SEA WITCH Nautical Adventures

the first five Voyages are
published by Penmore Press
others by Taw River Press


WHEN THE MERMAID SINGS
by Helen Hollick


A prequel short read story to the Sea Witch Voyages 
of Captain Jesamiah Acorne 

available from Amazon
or order at any bookstore

When the only choice is to run, where do you run to? 
When the only sound is the song of the sea, do you listen? 
Or do you drown in the embrace of a mermaid? 

Throughout childhood, Jesamiah Mereno has suffered the bullying of his elder half-brother. Then, not quite fifteen years old, and on the day they bury their father, Jesamiah hits back. In consequence, he flees his Virginia home, changes his name to Jesamiah Acorne, and joins the crew of his father’s seafaring friend, Captain Malachias Taylor, aboard the privateer, Mermaid. He makes enemies, sees the ghost of his father, wonders who is the Cornish girl he hears in his mind – and tries to avoid the beguiling lure of a sensuous mermaid... An early coming-of-age tale of the young Jesamiah Acorne, set in the years before he becomes a pirate and Captain of the Sea Witch.

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SEA WITCH
the FIRST VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JESAMIAH ACORNE
The Time : The Golden Age of Piracy - 1716.
The Place : The Pirate Round - from the South African Coast to the Caribbean.
Escaping the bullying of his elder half-brother, from the age of fifteen Jesamiah Acorne has been a pirate with only two loves - his ship and his freedom. But his life is to change when he and his crewmates unsuccessfully attack a merchant ship off the coast of South Africa.
He is to meet Tiola Oldstagh an insignificant girl, or so he assumes - until she rescues him from a vicious attack, and almost certain death, by pirate hunters. And then he discovers what she really is; a healer, a midwife - and a white witch.
Tiola and Jesamiah become lovers, but the wealthy Stefan van Overstratten, a Cape Town Dutchman, also wants Tiola as his wife and Jesamiah's jealous brother, Phillipe Mereno, is determined to seek revenge for resentments of the past, a stolen ship and the insult of being cuckolded in his own home.
When the call of the sea and an opportunity to commandeer a beautiful ship - the Sea Witch - is put in Jesamiah's path he must make a choice between his life as a pirate or his love for Tiola. He wants both, but Mereno and van Overstratten want him dead.
In trouble, imprisoned in the darkness and stench that is the lowest part of his brother's ship, can Tiola, with her gift of Craft and the aid of his loyal crew, save him?
Using all her skills Tiola must conjure up a wind to rescue her lover, but first she must brave the darkness of the ocean depths and confront the supernatural being, Tethys, the Spirit of the Sea, an elemental who will stop at nothing to claim Jesamiah Acorne's soul and bones as a trophy for herself.
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PIRATE CODE
the Second Voyage


https://viewbook.at/PirateCode

Ex-pirate Capt. Jesamiah Acorne is in trouble. Big Trouble!

All he wants is to marry his girl, Tiola Oldstagh, and like contented aboard his ship, Sea Witch. But Tiola’s husband refused to grand a divorce unless Jesamiah retrieves some barrels of indigo and smuggle out of the Spanish-held Caribbean island of Hispaniola.
The Governor of Nassau wants Jesamiah to go there too, to help incite a rebellion, and Captain Henry Jennings wants him to find a lost spy. To cap it all, Commodore Vernon of the Royal Navy wants to expand his fleet and craves the Sea Witch of himself .

As Jesamiah’s hopes for a quiet life tumble about him, the onset of war with Spain scuppers everyone’s plans. Hispaniola is governed by a tyrant who has promised to hand draw and quarter Jesamiah if ever he sets foot there again, while the lovely widow Señora Francesca Escudero would prefer to seduce him.

