In Safe Claws

Archive Entry

Halliburton: Naval Chronicle

An account on the discovery of Floating Crow Island

by Josef Bembry, Quartermaster

On the 11th of July, 1687, our sloop, the Halliburton, made sail from Telok Penjarah, with fresh breeze. Expecting to be soon moored in the haven of liberty, Sainte-Anne, we were elated with joy.

But, alas! A dark haze fell and a monsoon of hellish fury beat upoin our ship. Catastrophe further rained when we struck a reef of rock. Captain Weymouth was swept overboard, swallowed by the angry sea. Our skipper was vanished.

I tell no tales when I say that the Captain’s hand did surface and pointed a spectral finger ahead. A breath later, the mist part and a hideous island, shaped as a crow’s claw, came before the half moon. We steered the ship cleared of a rock cropping and dropped anchors.

The ghostly forewarning did spare us from a most calamitous fate. At daylight, we took possession of Floating Crow Island and did careen here for repairs. Heartfelt thanks to our fallen skipper, Captain Weymouth, for saving his crew and ship whilst in the claws of death.