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    The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1: The Accidental Stowaway
    The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1: The Accidental Stowaway
    The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1: The Accidental Stowaway
    Ebook163 pages2 hours

    The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1: The Accidental Stowaway

    By Ian Hall

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    Edinburgh 1698...
    Scotland's hopes for continued independence from England rest on a secret mission to the Caribbean.
    Five ships hold the purse and the lifeblood of the Scottish nation; they are to colonize Panama, and cut the trade route to the Far East...
    Alternative History?
    NO.
    This spectacular voyage actually happened...

    The Jamie Leith Chronicles tell the tale of the adventures of an Edinburgh youth who inadvertently stows away on the mission ships. Tied to both the venture and the treasonous attempts to destroy it, Jamie is the quintessential spirit of Scotland... bold, brash and tireless.
    The survival of the whole plan will soon be in his hands...

    Enter the world of The Jamie Leith Chronicles, the new serialized version of Jamie's exploits, previously told in the epic novel, Opportunities.

    1: The Accidental Stowaway
    2: A Parcel of Rogues
    3: Sold for English Gold
    4: Captain Kidd's Treasure
    5: Toubacanti and the Spanish Wars
    6: A Jacobite Rebellion,1709
    7: The Traitor Knave Returns

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIan Hall
    Release dateApr 9, 2017
    ISBN9781370974283
    The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1: The Accidental Stowaway
    Author

    Ian Hall

    Ian Hall is a former Commander Officer of No. 31 Squadron (1992-4), as well as being the editor and writer of the Squadron Association's three-times-a-year 32-page newsletter. He is the author of Upwards, an aviation-themed novel currently available as a Kindle download. This is his first full-length historical study, having previously penned a 80-page history of No 31 Squadron's early Tornado years.

    Read more from Ian Hall

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      Book preview

      The Jamie Leith Chronicles 1 - Ian Hall

      In part, this book is a work of fiction. Some names, places, characters and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. The story, however, is set in a researched historical content, and the author has made considerable effort to keep the historical events as detailed and as correct as possible.

      Copyright © 2017 Ian Hall. Smashwords Edition.

      Ian Hall is a member of both Hallanish Publishing and Phantom Gavel Publications

      ISBN: 9781370974283

      All rights reserved, and the authors reserve the right to re-produce this book, or parts thereof, in any way whatsoever.

      This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your Smashwords and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      The Jamie Leith Chronicles

      1: The Accidental Stowaway

      Ian Hall

      Contents

      Foreword

      Prologue; Jamie Leith: An Urchin’s Life, Edinburgh, 1694

      Chapter 1 Leith

      Chapter 2 Fog

      Chapter 3 Madeira

      Chapter 4 Reunion

      Chapter 5 Mission Ashore

      Chapter 6 Anchors Aweigh

      Author’s Note

      Please note this book is available as a 600 page single volume, called Opportunities, both in eBooks and paperback. This new edition of Jamie’s adventures in the Darien Isthmus of Panama includes a new prologue, additional text, and other formatting and editing work. The new edition also includes the additional story of Jamie’s involvement in the failed 1709 Jacobite uprising and subsequent adventures.

      This is a story that should have been told centuries ago.

      It should have been trumpeted from the battlements of Edinburgh Castle, and proudly broadcast to the world. But it was not. Perhaps due to the nature of its end, the Scottish Darien story has languished at the periphery of history, covered in a nation's disgrace, and wrapped in the blankets of shame, purposely hidden.

      The Darien Scheme was a world-changing event that few people today even know existed. The Scots raised half the actual capital in Scotland for the scheme, confident that they would dominate world trade. It was as large a leap of faith as to set a colony on Mars today.

      I am not spoiling the ending when I tell you that the Darien venture did not turn out as the Scots had envisaged. The loss of such an amount of Scots revenue forced the ‘Union of the Crowns’, and Scotland was swallowed by its neighbor, England. Directly because of the Darien Scheme, Great Britain was born. A country that would assert itself across the globe until it had grown into the biggest Empire in the world.

      The Darien Scheme actually happened, and most of the events portrayed in my book are researched historical fact. Ship names and their sailings, captains and council members, events, battles, and major storyline are as accurate as I could manage.

      Opportunities, however, is a work of fiction, and although I have told the Darien story as close to history as I could, it should be read as a work of fiction.

      Jamie Leith, however, is my own invention. Essentially, my book is a compromise; the events and characters portrayed herein are mostly historical, but a few, like Jamie, are imaginary.

      I will leave it to you to work out which.

      I would rather, of course, have you caught up in my story, and forget everything else.

      The book is seen through Jamie’s eyes, and I hope as you read, you will find in him, the spirit of my nation; the guile, the grit and determination, the pride and the strength of character that I feel in myself today.

      I am Scottish and proud of it.

      Ian Hall

      Jamie Leith: An Urchin’s Life, Edinburgh, 1694

      (Four years ago…)

      At every stage of history, through to the present day, it is the duty of every child to master the art of self-preservation. From their first toddling steps to their emergence as adults, no matter their social standing, the skill of ‘looking after yourself’ is as important as breathing.

      In ancient times children were taught to avoid animals of prey. In more modern society the art of avoiding the school bully is equally as important, and is either inherent or learned the hard way.