Intrigue, fights, betrayals, and romantic passion follow Captain Acorne like a ship’s wake-not the ingredients for a quiet life and not Jesamiah’s idea of the Pirate Code
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BRING IT CLOSE
the Third Voyage
Too much trouble has come too close! Jesamiah Acorne, Captain of the Sea Witch, has accepted a government-granted amnesty against his misdeeds of piracy, but old enemies do not forget the past. In particular Edward Teach - Blackbeard himself - has a bone to pick with Acorne. Following an indiscretion with an old flame, Jesamiah finds his fiancée, the midwife and white witch Tiola Oldstagh, has gone to North Carolina to help with a difficult birth. The problem; that is where Blackbeard now resides. He mustn’t discover that Tiola is Jesamiah's woman. She will have to hide her identity and her gift of Craft from the black-hearted pirate who has sold his soul to the devil. With Sea Witch damaged and himself wounded, Jesamiah has to take stock of his situation, but arrested for acts of piracy how is Jesamiah Acorne to clear his name, overturn a sentence of hanging, keep Tiola safe, put an end to Blackbeard and deal with being haunted by the ghost of his father? Bring It Close moves from the Bahamas to North Carolina and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia at a swashbuckling pace. There is intrigue, misunderstanding, romance and adventure all wrapped up in a blend of mystical fantasy.

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RIPPLES IN THE SND
the Fourth Voyage


1719
Approaching England’s North Devon Coast Captain Jesamiah Acorne is worried. A Royal Navy frigate is trailing in his wake and Sea Witch has a cache of contraband aboard. His instinct is to hoist sail and flee, but he cannot attract attention for his wife, Tiola, is ill and getting worse. She says the sea is affecting her, but Jesamiah has never seen seasickness like this before – is it something else? Something to do with her being a white witch?
Like an approaching storm, his worries get deeper, darker, and more sinister. Unpleasant ruffians are looking for a list of traitors’ names, Tiola’s brother is in jail, and Sir Ailie Doone – the last of the notorious Doones of Exmoor – wants Jesamiah to sail to Cádiz on a secret mission in aid of the Jacobite cause.
Except that being captured by the Spanish and meeting with an old friend, the beautiful English spy, Francesca, is not part of Jesamiah’s plan. Once again he is in danger of losing his fidelity, his freedom - and maybe even his life.
Tiola meanwhile has her own fears to face. Why is the ethereal spirit of the sea, Tethys, determined to have Jesamiah for her own? To save him, Tiola must find a way to recall her previous lives and discover why events of the past are influencing those of the present – why the ripples in time are echoing in the ripples in the sand.

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ON THE ACCOUNT
the Fifth Voyage


https://viewbook.at/OnTheAccount

Captain Jesamiah Acorne is in trouble. Again. Arrested for treason and smuggling, believing his beloved ship Sea Witch lies wrecked on England's North Devon Coast, his only hope of escaping the noose is for someone to quash the charges. That someone turns out to be his ex-lover - but there is a price to pay.
He needs to find a boy who has disappeared and a valuable casket that more than one person wants to get their hands on. When people start getting murdered and Barbary pirates kidnap his wife, Tiola, his priorities rapidly change - but who is lying about what? Is returning to piracy a wise idea? Is Tiola having an affair with her mysterious Night-Walker 'friend'?
Meanwhile, Tiola has her own battles to fight - keeping herself and Jesamiah ,alive!
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GALLOWS WAKE
the sixth  Voyage 
Where the past haunts the future...

Damage to her mast means Sea Witch has to be repaired, but the nearest shipyard is at Gibraltar. Unfortunately for Captain Jesamiah Acorne, several men he does not want to meet are also there, among them, Captain Edward Vernon of the Royal Navy, who would rather see Jesamiah hang.

Then there is the spy, Richie Tearle, and manipulative Ascham Doone who has dubious plans of his own. Plans that involve Jesamiah, who, beyond unravelling the puzzle of a dead person who may not be dead, has a priority concern regarding the wellbeing of his pregnant wife, the white witch, Tiola.

Forced to sail to England without Jesamiah, Tiola must keep herself and others close to her safe, but memories of the past, and the shadow of the gallows haunt her. Dreams disturb her, like a discordant lament at a wake.
But is this the past calling, or the future?

Gallows Wake - the 6th Sea Witch Voyage 
available from Amazon

or order at any bookstore

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COMING SOON

JAMAICA GOLD
the Seventh Voyage