The Damsel isn't THAT Distressed!

The thing about Peter Blood, the hero of Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel Captain Blood, is that he really couldn't help himself---he was a hero. No matter that the circumstances of his life had forced him to become a pirate. He would continue to act with honor, to show mercy and--when necessary--rescue damsels.

The original novel covered Blood's career from start to finish, but there was plenty of room for some "untold adventures" that took place during his piratical days. So in 1931, Sabatini published Captain Blood Returns (later titled The Chronicle of Captain Blood), giving us ten more tales of daring-do. He would published another anthology of short stories in 1936.

Now remember that Captain Blood is as quick on his feet as he is with a sword--a savvy and skilled commander who out-thinks as well as out-fights his opponents. But he wasn't perfect. Sabatini knew an identifiable protagonist--no matter how capable--needed to screw up on occasion.

That's what happened in "The Expiation of Madame De-Coulevain," the eighth of the ten stories in Chronicles. While Blood's flagship is being careened, he took three smaller craft and forty men to raid Spanish pearl boats. But they are caught by a warship. Blood is the only survivor of the expedition and finds himself floating at sea, clutching to a piece of wreckage.

He's found by a Spanish ship commanded by the boorish Don Juan de la Fuente. Thinking quickly, Blood claims to be a Dutch national and is taken aboard as Don Juan's guest. So now all Peter has to do is pretend to enjoy Don Juan's crude jokes and ribald songs until they put to shore, then find a way to return to his own ship. That shouldn't be too hard.

But first, Don Juan will stop to raid a French port. Blood knows how brutal Spanish soldiers are when looting a town, but there's nothing he can really do about it except grit his teeth and wait until its over.

When Don Juan returns with a woman prisoner, though, the situation changes. Blood can't stand by and allow a woman to be abused. He's going to have to do something about that...

Of course, if a woman is there by choice and doesn't want to be rescued, then that's another matter, isn't it? It's really too bad Peter Blood didn't know that before cracking open Don Juan's skull.

It's odd to call a story involving several instances of brutal violence "delightful," but I can't help it. That's the feeling Sabatini gives to the story--with Blood doing his best to protect a woman and then having to improvise his way out of his troubles when he discovers the whole purpose of the raid was so Don Juan could run off with another man's wife.

All this leads up to the next story in the collection, when Peter runs into more trouble by simply trying to return the woman to her husband.
 
All ten stories in The Chronicles of Captain Blood are fun. Peter Blood is one of the most consistently entertaining heroes ever created and hanging out with him is always worthwhile. But "The Expiation of Madame De-Coulevain" is arguably the best of the bunch. Backed by Sabatini's always engaging prose, it has Blood making poor judgement calls without forgetting that he's usually the smartest guy in the room, then has him thinking fast on his feet to get himself out of a difficult situation. It is, as I said, a delightful story.

You can access The Chronicles of Captain Blood online HERE.

The Black Swan--the book

Rafael Sabatini is one of the best adventure writers who ever existed, producing classic novels such as Captain Blood (1922), The Sea Hawk (1915) and Scaramouche (1921). A lot of his novels have been adapted into classic movies--the best of these is almost inarguable the 1935 version of Captain Blood starring Errol Flynn. The doctor-turned-slave-turned-pirate was a role that Flynn was literally born to play.

Flynn's Captain Blood was fairly close to the book in terms of the plot and his character arc, though a number of subplots were dropped and the story was streamlined. Also, Flynn's version of Blood is a much more typical action hero than the book's more sensitive protagonist, but Flynn is so good in the role that it's impossible to complain about this.

There are a couple of Sabatini novels, though, that were made into movies very, very different from the original books. Despite this, both movies were awesome in their own way.

The 1932 novel The Black Swan introduces us to Charles de Bernis, a French buccaneer who has been helping Sir Henry Morgan clean up the piracy problem in the Caribbean. But now de Bernis is heading home for France.

