Chapter 13: How I Began My Shore Adventure
Jim describes the island as the Hispaniola nears, and… well, it kind of sucks, truth be told. It’s largely made up of gloomy trees and drab gray hills that give the impression of something sad, yet equally oppressive.
Speaking of oppressive, the muggy heat of the island quickly takes its toll on the men as they work to bring the ship into the bay where they’ll make their landing. The crew, who were previously content to maintain an air of mild-manneredness, grow so grouchy and resentful at the required toiling that Long John Silver has to dial up his usual charade of charismatic enthusiasm to undeniably uncanny levels in a desperate bid to keep his pirates in high enough spirits that they don’t begin to arouse suspicion of being potential mutineers. This is not wholly successful, and Jim notes that even if plot contrivance hadn’t placed him in the apple barrel, the captain certainly would have begun to grow wise at this point, making Skep wonder why we even bothered with the eavesdropping scene, anyway.
(I know, I know. It’s a cooler way to find out they’re pirates, despite how silly it all is in practice.)
Captain Smollett does realize how ugly this could turn—and how quickly it could do so. Still, Silver’s attempts to get his men to calm the hell down make it clear that he doesn’t want to launch a revolt just yet. So the captain devises a plan: he’ll offer the crew a chance to take the rowboats to shore, under the pretense of allowing them an evening of well-earned downtime for their hard day of work. Theoretically, this should allow Silver an opportunity to talk his men down out of earshot. Still, depending on how many sailors actually end up going ashore, the captain has a couple different contingencies:
- If everybody goes, that means our protagonists have control of the ship, and they can use that to their advantage and launch a preemptive defense when the pirates return.
- If nobody goes, they work under the assumption that the mutiny is imminent, and Smollett will barricade the loyalists in the cabin to make a last stand.
- If the count is split, well, no opportunity to do anything, but the men who went will come back cowed by Silver and unlikely to revolt immediately, so that’s a win anyway.
In the end, six men stay back at the ship—possibly planted by Silver, or possibly folks who see what’s developing and realize that there is a rather large leap between grumping about unpleasant work and actually overthrowing a ship’s captain.
As the rowboats prepare to set out, though, Jim gets the rather rash idea to go ashore and keep an eye on Silver’s crew. He tries to sneak onto one of the boats and hide himself from view, but hears Silver call out to him from across the water, and immediately begins to regret his decision. The moment his boat reaches land, Jim swings off a tree branch to shore and starts booking, with Silver’s shouts fading into the distance behind him.