Life With A Fisherman
Chapter 14: Ben’s Bounty

As we entered the bluff and headed toward the dock, I could see Molly at the end of the dock waving. I knew something was wrong and raced in. Molly was yelling that Maggie’s in labor. I pulled up to the dock, and we ran up to the house just in time to hear our newborn crying for the first time. The doctor met me at the door, “Come on in and meet your new son, Cappy.” I ran up the stairs to Maggie’s side. She was holding our son. She said, “Cappy, meet your son, Ben.” She had named our first born Ben. That was one of the happiest days of our lives.

Three days passed and I couldn’t wait to check the new trap line. We were still getting crawls on the old lines but not very many. Leo and I met at the boat and headed out. The winds were blowing, and the sea was a little rough, not too bad but rough enough to keep an eye out for the big waves at that island called Nomams. We reached the first line and started pulling in the line. The first trap was coming in, and I could just make it out under the water. “Crawls!” I yelled. Leo pulled it into the boat and opened it up. “It’s full, Captain, and check this out,” he said as he held up a five-pound lobster. The trap had 12 nice crawls in it. We re-baited the trap and set it on the deck. Then the next one came in. Same thing, it was full of crawls. We finished all 30 traps, and I told Leo that we were going to pull 30 more and move them over here near that point. I pointed at the point of Nomans Island where the cliffs extend out into the sea. “Oh, that’s going to be a rough place to trap, Captain Cappy,” Leo replied. As we looked just off that point, we could see 10-foot waves with white caps crashing into each other. “Yes, it is,” I said, “but this is our new spot, so let’s get used to it.” And we did. Off we went to pull traps to move them over to the new spot. We pulled 30 more traps from the west chop area and headed back to Nomans Island.

As I was pulling in to that rough water off the point of that island, I felt very strange. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was a strange feeling. We went in to the high waves, and I kept the bow in them. Some of the waves where taking the bow down under them. This was very dangerous waters. We paid close attention to the crashing waves. As we put the last line in, Leo was at the back of the boat. I heard him yell, “Captain, get out of here!” I looked back at him just in time to see a 30-foot wave come crashing in to the back of the boat. The wave was high off the back of my boat, and as I looked over it, I could see the high cliffs on the point of the island. I pushed the throttle down for full speed ahead and just got out of the way of the waves’ full force of smashing in to the back of the boat. Leo yelled, “These waves will take us to the bottom, Captain!” And as he said that, it hit me. “The hands of sea.” These are the hands of sea that Captain Ben used to talk about. This is where he lost Salty many years ago. That’s the point of the island on the map. This is Captain Ben’s bounty spot. I didn’t say a word about it. I kept it to myself. No one other than Dad and Maggie knew of the map, and I wanted it to stay like that. I went just out of reach of those crashing waves and circled the point looking for a way to get the boat in. There was no way, no way at all. Those waves would eat this boat up. And I thought maybe I could land just off the point and walk down the beach. But there was no way to do that, either. The cliffs of the point were too dangerous and extended out in to the crashing waves. I thought to myself, “Captain Ben, you picked one heck of a hiding spot for your bounty.” I studied the crashing waves. Then it hit me: Salty. Salty was the sail that took Captain Ben into and out of that point. And I remembered his words to me: “Take heed of the hands of sea at the point.” And I remembered him telling me years earlier to remember this spot. Right then and there, I knew this was the island and place of his treasure. He had given me these hints years ago.

I headed back to the dock with our live pen full of crawls. We were very happy and talking of the new spot for the traps all the way back. I didn’t say a word to Leo about anything but the trap line, but all I could think of was telling Maggie what I had just found. As I pulled to the dock, I told Molly to get the carpenters and get Salty off that roof. Molly just looked at me like I had two heads on my shoulders. Before she could say anything, I said, “I want to take Salty out. Make sure they take their time not to damage her.” Leo and I moved the lobsters to the live pen. Dad was out fishing the deep waters, and the lobsters needed to go to market. “Leo,” I said, “Can you bring them to New Bedford yourself?” I had things to do for the next few days. “Why yes, Captain,” he said. “I can take care of them.” I yelled up to Molly, “Try to get Salty down today. I don’t care what the cost is.” And I headed home to tell Maggie what had happened today. As I reached the house, Maggie was outside. I shouted, “Maggie! Maggie! I’ve got good news.” I sat down and explained everything. I told her of the dangers of those waters and that I’m taking Salty to the point.

