer to it, we could see its flag. It was english. I quickly yelled that we should turn the ship as fast as possible. But it was too late, the english ship had spotted us, and were now headed straight towards us. The ship was much faster than ours, and the wind was in their favor. I soon realised that we would get caught if we routed, so I issued an order to turn the vessel about. Now we were sailing towards them, and soon we were very close. I told the people to turn the ship, so that our left side would face their ship. We quickly turned the ship, and before the foolish english knew what we were doing, we opened fire. All eight cannonballs hit the english ship. Quickly after, they also was turning their vessels side at us, and now I could see just how big it was. It was maybe almost seventy metres long, and sixty metres tall from water to top of mast. There must have been at least fifty cannons or so, cause the volley we received was devastating. Both our masts broke, the hull was teared apart and more than twenty men got hit by a cannonball or splinters. We could not sail or manuever the ship at all, and was forced to surrender. We hoisted the white flag and watched the english ship come closer. Soon the english ship was just next to us. Me and what was left of the crew all stood on deck with our hands in the air. The english did not board our ship, to capture us as I thought they would. Instead the captain or admiral came of a gunwale and yelled, ''The sentence for bretrayal is, death!''. Then all the cannons on the english ship were fired, and the last thing I remember from that day, is a wooden board coming straight for my head.