      At just 12 years old, Jamie Ross had two overriding requirements in his young life; he had to avoid the pitfalls of Edinburgh’s harbour town, and he had to bring home one penny every day.

      Failure to bring home his penny would bring Jamie a beating from his father, the severity dependent on his state of drunkenness. The punishment would be followed by a moment in his mother’s arms, then thrown back out into the street to spend the night in whatever safe haven he could find. Jarred by many a kick in the backside as he was thrust into the darkness, Jamie learned quickly to avoid the final ignominy, causing a curse from his father’s snarling lips as his booted foot swung aimlessly.

      Most days, if he had not reached his goal, he simply did not return home.

      Jamie often thought leaving home permanently, but even at twelve he understood his responsibility to his family. As the eldest, until he was of age to work, it was his obligation to help his family survive, his mother, his younger sister just five years old. The penny a day helped put food on the table, the difference between life and death in a country hit by years of bad harvest.

      Not that Jamie worked alone in Leith. Urchins by the hundred ploughed the streets ‘on the cadge’, looking for the elusive coin in the gutter, discarded or dropped by drunks or merchants, it mattered not. Monies could be begged on Leith Walk, the tree terraced drive up the hill to Edinburgh’s walled city, but the territories were tightly patrolled by gangs of youths, run by lawless men.

      Jamie had a route he took every morning. He popped his head into Donnie Elverson’s bakery Any jobs needing doing? he would ask, clutching his cap to his breast, smiling as wide as he could whilst trying his hardest to merge the grin with a hungry expression. Most often he’d be shooed away, sometimes a crust would be tossed his way, but on rare occasions he’d be asked to run an errand, help load a cart, or sweep. Those short working spells would be rewarded by more than a crust, and although Jamie needed a penny, he knew a growing boy needed sustenance too.

      And Donnie Elverson’s meat and potato pies were the best in town… even the smashed, broken, unsellable ones.

      He knew the taverns of Leith by heart, and was well-known at most. The Sailors Rest he approached from the rear, again asking to be useful rather than begging. The Carriers Quarters was a merchant’s bar, often looking for messengers, runners to the ships in the harbour. Carrying a message to a ship had a fare of a halfpenny, and thus a goldmine in his day’s work.

      The last option was theft, rarely considered, as the penalty of discovery was high, brutal, and delivered directly. Picking pockets was a skill, and Jamie had it in spades, but he used it so sparingly, no one in Leith knew him as a likely thief. Jamie had witnessed the apprehended pick pocket and his punishment. The walking cane used by many men caused great damage when swung from a great height, the blows on the head, the cracking of bones, the lifeless body dragged from the streets, thrown into the harbour.

      Self-preservation for an urchin in Leith meant more than just squeezing a living from the streets. Jamie’s existence was a balanced life of avoiding threat, doing mischief, evading discovery, filching coin, getting food in his belly,

      By good fortune, Jamie had a few assets working in his favour. Although twelve, he was small framed, so looked two years younger, thus giving him an edge in so many ways. He was clever beyond his years, quick-witted, never letting an opportunity pass him by, and had a face so ordinary, so featureless that unless he announced his presence, he was rarely recognized.

      And he had absolutely no fear of heights.

      He could climb like the wildest monkey, his fingers finding purchase in the smoothest of walls. Propelled upwards from street level, it took him out of immediate danger when chased. It gave him refuge to rest when weary, and it gave him a viewpoint rarely glimpsed.

      It also gave him a place to stash his loot for the day. For someone well versed in life on the rooftops, slipping a penny under a grey slate for safe-keeping was a life-saver.

      For there were other urchins, mostly bigger and older than Jamie, who would take the easy option to gather their loot; they would simply prey on the unsuspecting children below them in the pecking order, literally lifting them upside-down in the air to see what fell out.

      Bullying was rampant, but Jamie never participated. Yes, he’d had his pockets turned out, been fleeced by the older boys, but he had never returned the favour.

      Getting a half-penny for delivering a message or finding a farthing in the gutter was only one side of Jamie’s daily life; getting the money home safe and sound and into his father’s dirty palm sometimes took more guile, more cunning.

      ~~~

      It was rare for Jamie to be so far away from home, but delivering a message for a penny was not a task to be refused. The payment was already safe, tucked in loose masonry behind The Carrier’s Quarters; one of Jamie’s rarely used hiding places. The message was delivered, safe into the hands of Captain McBride of the sloop Aberfeldy, lying berthed against the wharf in Newhaven harbour.

      With his penny earned for the day and stashed away safely, Jamie had ventured up the hill to gaze over the Forth Estuary, when a movement caught his eye; a shifting of white in an overgrown walled garden. His curiosity piqued, he climbed the wall easily, sliding one leg on either side of the rounded bricks atop the wall.

      He looked down into the garden, his eyes searching for the white in the wild roses.

      Then she moved; white petticoats against the dark foliage. He sat for a moment, captivated by her clean white dress, her pale complexion, and the long red ringlets that cascaded over her shoulders. Her pale brown freckles were the only colour on her smiling, face, deep in concentration as she busied with dolls to her front.

      Softly, with the experience of a thousand leaps, Jamie jumped

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