Chapter 7: I Go to Bristol
It takes Squire Trelawney a bit longer than the anticipated three weeks to arrange a boat and a crew and a captain; but this really feels like the sort of thing that ought to take six months at least, so I’m still pretty impressed. Hell, I won’t even consider a day trip to a city an hour away without at least a month’s notice in advance, so I’m willing to give Trelawney a bit of grace on this one.
Meanwhile, Dr. Livesey is spending this time in London trying to find a substitute doctor to cover for him while he’s away. This leaves Jim staying by himself—in the town hall for some reason—supervised by the hall’s gamekeeper, rather than, you know, being at home or something. This is over the course of about a month, remember.
One day, a letter from Trelawney arrives; it’s addressed to Dr. Livesey, but Trelawny admits he doesn’t know where Livesey is at the moment so he sent two copies of the letter and says Jim can open his if Livesey isn’t there. It reads:
Guess what? I have for us a schooner named the Hispaniola. Great ship. Best ship, really. And I have to compliment the people of Bristol for being so amenable in getting me set up once they heard we’re going on a treasure hunt.
Jim sighs, remembering that Livesey told Trelawney to keep his trap shut not five paragraphs ago. The letter continues:
Can you believe some unsavory folks around here are saying my buddy who acquired the ship for me already owned it and sold it to me for a marked-up price? I, of course, think that is ridiculous since I would look pretty stupid if it was true, which it almost certainly is. Anyway, I had a hard time getting a crew at first; I could only find, like, six guys, and I really wanted to have closer to twenty men around just in case we happen to run into any trouble, such as indigenous peoples, pirates, or—worst of all—the French.
But then I met this really great guy! His name is Long John Silver; he used to be in the navy years ago but lost his leg and hasn’t sailed since. He’s willing to sign on as a cook just to be on the sea again. The poor man isn’t even getting a pension! Can you believe how cruel that is?!
Of course, as an American, I’m societally obligated to suggest that Long John Silver wouldn’t have this problem if he’d been a little more proactive with his retirement planning and withheld a greater percentage of his minimum-wage sailor’s salary for 401(k) contributions.
So after I hired Silver, it turned out that he knew a bunch of guys already that we could bring on as crew! He even weeded out a couple of the crew I’d already picked out because they weren’t actually good sailors. Oh, and the buddy who got me the ship also found me a solid captain, and Silver recommended a first mate. So yeah, we’re just about ready to go over here. Let the Hawkins kid see his mom for a night, and then come on over to Bristol!
John Trelawney
P.S. I forgot to mention you can trust Long John Silver because he has a checking account.
If you’re the kind of person who is currently pointing at the screen in frustration and yelling “HEY! He said Silver only had one leg! And the captain was on the lookout for a one-legged man! THIS IS THE GUY!” …we’ll get to that next chapter.
Just as the letter suggested, Jim returns to spend a night at the Admiral Benbow inn. Following the ransacking of the inn, Squire Trelawney has set up Jim’s mom quite nicely by repairing the damage, buying new furniture, and even finding her a new son to replace the one that shirks his family responsibilities to go out on pirate adventures.
The next day, Jim officially sets out to shirk his family responsibilities and go on pirate adventures, still accompanied by the gamekeeper from the start of the chapter who would just as rather stay at home. Jim mercifully sleeps through the entirety of the carriage ride so I don’t have to summarize it.
When they arrive at Bristol, they immediately seek out Trelawney, who in the intervening weeks has apparently stopped in at a Spirit Halloween store because he is now dressed head-to-toe like Cap’n Crunch and strutting around like he’s hot shit. Proudly, he announces that they will set sail the very next day.