Or so he says. The journey is interrupted when the pirate Tom Leach (aboard his ship The Black Swan) captures the vessel on which de Bernis is a passenger. The lovely Priscilla Harridine and the somewhat annoying Major Sands are taken prisoner as well.

de Bernis and Leach know each other. The Frenchman explains that their meeting is fortuitous. He'd been planning on outfitting a ship to find Leach and join up with him. It seems de Bernis has learned that a Spanish plate fleet--loaded with treasure--is sailing for Europe soon. de Bernis needs Leach's help to take it.

Is de Bernis telling the truth? Is he improvising to save himself and the other prisoners? (He protects the others by telling Leach Priscilla is his wife and Sands is her brother.) Or did he already have a plan in mind when The Black Swan appeared on the horizon?

Actually, most attentive readers will probably figure out what's going on before the novel's climax, but the story is well-constructed, so it's still fun getting there. There's not a lot of overt action--much of the novel is set on a remote island while Leach careens The Black Swan in preparation for attacking the plate fleet. The fine line de Bernis must walk to keep the pirates happy while still protecting the innocent hostages provides a lot of solid suspense.

As a character, de Bernis is in many ways a clone of Captain Blood--a man who dresses in fine clothes as a way of subtly projected authority while always thinking quickly and improvising when necessary to keep one step ahead of everyone else. Heck, if there had been a way to fit this story into Blood's continuity, very little of de Bernis' dialogue or actions would have had to be changed.  But that's also okay, because this is the sort of character that Sabatini knows how to make interesting.

In 1942, The Black Swan was made into a swashbuckler, with Tyrone Power hamming it up as the lead. He isn't playing Charles de Bernis, though, but Captain Jamie Waring. It's a lot different from the book, but it's a fun and charming swashbuckler in its own right. We'll take a look at the film next week.

DECADE BY DECADE: Part 2: I still wanna be a pirate when I grow up

By golly, we’re going to stay with the honorable career of bloodthirsty piracy as we take a look at our chosen book for the 1920s.

Rafael Sabatini’s best novels are more fun than a barrel full of pirate-monkeys. He wrote historical novels in a slightly-flowery prose that seems to fit his subject matter perfectly and formed passages that often beg to be read aloud. His dialogue is sharp and trenchant, often serving as much as the action set pieces to increase the level of tension and suspense within his plots.

Sabatini was introduced to American readers in 1921 when Captain Blood (a pirate novel second perhaps only to Treasure Island for its pure entertainment value) was serialized in the pulp magazine Adventure.

Peter Blood was a doctor, who (during his restless years as a young man) had wandered about 17th-Century Europe, fighting in wars and learning the craft of seamanship. When the novel opens, though, he’s settled down in the quiet English town of Bridgewater.

But when he provides medical aid to a rebel, he is branded a traitor and shipped off to the West Indies as a slave. Once there, he eventually plans a mass escape (though not before taking the time to fall in love with Arabella Bishop, the beautiful niece of his owner). He and his fellow ex-slaves get hold of a ship and turn to piracy.

Blood turns out to be really, really good at piracy. Much of the saga now turns to tracing his career as a buccaneer as he eventually builds a small fleet. He plans a raid against the Spanish city of Maracaybo. Trapped inside the harbor by the Spanish fleet, he uses several audacious strategies to fight his way free.

Blood soon becomes involved in some complex political machinations, with various governments trying to recruit his services for various reasons. The story climaxes in a wonderfully described sea battle as Blood attacks two French ships in the harbor of Port Royale. By the time everything (including Blood’s romance with Arabella) is satisfactorily resolved, the reader finds himself jumping back to re-read the final battle because it’s just that good.

Peter Blood may just possibly the best-sounding fictional name ever. Even so, the good doctor manages to live up to the promise of adventure inherent in the rhythm of his name. How he ever thought he could get away with living the quiet life of a country doctor is beyond me. With a name like Peter Blood, you’re pretty much stuck being a pirate.