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Casca #15: The Pirate

Casca - alias Cass Long - is on Jamaica and is contracted by a wealthy sugar plantation owner (McAdams) to rescue his niece, Michelle LeBeau, from the clutches of the pirate Duncan Tarleton. He sets off with a dull-witted employee of McAdams called Big Jim and after fighting off an ambush they rendezvous with the infamous Blackbeard who is to transport them to Tarleton's whereabouts. They very quickly sight and defeat a Spanish ship but Casca's prowess with the sword earns Blackbeard's jealousy, and after a quick 'trial' maroons him on an island. He soon finds a small group of Spaniards marooned ashore who are fighting a mini war with an equal number of Englishmen. Casca is imprisoned by the English leader breifly but a Spanish youth named Julio frees him and Casca unites the two groups and they work together to capture a passing merchantman. In a fight Casca kills the merchantman captain but then has to kill the leader of the marooned Englishmen. Using the captured crew, Casca and his Anglo-Spanish maroons sail away but fall foul of a passing vessel. However, Casca leads his men to victory and they seize their prize, but their merchant ship is sunk. Aboard the captured vessel is a pirate woman, Kate Parnell, who is holding Big Jim prisoner. Katie soon strikes up a friendship with Casca and explains she got her prisoner out of the water a short while back. Big Jim is soon freed under Casca's persuasion. When they happen upon another merchantman, Katie, Casca, Big Jim and a young Spaniard called Julio get stranded aboard what turns out to be a 'plague' ship. The crew all seems to have died suddenly for no apparant reason. Their time aboard the ship is soon over as they arrive in a port where Tarleton's ship is moored. The four hatch a rescue plan, board the ship and Casca fights Tarleton to the death. He frees the young captive and the ship is destroyed. Casca makes his way back to Jamaica, minus Katie who has bidden him farewell. However, once Casca has delivered the girl, called Michelle, to McAdams it becomes clear that he has delivered the poor woman into the hands of another sadist and after a brief fight kills the man and once more frees her. He is persuaded by his grateful charge to remain on Jamaica for at least the short term.

I would call this a 'made for TV' novel in that it is a complete story in itself. Entertaining if neatly packaged. I think these stories are too crammed in too short a period but Sadler was turning his hand more and more at this time to such stories. There is a passing reference to the Brotherhood of the Lamb but they do not feature in this book, and Sadler's description of Blackbeard is interesting, right down to the slow burning matches in his beard. The year 1718 is clearly mentioned as the year the story takes place in as is the fact Casca had to flee England immediately prior to that for killing three British grenadiers in London. The eighteenth century atmosphere is heightened by Sadler's use of the speech of that period which is a big plus. It would seem that thereafter Casca did travel onto the Americas as the next time we meet him is in the aftermath of the Civil War in 1866, and Casca is placed in the US Civil War as a Confederate soldier in book 17: the Warrior. Before that, there is plenty of history that Casca could have partaken in, such as the Seven Year's War (which is mentioned in book 21), the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Casca is referred to in books 4 and 11 with the French Grande Armee in Russia in 1812, so he does return to Europe, and Africa, for he also takes part in the Boer's great trek of 1835-1838, according to book 12..

To see where this falls in Casca's life story click HERE for a Timeline check

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