The pirates skedaddled ashore and left six men aboard to foil any attempt by our heroes to run away. The doctor, squire, and captain are all chillin, breathing in the fresh smell of rot and fever (mmmmm mmm good) and if there had been any wind, our protagonists might have just overpowered the six men and scooted away. Then they discover Jim Hawkins had gone ashore, which makes such a course of action inadvisable.

Instead, they decide to go ashore themselves so the various storylines currently happening can coalesce into a single narrative. I should point out that the pirates all went in gigs while the doctor and one of the squire’s aides travel in the jolly-boat. What is a gig you ask? Well, I am so glad you asked, because I was going to tell you anyway. This is a gig.

It is basically a long row boat, often used today in rowing teams. The above picture was the best copyright-free example I could find after an exhaustive five-minute search.

A jolly-boat, on the other hand, looks like this:

As you might imagine, the jolly boat can hold more, but the gigs are faster and more maneuverable. I imagine the difference between the two crafts will come into play later. Or maybe not. Either way knowledge is power yo, so you’re welcome.

Now that we know what sort of boats we are talking about, which is vitally important, we can continue the story. Our heroes pile into the jolly-boat and off to shore they go. They decide to park out of sight of the rest of the boats past a curve in the shoreline. This is near the ruins of an old stockade. The doctor spends a page describing how super duper fortified it still is and how it could hold out against superior forces, so you know that’s gonna come into play later on. Honestly I thought a stockade was a military prison, but I guess it is anything enclosed by a big wall made of logs. In the case of a prison it keeps people in while in a fort like this it keeps people out.

While describing this structure in detail, Livesay hears the blood curdling scream that we know from the previous entry to be our buddy Alan meeting an untimely end. Livesey and the aide race back to the jolly-boat so the action can continue with more protagonists.

After returning to the Hispaniola, they toss the six pirate guards into a cabin at gun point. Then they enlist the stalwart groundskeeper, Redruth, to barricade the door with a mattress. Remember that at this point, none of the pirates have guns, hence the spear throwing with the cane earlier from Long John Silver. After securing the immediate threat, they load up the jolly boat with supplies. The plan is to stockpile the stockade and hold out for future developments in their favor.  They make two trips, cuz they is daring, and dump whatever guns and powder they can’t carry overboard.

Just before their last trip off the Hispaniola they call to the pirates and offer them to turn away from the dark side. One of them, named Gray, decides to un-mutiny. He hops in the boat and off they all go for some thrilling heroics!

This trip includes Doctor Livesay, Squire Trelawny, Redruth, the ex-mutineer Gray, and two henchmen named Hunter and Joyce. PLUS more supplies. They all agree to play a rousing game of “Let’s not sink.” The game is fun at first, but then a current starts sweeping them towards all the parked gigs! Oh noes! They row through the current and then back track up the coast. Of course, this leaves their broad side exposed to the Hispaniola, and at about this time they realize they may have dumped all the guns and shot for the muskets and pistols and such, but left all the powder and shot for the cannon on board. This all translates to a rather unfortunate series of events as the now-freed pirates begin to prime the cannon and point it in their direction. Livesey and friends decide that Trelawny is the best shot, so they enlist him to shoot the gunner at the cannon. He does, but at that exact moment the gunner bends down to pick up  a shiny piece of plot off the deck and Trelawny’s shot hits the dude behind him instead. This just kind of compounds the problem since now the pirates still have a gunner AND are super amgery. While this exchange is going down, all the pirates left ashore notice the kerfluffle (I mean, how could you not at this point?) and start running for the landing spot. Again, not a great development.

They are not far from the shore, but knowing they are a big juicy target, the occupants of the jolly-boat wait until just before the cannon is about to fire, then do a hard back paddle to stop the boat. The cannonball misses them but the boat floods, leaving them stranded in a daunting THREE FEET of water! They all hop out and wade ashore. Bummer about the sinking since they lost a bunch of their powder and provisions. Doing a quick cost/benefit analysis of provisions versus a painful death at the hands of pirates, they do the wise thing though and leave it. Off to the stockade!

Livesey and company run full tilt towards the stockade but they can see it won’t be soon enough. They stop and ready their pistols, and as soon as the pirates round the corner it’s BLAMO time! They kill one, and the rest scatter. Instead of rushing into the stockade while they have the chance, like reasonable people, our heroes all walk around the outside of the wall to admire the dead pirate being dead. Just then an unseen mystery pirate on a grassy knoll shoots Redruth. They return fire and the unseen pirate flees. At this point they realize their error, and continue to stand around outside the wall while they examine him. Again, a reasonable course of action while in the wide open. Eventually they drag Redruth inside and it’s siege time! He is a goner and they all know it, but he was super old and not really a main character. I mean, considering that I had to look it up to remember who Redruth even was, it’s no big loss. I am sure the story will chug along just fine without him. More like Redrum than Redruth, amirite?

While all this is going down, the captain organizes provisions, which include a British flag and a Bible. Those are probably equally important to things like food, water, and ammunition, so I am glad they prioritized them. They prop up some logs and hoist the Union Jack, to be like “Screw you pirates! We like tea and we refer to cookies as biscuits! Take that!”

I was kind of wondering about the Union Jack that Jim saw at the end of Part III. Like, did a British naval ship roll up? Nah, nothing like that. In fact, the Hispaniola is not expected back for months, so they’re about to have a bad time. Well, they’ll continue to have a bad time that is. Except for Redruth, who is having a very restful time. Turns out they have scant rations what with the whole jolly-boat sinking and all that, so it’s just as well that Redruth lost his appetite.

The pirates shoot at the stockade in vain, which is fine by Livesey, since he knows they have finite shot and powder. Since most of the pirates are probably back on the ship, they decide to risk Gray and Hunter go retrieve the supplies. They return to report that the pirates were running off with all of it when they arrived. They can also see Long John Silver in command and arming all of them with muskets he pulled out of his hitherto unknown musket stash.

The doctor sits down to recount their woes to whoever might find them should they become corpsified like Redruth. Just then they hear our hero Jim Hawkins call to them from the wall!