گنجینه ریش سیاه

Chapter two

Blackbeard’s Treasure

The sun was shining brightly on the blue water of the Atlantic Ocean. A beautiful big ship with large, white sails and the English flag was sailing towards the Bermuda Triangle.

The ship’s name was the Queen Anne, and it was going to the Bermuda Triangle to trade gold. The captain of the ship was in his cabin, writing in his log-book.

Sunday 10th of December 1712

It is the seventeenth day of our voyage and still no island in sight. The men are beginning to complain, and I am afraid they are going to create problems.

A knock at the door stopped the captain from writing.

“Enter.”

“Captain, a strange ship is sailing towards us. It has no flag so we don’t know where it comes from. They need you on the bridge.”

“I’ll be up in a moment.”

The crewman closed the door and the captain wrote one more sentence in the log-book.

Our luck may have just changed.

The strange ship was half a mile from the Queen Anne. It looked old and abandoned. The captain brought his telescope up to his eye.

“Sail close to it and we’ll see if anyone is on board.”

One of the crewmen flashed a light three times quickly, waited one second, then flashed it two more times. There was no answer.

“Open the cannons and sail next to it.”

The strange ship moved slowly through the water; there seemed to be no one on board. The sails had holes in them, and there was broken wood all over its deck. The captain called over to it.

“I am Captain Scott, serving Her Majesty the Queen. If anyone is aboard, state your name and who you serve.”

There was no answer.

“Lower the boats! We’re going aboard!”

Captain Scott and twelve of his men rowed two small boats from the Queen Anne to the empty ship. A rope ladder was hanging down from the ship’s side. The captain and his men used it to climb on board.

There was no one on board. The captain and his men looked around the ship, but they found nothing. There was no one at the wheel, but the ship somehow continued sailing.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, Captain.”

“Neither have I, and I don’t like it. Let’s follow it and see where it goes.”

They were ready to leave, when one of the men saw a chest, at the side of the ship, under some old fishing nets. They took off the nets and broke the old, black lock.

Inside, they saw beautiful shining diamonds, pearls and gold. The men were stunned into silence. The captain looked at one of the gold coins. It had the picture of King Edward VI on it.

“This coin is over one hundred years old. It is not even in use anymore.”

“What should we do with it, Captain?”

“I don’t see why we should leave it here when there is no one on board. Close it and we’ll take it with us.”

When all the men were looking at the treasure, something like a black shadow came to the top of the stairs going down to the cabins below. It stayed back in the darkness of the stairs until the men moved the chest to their boats.

No one could see it, but the shadow was really a ghost that looked like a pirate. He wore a long blue coat and had a shining silver sword at his side.

He had a red scarf around his head and a long thick black beard. He followed the men to their boat and sat on top of the chest.

No one could see him, but it was Blackbeard, and the treasure was his to watch.