O hearken friends and you shall hear, the tale of Jack McKracken. Ole Jack McKracken were a Pirate e were. A Pirate King of Kings.

For Jack McKracken weren't no ordnry pirate, the most clever of them all. There were not a pirate more more feared, yet none more evenkeel. For Jack McKraken took no dime, no booty would e steal. Not from any honest man. E kept his watch for just one prize, the slave trade e did ply.

All yer greatest pirates ye ever did of 'ear... they flash their jolly roger flag when merchantmen appear. They only flash their flag but once, the sailors will not fight. For why risk sailor life and limb, to save some rich man's cargo. And so the hold fills up with booty, and having taken what ye may, honest sailors bid the pirates kind adieu and please be on your way. Let it not get too blatant, the rich men will take the loss. A cost of doing business, a little trifling nibble, of the fabulous wealth they haul each year.

But not with Jack McKracken, the slavers they will flee. Because when it comes to Jack McKraken, that's yer only chance to live. For if Jack McKracken sees a slaver, hes the last man that slaver sees.

For if you are a slaver, Jack McKracken don't want nothin from you. Jack McKracken wants you dead. Like some avenging angel, he'll dump your stinking body straight into the sea. He'll sell yer ship to pay his crew, but he'll not take your cargo. He'll take them into Kingston town, and tell them they are free. But some they will decide to stay, a chance to go to sea, and fight the fight of vengeance, with the fearsome Jack McKracken.

He'll hunt you down the way he done, lo many years ago, when Jack McKracken were a virgin, at taking human life. The first deflowering of his pistol, one Captain Luther Finnius, were the man who'd brung him here, the man who stole him from his African home, and dragged him to these shores. Captain Luther Finnius, of the slave ship Ebony Gold, the man who had raped his wife.

They took her from him separately, sold to be a white men's toy, in a brothel in New Orleans. He never heard from her again. And Jack McKracken wept that night, not caring who could hear. The slavers then set sail again. They took their unsold cargo, yes Jack McKracken too, they hauled them all down Haiti way, to work the sugar or the mines.

Cursing, thrashing, in his chains, waiting to be sold. Not a wink he slept that night, awaiting for his chance. Seeing careless guard asleep, he stole the bastard's keys. Aftward to the stern he slunk, and clambr'd to the sea below. The man who heard the splashes, quickly gave alert. but it were too late. Jack McKracken had slipped his surly bonds, and slipped into the night.

They tore the lid off Port Au Prince, Jack McKracken's ass to find. But Jack McKracken give em the slip, like a perfect bowline.

The sleepy guard were reprimanded, docked a month in pay. And Captain Luther Finnius wrote off the minor loss, in his bloody account books of sin, but Jack McKracken disagreed, debts were far from paid in full.

The good ship Ebony Gold, she soon would sail away, waiting only for the bankers, to meet her filthy price. But Jack McKracken had other ideas, for the reason they ne'er found him, was he never really left. They never thought to look for him, right back aboard the ship.

He crept about the ship that night, loosening all the chains, the chains of those he'd left behind, who'd all thought him long gone. And when Jack McKracken gave the signal, every man stood up. They took the ship in twenty minutes, completely by surprise. They slaughtered a crew of twenty slavers, killed them to a man. He lost thirty four brothers and sisters that night, a fighting hand-to-hand. Thirty four souls that night were very deeply proud. Because when they met their grisly fates, they were no longer bound in chains.

But Jack McKracken had one rule, the captain they not harm, for that was Jack McKracken's task, for him to do alone. Captain Luther Finnius, had truly no idea. They dragged him bound in his own chains, before this African man. You would have thought he'd look more scared, but the truth was soon made plain. For Captain Luther Finnius, proud slaver man by trade, knows full well the value of men.

"You are all such lucky bastards", the slaver in chains exclaimed. "For you have yourselves a captive, worth a hundred times your own head! My company shall gladly pay, some fifty thousand pounds I'll wager, to see you set me free. You can sell me very dear, good sirs. For I Luther Finnius am quite the judge of men! A point of pride it is with me, to know the price of any man, and that includes myself. I can sell myself for you, back to my company. I'll get you a king's ransom, keeping just a wee bit for meself, my ten percent broker's fee. Yes, fifty thousand I can get you, for my illustrius self. They would not dare insult me, by offering a farthing less."