I spent the next two days getting Salty ready for her final voyage. We put her back in the water and docked her. As I looked at Salty sitting in the water, I remembered the Captain and I towing out the raft for the crawls the first time. Then I looked around my lagoon at what I had built since then. A chill went up my back; my dreams were a reality. I went back to the house and studied the map that the captain left me. I was going in the morning. I was planning on heading for that point at first light. I tossed and turned all night. It was the longest night of my life. Finally, the sun was coming up. I kissed Maggie, and she said good luck as I ran out the door to my little boat called Salty. Molly was at the dock. She was one heck of a worker. She had a pot of coffee on for the fishermen who were coming in to fuel up their boats. “Captain,” she said, “would you like some coffee?” “Why yes,” I replied. I didn’t want to act differently than any other day’s routine. “I’m taking Salty out for a sail today.” Everybody on the island thought I was going nuts. Why the heck I pulled Salty off the roof, no one could figure out. “Where are you sailing?” Molly asked. “Well, I don’t know. I’m just going with the winds today,” I said, and we both laughed. And off I went without another word.

It was great to be in Salty again. What a feeling it was having the wind hit those sails. It took two hours to reach the point of the island of Nomans. The sea was calm, but the waves on that point were 10- to 20-footers breaking into each other and smashing down onto the beach. It was just going in to low tide there as the tide was just starting to change. I picked a wave and rode it to the beach just to the left of the point. I pulled Salty onto the sand and made sure the waves could not pull her out. The one thing I didn’t want was to get stranded here. I walked the surf looking for any sign of where the captain could have buried his bounty. I spent hours looking. The cliffs were high over the beach. There were huge boulders at the feet of the cliffs. I looked at the cliff behind one of the rocks and saw a dark spot in the wall. I went behind that boulder, and there it was. A small opening in the cliff. It was a doorway to a cave. “This has got to be it,” I thought to myself. It was a very small opening that I could just fit through. I went in, and it was so dark I couldn’t see. On the wall to my right, I noticed a torch. I lit it, and the cave came to light. Then I noticed some very old oil lamps. I lit them, and as I did, I knew they belonged to Captain Ben. Oh what a feeling it was. I followed the cave deep into the cliff. There were cobwebs everywhere. I could see no one had been in here for many years.

The cave walkway ended at a very big room. The only thing in the room was a table in the center. There were empty rum barrels all over the place. I laughed. “That’s my captain,” I said to myself. On the center of the table was a very old book. I sat on the only chair at the table and wiped the dust off the book. I opened it. It was Captain Ben’s writing. Now I knew it was his place. This was his sea log journal. I started reading it, and it was all about his times at sea and spoke of taking over pirate ships and sinking them. Riding the seas of pirates. This man sank over 200 ships in the name of the queen. I remembered him telling me tales of this years ago, but I had no idea the extent of what he had done. He was a very ruthless captain when it came to pirates. I skimmed through the journal to the last pages, and there was a letter from him. “It read: “Eyeee, if you are here in my hole, it’s because I want you here. Fill my empty rum barrels with your new bounty. Take care of my seas. I have cleaned them of the bad that sailed them. Look under the tables of life.” And that’s all that was written.

I looked at the rum barrels. They were all empty. The table of life. What the heck does he mean? Then it hit me: The journal was his life’s work, and it was rest on the table in that room. It’s his table of life. I flipped the table over and started to dig in the sand. Then about four inches under the sand, I hit something hard. I dug it all out. It was a door. I opened it up and there it was, a small room that he had dug out, and it was full of gold coins, mugs, diamonds, jewels, rubys. It was a king’s treasure to say the least. It was all the loot that he had taken from all the pirate ships. My Captain Ben was one of the richest men that lived in these waters, and no one knew. He had kept this all to himself for all those years. I filled the rum barrels one at a time and filled Salty not to overload her, and I brought the captain’s treasure back to my barn to bury it under the floor. It took seven trips back and forth to get it all to my barn. Maggie and I decided to keep it top secret, not telling anyone of it. And I did what the captain asked of it. I would slowly bring a little out a time, telling everyone that I found it in the surf. Maggie and I would donate to museums and anything to do with preserving the Atlantic Ocean waters. And of course, we have one of the biggest lobster bat fleets on the East Coast today. The boats are named “Ben’s Crawl One” through “Ben’s Crawl 100.” And that’s the story of Captain Ben. Now, let’s fish.