I handed the captain's body over to Barry who was standing back on our original ship. I was extremely sad, not just because this man that I had respected was dead, but also because the only two people that knew how to get to Sharkfin Island were dead.

"I'm going to finish looting this vessel. Everyone back to the main ship," I said. There were a few more looks between some of the men, but they obeyed. I would do this really quickly so they didn't have too much time to get any ideas.

I looted every pirate body and mostly just ended up with a few more common cutlasses, some random junk, and a surprising number of standard six-sided dice. I quickly looted below decks and got more shipwright tools, some more cannonballs, and dozens of barrels full of every type of good from gunpowder to water.

I ran back over to my ship but thought of the rats that may be below deck and called them up. About a dozen large rats followed me at my command over to what I guess was now my ship. I heard some complaints as the rats came aboard.

"More rats on board. Thar goes our supply of grub," one man said.

"No actually," I said to the sailor who was most outspoken. "Not with someone with my capabilities as captain." I poked my head through an open hatch that led to the decks below.

"All rats on this ship, come up to the main deck." Every rat on board was standing in front of me in a matter of moments. "Leave all of the food stores on this ship alone and I will make sure you have a steady supply of food and water. Also, until further notice, please do what you can to help these men and treat them well." I didn't know exactly what that would mean to a rat, but I figured it wouldn't hurt for the sailors to hear it. "Dismissed." I tossed the rats a few pieces of hardtack and they ate them up.

The sailors were speechless so I gave them a decision.

"Anyone who doesn't want to be part of my crew to free these seas of tyranny and create a better world is free to leave the ship when we get to the next port. All will have plenty of food, clean water, and fruit," I said. You got to keep that scurvy at bay somehow. I thought about it and wasn't sure with magic if I even could get scurvy.

"We be well-nigh out o' fruit. Where are ye goin' t' get us more fruit? Magic?" One brave detractor shouted.

I pulled out a barrel of fruit, a barrel of clean water, and a barrel of food. Right in front of their eyes as if by magic. The same man who had questioned me a moment earlier was the first to break the silence.

"Wha' are yer orders, sir, uh Cap'n?" His calling me captain threw me off a bit and I had to come back to reality. Captain Theodore. I liked it more than I thought I would. I quickly popped the barrels back into my dimensional space to join the multiple dozens I already had.

"First, we need to head to the closest port to let anyone off of the ship that doesn't want to be here. Just know that if you choose to become a bandit or harm any other humans once you step off of my ship, I will find you and I will make you regret it. Others need to know that mutineers will be eaten by rats. So if you decide to stay you are on board to follow orders and be on my team against anyone on Sharkfin Island that opposes us. After that, I'd like to try and recruit more vessels to join us against the pirate leaders. This means that I may need replacement captains for those vessels so if that is something you aspire to and you have a desire to help people while sailing the sea, I'll have a job for you."

I waited for a moment to see if there would be any questions and a thought hit me like a brick.

"Hubert!" I ran back to the hatch and stuck my head down and called for the skull to come up on deck. The skull riding on a turtle came to the main deck. "Now that I know it's safe you can be up here whenever you want."

"What be that?" Asked a surprised sailor that hadn't seen Hubert yet.

"The talking skull is called Hubert and the turtle he is riding on is called Shelldon. They are friends of mine and I've promised Hubert to lay him to rest at sea so he is only aboard until he tells us to toss him overboard." I called the penguin over, which is when I realized that I had never given him a name. I always just called him Penguin. "I brought this penguin so that he could return home up North, but I just call him Penguin."

"Cap'n?" A man spoke up from the crowd.

"Yes, sailor," I said.

"The crew has already given 'im a name. We've been callin' 'im Chum. That be 'cause he eats the fish chunks we use fer fishin' 'n 'cause he be our heartie," said the sailor.

"You okay being called Chum?" I asked the flightless bird. He tapped in the affirmative. "He said yes."

For whatever reason, everyone was really happy about his name becoming official and they cheered.

"Helmsman set a course for the nearest port. The rest of you let us give Captain Porter the respect he deserves. Give him a burial at sea with honors. Also, Barry is my second in command so listen to him just as you would myself," I said. Barry was right next to me and leaned over saying said the actual title of the second in command. "Barry here is the new quartermaster."

We all got to work heading towards the port and gave Captain Porter a nice service. After about a day of travel, I decided to try something that I had been thinking about the whole time but hadn't been able to try without messing up my cover. I had Barry help me set it up and he had the bright idea to try it from the crow's nest so it had a better chance of working. I told the men down below to keep an eye out so that no one would get hurt.

Barry had used multiple specialized knots to assemble my idea and assured me it would hold under a lot of stress. I threw the bundle into the ocean and all that was left was to wait. After about thirty minutes I was starting to get really disappointed. Then looking behind the ship I saw the sea was moving. I looked like the scenes in the old Godzilla movies where the monster is surfacing. The water began to rise in a small area and then the point moved towards us quickly with a wake forming after it.

I tapped Barry and made sure he saw what I was seeing. We watched in fear and excitement. I held out my hand towards the coming force. A few moments later, the throwing ax that would always return to me flew into my hand. Attached to it was a rope pulling a net full of fish. The net released its catch as I popped the fishing net into my inventory along with the ax and rope.

Fish rained down on the deck of the ship. Confusion and laughter mingled on deck. I got down as quick as I could and started bringing every fish I could into my inventory before they could flop over the side. Even with Chum eating his fill, I now had hundreds of fish in my inventory. The men were amazed at the whole spectacle.

"If anyone needs fish I have quite a few and will give them freely," I said.

"Do it again, cap'n," a sailor said with a huge smile on his face. There was a cry in agreement and I did it again. I would not be running out of fish anytime soon.

We traveled for almost a full day until we saw land. We pulled into port and I reminded everyone of the deal.

"You are free to leave this ship if you'd like, just know that my desire to defeat the pirate lords and their king is to free this ocean from their hold and return this sea to the fishermen and sailors that just love the open ocean. I will take care of your basic needs and show you respect if you come with me. I'm not promising that everyone will survive the battle, but the fight is for a good cause including your own. Be back aboard by morning if you want to stick with me." I finished my speech and some of the sailors disembarked. I hoped they would come back but I wouldn't make them. They had to want to be here.

The evening passed and I went to sleep feeling pretty good about what the next day would bring. All of the excitement was really good at keeping my mind off of some of the conflict that was going on in my subconscious. Morning came and we set out with a few dozen able-bodied men on board. I didn't know everyone yet, but it didn't seem like we had lost all that many.

I explained my goals to the men as we left because I wanted us to all be on the same page.

"Ultimately, our goal is to overthrow the pirate government and free all sailors from the despotism that is currently plaguing the North Sea. Before we can do that, we need a bigger force to ensure success this means that we need to recruit some more ships and crews to our cause. We also need to pinpoint the location of Sharkfin Island. I have maps that show many islands in this sea so we will just start checking them out and take over ships as we meet them. I'd also like to get to know each of you and learn who might be a good fit to take over as captain if any of the other captains are not on board with our plans."

I was able to ask Hubert about the islands and he said he had no idea which one was Sharkfin Island so we would have to just check all of them until we found it. I had a paper map in my inventory that had some of the islands shown on it so I showed the helmsman and we set a course for a small island that was both closest to our current position and shaped like a rubber duckie. I wanted to visit it for both reasons.

Barry came up to me and let me know that he had been having to go back and answer some questions for the crew after each time I spoke to them.

"They say you have a weird accent. You should try talking more like the other pirates. It will probably help everyone to not think of you as such a weirdo too," he said not knowing how much it stung.