Captain Levasseur was pleased with his vessel rolling out of drydock. His crew would be eager to begin plundering the Main at once, and the “Arabella” would be perfect.
She was a three-masted barquentine, fitted with a square foremast and mizzen rigged fore-and-aft. A beautiful ship, and with proper rigging and supply she’d be much faster than the slow moving Spanish vessels. And with her crew of ninety and eight-pound guns, she would be more than a match for any lightly armed merchantman.
Except— It would be difficult to scourge the seas from inside this bottle.
Inspired by this week’s Sunday Photo Fiction image:
(actually, I believe that image is a straight-up Barque because the mid-mast is rigged Square, but I’m hardly a nautical expert)… let me ask Ken.
ParkInkSpot 
You sound like a nautical expert to me! But, then how would I know because I am not. 😀 I loved the punch line. I loved it all whether I understood it or not.
Captain Lavoisier? Perhaps it’a a Listerine bottle?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Levasseur (the actual guy). But I was stealing Levasseur from Basil Rathbone (in Captain Blood). Shhhhhh.
Wonderful. Great stuff.
Thanks, glad you liked it
Excellent story, and I read the link you put in the reply to Joy. I also looked up Barque in images, and it definitely looks like one.
Thanks for taking part, and that twist was excellent.,
Just had to write something that’d let me say that.
And thanks!
You’re welcome 😀 Gave me an idea for my story as well
Haha! That’s brilliant. I laughed out loud. Nice twist in the end. 🙂
Heh, thanks.
Great twist at the end, Dave. I agree; you know a heck of a lot more about ships than I do. I looked it up on the web. I loved the humor at the end. Well done. 🙂 — Suzanne
I looked it up on the web,,,whoa, me too!