Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 1 | Page 16

Ming Treasure Voyages
Dulwich College Beijing, McIntosh, Leo - 7
As a raging battle went on in the distance, the ship sailed peacefully and headed of to the west [Arabia]. As
the wind blew, the tired sailors got up to do their jobs. As I trudged up to the main deck sleepily, I heard
the captain call my name. “Joe come over ‘ere”. I ran up and walked towards him and asked what is was.
He told me I needed to clean “the birds nest” right now
I said I would and climbed up the ladder to get to “the birds nest”. I thought “When will there be some
excitement?” I got the mop and brush out and started cleaning. When I finished, I went to the captain to
ask where we were heading. “To Arabia lad”! I went to my room and took out a map. There was a while to
go before we got to Arabia. I went to bed and said to myself “This is going to be a rough ride”. Finally I
went to sleep, snoring softly.
When I woke up, I looked out of the window and saw a horde of ships swarming towards us. I ran to the
captain’s deck and knocked on the door. He asked “Who is it”? I replied “Joe, sir”. He sighed, trotted to
the door and opened it, and pulled me in, closing it afterwards. He asked me what it was. I gasped “There
are loads of ships coming our way”! He stared at me at me for a bit, then went to see for himself. His mouth
dropped open. He then shouted “Get the weapons out, we’re going to send them to Davy Jones’s locker”!
There was a huge huddle to get the weapons. I simply just walked round them, pushed past some people
and took a pistol. There were no cannons left, only rifles and guns.
I ran to the side, I was ready to fight. Well, first I hurled. I put a bullet in the pistol and fired with a shaky
hand. I saw it hit a man on the ship and quickly ran to the left in case his friends saw me. I felt worried and
scared because I was afraid that I would get shot.
I looked around and saw bullets flying everywhere. I saw a cracked tile at the bottom of their ship. I aimed
my pistol and shot it powerfully. BOOM! The ship gave way, plummeting into the water. I heard a lot of
screams, cheering too. My friends ran to hug me and I got a pat on the back from my captain. He said
“great work Joe.” There was still one more ship left. This was bulkier, more powerful and carried more
men. The captain whispered in the ear of the cannon man, who nodded his head and shot a cannon ball
towards the side of a nearby mountain. The impact caused a rockslide which rolled on to the other ship and
sank it. The men cheered and celebrated.