But Jack McKracken had other ideas, for some debts can't be paid, not in gold or silver, nor sugar, rum or slaves. Some debts can only be paid in blood. Some men buy and sell other men, but Jack McKracken can't be bought. "Keep your filthy lucre", he spat in Luther's face. "That girl you raped in New Orleans, that girl she was my wife. But I know you're a merchant, thats just what you do. So this bargain I will make with you: in trade for my loving wife, I shall take your lovely ship, and your fancy pistol too, but I'll leave you one of the bullets."

So Jack McKracken first killed that day, and never has he stopped. The most blood thirsty pirate of all, he cruises not for gold doubloons, nor silver pieces of eight. They say that he's a hero, a black man's robin hood. They say he fights to free his people, and this he will allow. But in his heart of blackest hearts, Jack McKracken knows, his motives they are one and true: he swore an oath of bloody vengeance, and it's this that he upholds.

The pretty young widow Finnius did not trouble to mourn. She took his money and ran, she did, straight to her lover's arms. A quiet young local man was he, he married her and used old Luther's money to buy himself a job, a most prestigious position it was, Harbormaster for all of Port Au Prince. Where he spent his days logging the comings and goings of the ships, and collecting taxes due.

Bonded in this night of blood, and with nowhere else to go, the freed men and their women too, they took blood oath that night, that they would be a crew. The fiercest crew of any, who sailed the seven sea, bound by just one righteous cause. Dedicate their lives they would, to vengeances most sweet. The sweetest vengeance of them all, on all who trade in flesh.

From Captain Luther Finnius's finest private stock, they found the finest rum of all, and dumped it in the sea. Refilled the lovely bottle they did, with Luther's own draining blood, then broke it over the bow of his ship, to rechristen it's new name. The slave ship Ebony Gold would now henceforth be known, and feared by slavers throughout the seas, as the pirate corsair, Blood of Africa.

That night they slipped from the slaver's harbor at Haiti's Port Au Prince, and set their course for Kingston town, free city of Jamaica, where all the pirates went. In Kingston they could tend their wounds, and locate fresh supplies.

About that town of drunken louts did Jack McKracken scurry. He told them all the story, and gladdened all their hearts. Then pass the hat around he did, and fortunes did he raise. From meager trinkets the people did give, to buy a piece of hope.

Fifty thousand pounds they raised. Yes, quite a tidy sum, and Jack McKracken had to admit, wily old Captain Luther Finnius indeed had quite a knack, for knowing the value of human life. That fifty thousand he had offered, was exactly what he was worth.

That night was celebration, for the newly hardened crew. The night was quite a party, they truly let off steam. They drank the rum, they smoked the greens, danced breezy night away. Bare of feet on sandy beach, they banged on bongo drums. All night they partied with the Rastas, to haunting Raggae beats.

Then ere the sun was high again, they set off into town, with piles of silver in their hats, the same hats where they had collected it, from thousands of well wishers. They'd trade it all for brass of cannon, powder and shot as well. And muskets, swords and bags of flour, and everything they'd need. Everything to make themselves, a scourge upon the seas.

They sailed with the tide that day, in search of slaver prey. They sail into legend still, with every slave ship taken. They forsake the skull and crossbones, for a design of broken chains. Now when a slaver sees that flag, he knows he'd better pray, for Jack McKracken gives no quarter, and none shall get away.

The pirates all revere him, he's a better man than they. They leave him to his grisly work, and he leaves them to their plunder. He's one of them, and yet he's not. They shake their heads, can't understand, no money does he steal. Fat cargos of rum and silk and gold, he lets them all pass by with a hearty wave, for other pirates to ply. For Jack McKracken would never be called a common theif, and were he ever caught and hanged, it would be as a stone killer, an avenging angel of God.

And for that, the pirates give him wide berth, and a place of honor at their table. There's no man on the Spanish Main, so honorable as he. So when pirates squabble 'mongst themselves, it's Jack McKracken they call to Judge. For he was the only man among the thieves, that they all could truly trust. And that is how he came to be, the Pirate's King of Kings.

They've killed a thousand slavers now, and taken fifty ships. But always more to take their place, for the lure of ebony gold. As long as he draws breath and sword, Jack McKracken will be there. There to meet the slavers, and show them the error of their ways.

The slavers live in fear now, the hunters being hunted. They don't know how he does it, but he always tracks them down. They swear that it's uncanny, Jack McKracken always knows, where to find a slaver, no matter where he goes. They swear it's like he reads their minds. He likes to let them think so, and in a way he does. He knows when every ship has left, and when they are due back. He knows because he has a special knack, a knack for pleasure and pillow talk... with the harbormasters wife.